Scheckter's crash concern

Scheckter, who was also involved in the frightening accident that hospitalised Kenny Brack, says he also has faith in the IRL to minimise the risk of cars taking off as has happened on five separate occasions this year.

"You have seen it [happen] maybe a little too many times," admitted Scheckter. "But I think there's been some weird stuff happening. Also, obviously, there's nothing you can do to keep a car down when it touches wheels with someone else because it's just like hitting a ramp, I suppose. The thing is going to get airborne. I have got full confidence that the IRL are going to do something about it and make sure that this doesn't happen as frequently as it has been happening."

Scheckter, who joins Panther Racing for 2004, also spoke about his shock at the loss of Renna in testing at Indianapolis recently, who was hired to take his place at Ganassi Racing.

"It's even hard for me to speak about it now," said Scheckter. "It was an extremely funny feeling. I was driving, I had to actually pull off on the side of the road because I had given Chip [Ganassi] a call just to speak to him to thank him about some stuff. He said 'Tony has been in a crash'. I said 'Sorry to hear that' but I didn't know anything. I thought maybe he just had a little bit of a bump, or whatever.

"Then I gave Scott [Dixon, Scheckter's former team-mate] a call and he told me the news. It was a bit shocking to be honest. It still is a little bit shocking now."