Scheckter blitzes Thursday practice

The young South African was joined at the top by Team Cheever team mate and boss Eddie Cheever in second place while Penske's Helio Castroneves was third.

Scheckter, who signed a late deal earlier this week to drive the second Team Cheever Dallara-Infiniti, put in a best lap of 26.4063s just over a tenth faster than Cheever's best effort around the Miami oval.

Scheckter said: "We spent time on race and qualifying set-ups. We learned a lot in both areas. We just need to stay in form and maintain our form on Friday and in the race."

Castroneves was the fastest overall of the two Penske drivers, but team mate Gil de Ferran (eighth overall) was second fastest in the afternoon session. Defending IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr was fourth at the end of the day after being one of the few drivers to improve on his morning time after lunch.

Reigning CART champion de Ferran was not worried about his lack of pace. He said: "The car has been very consistent. We got to work on the race set-up and I'm happy."

Jacques Lazier was fifth fastest overall, closely followed by Billy Boat and Robbie Buhl. Scottish-born Jeff Ward, who put together a late deal for a single car effort with top Champ car team Ganassi Racing this year, finished ninth.

Former co-champion Scott Sharp rounded out the top 10, while double Indianapolis 500 winner and late Kelley Racing signing Al Unser Jr was 13th.

Tomas Scheckter Dallara-Infinfiti 26.4063s
Eddie Cheever Dallara-Infinfiti 26.5515s
Helio Castroneves Dallara-Chevrolet 26.6151s
Sam Hornish Jr Dallara-Chevrolet 26.6259s
Jacques Lazier Dallara-Chevrolet 26.6464s
Robbie Buhl G-Force-Infiniti 26.6812s
Billy Boat Dallara-Chevrolet 26.7685s
Gil de Ferran Dallara-Chevrolet 26.7737s
Jeff Ward G-Force-Chevrolet 26.7782s
Scott Sharp Dallara-Chevrolet 26.8926s