Michigan: Scheckter breaks his duck

With a string of crashes blighting a season in which he has usually been atop the leader board, the youngest son of 1979 World Champion Jody was in danger of losing his ride with Eddie Cheever's outfit - to the point that Eddie had brought 2000 Toyota Atlantic champion Buddy Rice into a third car for the team at Michigan and given him Scheckter's usual pit crew.

As has been the case at most IRL races this year, Scheckter dominated the event, leading virtually at will with the Red Bull Dallara-Infiniti, a total of 122 laps on the day - until his final pit stop on lap 163. Then, a combination of errors doubled the length of his stop and dropped him well down the running order. First his "pick-up" pit crew had trouble connecting the fuel hose, then Tomas stalled the engine as he started to leave. Thus a stop that should have been about 12 seconds clocked in at 23.8sec and left him in 11th place.

To make matters worse, team boss Eddie Cheever almost immediately stuck his car into the second turn wall and brought out the day's fifth caution flag. Since Scheckter had been the first of the leaders to pit under green-flag conditions, his boss' yellow came at exactly the wrong moment.

When the others pitted under that yellow, Tomas regained the lead lap and when the race was restarted with 26 laps to go he began chasing them down. Not that he had it easy, either, for ahead of him was unfolding an incredible dice for the lead that involved as many as 10 tightly bunched cars and regularly featured drivers running three-wide as they fought for position.

Points leader Gil de Ferran described it by saying, "There were a few elbows going out there."

Undeterred, Scheckter keep his wits about him and his foot on the floor, finally nipping past Felipe Giaffone with six laps to run and then pulling away to leave the rest fighting for second. That honour ultimately fell to Rice, a tremendous IRL debut for the Phoenix native, 1.7sec back of his teammate, with Giaffone, Tony Renna, again showing very well as a substitute for Al Unser Jr, and de Ferran filling out the top five.

The result let de Ferran edge a little farther away from his team-mate Helio Castroneves in the points chase, his lead now up to 12. With four races yet to be run, however, the championship is still very much up in the air.

Tomas Scheckter Dallara-Infiniti 200 laps
Buddy Rice Dallara-Infiniti 200
Felipe Giaffone G-Force-Chevrolet 200
Tony Renna Dallara-Chevrolet 200
Gil de Ferran Dallara-Chevrolet 200
Helio Castroneves Dallara-Chevrolet 200
Sam Hornish Jr Dallara-Chevrolet 200
Sarah Fisher G-Force-Infiniti 200
Scott Sharp Dallara-Chevrolet 200
Richie Hearn Dallara-Chevrolet 200