Tomas Scheckter & Panther Racing test at Milwaukee

[Down F0rce]

Tomas Scheckter has had his first test with Panther Racing, at the legendardy Milwaukee Mile.

John Barnes was happy with the test. Good too see that Tomas made a good first impression.

"Obviously we have known that Tomas is a very fast race car driver," Barnes said. "Now we know how good he is with technical feedback, and we have an opportunity to start building a communication relationship that will be the foundation to success in 2004.

"Tomas' knowledge of the car and the IRL formula should allow us to take the very strong race platform we have developed with this car over the last year and take it to the next level. I am very impressed."

Likewise, Tomas was also impressed with Panther Racing:

"...it was a great chance for me to start communicating with Andy Brown (engineer), Simon Morley (chief mechanic) and all the Pennzoil Panther guys. This is a great organization, and I really appreciate how they have made me feel so welcome."

The team have another day's worth of testing at Milwaukee, before heading off to Indianapolis in preperation for a text there later this month.

Full story.

[climb]

Comments?
As we say in Italy, "If they are roses, they will flower!"
Best wishes to both Panther and Scheckter: an interesting mix of proven racing engineering and raw driving talent.

[rustyfan]

I can't wait for 2004. It will be real interesting to see if Scheckter can gel as well with Panther as Hornish did, arguably one of the strongest team-driver combos ever. Also, it should be real interesting to see how Hornish fares with Penske - will he be able to display the same sort of strength he did with Panther, or did the team-driver chemistry do more over there than one would have thought?

Questions, questions - on the plus side there's only (roughly) 4½ months left until the season premiere at Homestead

[Down F0rce]

Panther Racing's website has uploaded a couple of photos from the test...


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[rustyfan]

Thanks for the heads up

[Mackmot]

I think Mark will be better. Tomas is quick but Mark's got the brains

[B/Mark]

Sounds like perfectly reasonable bias Mackmot

[Down F0rce]

Panther are going to be very strong next year. We all know how good the crew is at setting cars up, but with two cars and two drivers to bounce data off, it could be a championship winning situation.

And for our Taylor fans , here's a piccy of him in his new overalls...


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[BootsOntheSide]

This is make or break for Scheckter. We all know that he's fast, but he's still making a lot of mistakes and has days where he doesn't seem to be on the ball. He's lost 2 drives in successive years, and is lucky that John Barnes has seen some potential in him (btw Barnes shares his name with a legendary Jamaican-born soccer player, so the name seems amusing to soccer fans) and will give him anotehr chance. I referred to Tomas as a 'car-smashing kerb-crawling lunatic' (or words to that effect) early last year, and my opinion's mellowed a little.

[Down F0rce]

I think Tomas has shown a lot of improvement this year, since Indy especially. He lost a few wins this year due to some back luck, usually from the pits. I think he'll improve further next year, hopefully score a few wins.