Jody Scheckter

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Jody Scheckter

Formula One Career
Nationality	South African
Active years	1972 - 1980
Team(s)	McLaren, Tyrrell, Wolf, Ferrari
Grands Prix	113
Championships	1 (1979)
Wins	10
Podium finishes	33
Pole positions	5
Fastest laps	5
First Grand Prix	1972 United States Grand Prix
First win	1974 Swedish Grand Prix
Last win	1979 Italian Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix	1980 United States Grand Prix

Jody David Scheckter (born January 29, 1950) is a South African former auto racing driver, the 1979 Formula One World Drivers Champion.

[edit] Career

Scheckter was born in East London, South Africa and educated at Selborne College.

He rapidly ascended to the ranks of Formula One after moving to Britain in 1970. He debuted in Formula One at Watkins Glen in 1972 with McLaren and ran as high as 3rd place before spinning and finishing 9th. Immediately becoming a name to watch, he continued his development the following year, winning the Formula 5000 championship and racing 5 times in F1. In France, he almost won in his third start in F1 before crashing into Emerson Fittipaldi. In his next start Scheckter was involved in a big accident which took nearly a dozen cars out of the race, an incident which in many ways summed up his early career. Scheckter's McLaren M23 bore the number zero during the American and Canadian Grands Prix of 1973. Scheckter is one of only two F1 drivers to compete under this number, the other being Damon Hill.

Scheckter driving the iconic Tyrrell P34.

Tyrrell in 1974 gave him his first full-time drive in F1. Jody rewarded them with a 3rd place finish in the driver's championship and a pair of wins in Sweden and Britain. During the year, he scored points in 8 consecutive races, one of the longer streaks of the time. A slight off-year followed but his 3rd year with the team in 1976 gave him another 3rd place finish in the driver's championship. In that season, Tyrrell introduced the most radical car in F1 history, the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. Scheckter gave the six-wheeler its only win on Sweden's Anderstorp circuit and in his 12 races with the car, he scored points 10 times. This included a thrilling race-long battle for the lead in the American Grand Prix between himself and his great friend James Hunt.

Scheckter left for Walter Wolf's new team in 1977 and Scheckter gave the team a win in its maiden race. He won twice more with the team and was commonly on the podium when he finished, but finished 2nd behind a more dominant Niki Lauda in points. A 7th place finish with the team in 1978 followed and he left the team after the season to join Ferrari to partner Gilles Villeneuve in the team's ground effect 312T4 car.

Critics felt he would not get along well with management at Ferrari, but he far surpassed expectations and helped give F1's most recognizable team another constructors' championship, while Scheckter's consistent finishes, with three wins among them, gave him the driver's championship. However, he struggled very badly in his 1980 title defense, even failing to qualify in a race. After only managing 2 points, Scheckter retired from the team and the sport.

Scheckter was the last driver to win a driver's championship for Ferrari until Michael Schumacher did so 21 years later. After Scheckter's retirement, he founded a company which built firearms training simulators. The sale of the company provided funds to allow Jody to help the racing careers of his sons Tomas and Toby. Tomas races in the Indy Racing League and held pole position for the 2003 Indianapolis 500. Jody's brother Ian also raced F1 for a few years.

In 2004 Jody Scheckter was reunited with his championship-winning Ferrari at the South African two-seater F1x2 Charity Grand Prix at Kyalami in South Africa.

Jody now spends his time as an organic farmer. He is also the founder of FATS, Inc. (Firearms Training Systems) a provider of simulated training solutions that improve the skills of military, law enforcement and security organizations around the world. FATS provides judgmental, tactical and combined arms training experiences, utilizing quality engineered weapon simulators. His children are called Toby, Tomas, Hugo, Freddie, Ila and Poppy.

Jody's son, Tomas, is currently racing in the IRL Indy Racing League and is a former Jaguar Formula One test driver. As an organic farming expert, Jody was featured in 2005 on the Visionhealth DVD and TV documentaries "ASTHMA: An Integrated Approach", "ARTHRITIS: An Integrated Approach" and "DIABETES: An Integrated Approach".

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Team	WDC	Points
1972	McLaren	ARG	SAF	ESP	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA 9						McLaren	NA	0
1973	McLaren	ARG	BRA	SAF 9	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA ret	GBR ret	GER	DEU	AUT	ITA	CAN ret	USA ret			McLaren	NA	0
1974	Tyrrell	ARG ret	BRA 13	SAF 8	ESP 5	BEL 3	MON 2	SWE 1	DUT 5	FRA 4	GBR 1	GER 2	AUT ret	ITA 3	CAN ret	USA ret			Tyrrell	3rd	45
1975	Tyrrell	ARG 11	BRA ret	SAF 1	ESP ret	MON 7	BEL 2	SWE 7	DUT 16	FRA 9	GBR 3	GER ret	AUT 8	ITA 8	USA 6				Tyrrell	7th	20
1976	Tyrrell	BRA 5	SAF 4	USW ret	ESP ret	BEL 4	MON 2	SWE 1	FRA 6	GBR 2	GER 2	AUT ret	DUT 5	ITA 5	CAN 4	USA 2	JPN ret		Tyrrell	3rd	49
1977	Wolf	ARG 1	BRA ret	SAF 2	USW 3	ESP 3	MON 1	BEL ret	SWE ret	FRA ret	GBR ret	GER 2	AUT ret	DUT 3	ITA ret	USA 3	CAN 1	JPN 10	Wolf	2nd	55
1978	Wolf	ARG 10	BRA ret	SAF ret	USW ret	MON 3	BEL ret	ESP 4	SWE ret	FRA 6	GBR ret	GER 2	AUT ret	DUT 12	ITA 12	USA 3	CAN 2		Wolf	7th	24
1979	Ferrari	ARG ret	BRA 6	SAF 2	USW 2	ESP 4	BEL 1	MON 1	FRA 7	GBR 5	GER 4	AUT 4	DUT 2	ITA 1	CAN 4	USA ret			Ferrari	1st	51
1980	Ferrari	ARG ret	BRA ret	SAF ret	USW 5	BEL 8	MON ret	FRA 12	GBR 10	GER 13	AUT 13	DUT 9	ITA 8	CAN DNQ	USA 11				Ferrari	19th	2