Sunday, July 07, 2002
Rookie Scheckter takes pole for Ameristar 200
By STEVE BRISENDINE
Associated Press Writer
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Rookie Tomas Scheckter won the pole Saturday for the Ameristar 200, shattering the Kansas Speedway record and knocking his Red Bull Cheever Racing owner and teammate off the front row as Infiniti-powered cars took three of the top four spots.
Scheckter said he has to prove he can win in what has been, for him, a disappointing start to his Indy Racing League career.
“I've felt that every race could be my breakthrough race,” said Scheckter, who led 85 laps of the Indianapolis 500 before a crash relegated him to 26th place. “That's why I suppose I've been so hard on myself this year. Someone asked me to rate my year so far ... and I gave myself an 'F.'
“We've had the potential to win races and we haven't,” he said. “That's worse than being at the back and not winning races. I'm ready to do it.”
On Saturday, the 21-year-old South African turned in a fast lap of 218.547 mph on his second time around the 1.5-mile tri-oval, just after defending champion and 2002 points leader Sam Hornish Jr. set a short-lived record of 217.743 mph.
“I thought I had it for a little bit,” said Hornish, who is coming off his third win of the season, in the SunTrust Indy Challenge on June 29 at Richmond International Raceway. “The only guy I was worried about was the one right behind me.”
Eddie Cheever Jr., who passed Hornish with less than three laps to go last year to win the inaugural IRL race at Kansas Speedway, will start on the second row inside of rookie Laurent Redon, with Buddy Lazier and Airton Dare on the third row.
It was the second pole win of the season for Scheckter, who also won the pole for the Boomtown 500 on June 8 at Texas Motor Speedway but finished 17th after developing clutch problems.
I'm proud of Tomas,” Cheever said. “His growth over this season has been very rapid. Once we got past the first part of the season, we worked very well together.”
Two-time defending Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves waved off his first run but rebounded well enough to earn a start on the inside of the fourth row, followed in the top 10 by Billy Boat, Richie Hearn and Mark Dismore.
“We did the safe thing by waving off our first run and coming back out at the end of qualifying for one lap,” Castroneves said. “When I came back out, the car was handling much better.”
Scott Sharp, who won the pole last year with the previous record of 216.175 mph, will start on the inside of the seventh row this year after his quick lap of 215.022 mph fell well short of the top speeds.
“We just kind of got fooled by the conditions,” Sharp said. “We made some changes before we went, and they were the wrong changes to make. It was way too tight.”
Temperatures climbed into the mid-90s, with high humidity, by Saturday afternoon's qualifying.
“The humidity has come up since this morning,” said Alex Barron, who will start on the inside of the sixth row. “I think that it is affecting the horsepower out there, but everybody has to deal with it.”
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Rookie Scheckter takes pole for Ameristar 200
