EDDIE CHEEVER

'Edward "Eddie" McKay Cheever, Jr.' (born January 10, 1958) is an American racing driver who raced for almost thirty years in Formula One, Sports cars, CART and the Indy Racing League, and now owns an IRL team. Cheever participated in 143 World Championship Formula One races and started 132, more than any other American, driving for nine different teams from 1978 through 1989. In 1997, he formed his own IRL team and won the Indianapolis 500 as both an owner and driver in 1998.

Contents

Beginnings

Formula One

CART

Indianapolis 500

GP Masters

Career statistics

Complete World Championship Formula One Results

CART career results

IRL IndyCar career results

Indy 500 results

References

External links

Beginnings

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Cheever lived in Rome as a child and was introduced to motorsports at age eight when his father took him to a sports car race in Monza, Italy. He soon began racing go karts and won both Italian and European Karting championships at age 15. He worked his way up through the levels of European Formula racing, teaming with American Danny Sullivan in Formula Three and driving for Ron Dennis in Formula Two.

Formula One

He made his F1 debut at age 20 in 1978. After failing to qualify in Argentina, he made the grid at Kyalami for the South African Grand Prix in a Hesketh-Ford. An engine problem forced him to retire after just eight laps. Two seasons later, he became a regular driver for the Osella team, but finished only once in ten races. Switching teams repeatedly as he tried to climb his way up the grid, Cheever had five points-scoring finishes for the Tyrrell team in 1981, and three podiums for Ligier the following year, including a second place at the 1982 United States Grand Prix East in Detroit.
The 1983 season proved to be Cheever's high point in Formula One. He signed with the Renault team alongside Frenchman Alain Prost, both of whom were among the year's Championship favorites. Cheever drove well in support of team number one Prost, earning four more podiums and 22 Championship points, but the team's disappointment after losing both the Driver's and Constructor's titles late in the season brought about the replacement of both Cheever and Prost. In six more seasons, he never drove another truly competitive F1 car. His final podium finish in Formula One came in his hometown of Phoenix at the first USGP event there when he finished third for the Arrows team. This was the last time an American driver raced in a USGP until Scott Speed did, in 2006.
In all, he participated in 143 Grands Prix, achieved 9 podiums, and scored a total of 70 championship points.

CART

From 1986 to 1988, while still driving in Formula One, Cheever won ten sports car races for Jaguar. In 1990 he moved to the US to drive for Chip Ganassi Racing in the CART series. In his first attempt at the Indianapolis 500, he finished eighth and was named Rookie of the Year. In 1992, he qualified second for the race and finished fourth. In total, he scored four podium finishes in the series, but never won. Driving for A.J. Foyt, Cheever came closest to victory at Nazareth in 1995; he was leading the race on the last lap when he ran out of fuel.

Indianapolis 500

In 1996 the Indy Racing League started racing, and Cheever moved there from CART. Cheever ran for Team Menard for the first two races in 1996, and at the 1996 Indianapolis 500, he set the fastest race lap to date at 236.103 mph[1]. Cheever then set up his own team, Cheever Racing and had his first race as a driver/owner at New Hampshire International Raceway in August of that year.
In 1998, all the pieces came together for Cheever when he took the biggest win of his career as both a driver and owner. He started from 17th position and led 76 of 200 laps to win the Indianapolis 500, despite sliding in the first turn of the race's first lap, helping bring out the race's first caution period. Many consider this win to have an asterisk next to it since at the time the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500 were missing the top open-wheel teams and drivers of the day. This was a result of the infamous split between CART and Tony George, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The absence of CART teams and drivers lasted from the 1996 Indianapolis 500 to the 1999 Indianapolis 500 and ended with the 2000 Indianapolis 500 in which CART's Chip Ganassi Racing returned to the Brickyard with driver Juan Pablo Montoya and dominated the field.
His team, active until July 2006, ran cars for Alex Barron and Patrick Carpentier in 2005. Having hung up his helmet in 2002, except for occasional instances such as the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona where he competed in the first race with his new Grand-Am series team, Eddie announced on February 21 he would come out of retirement to run his own car in the IRL's first four races, including the Indianapolis 500. He shut his team down after the 8th race of the season due to lack of sponsorship.

GP Masters

In 2005 Cheever competed in the GP Masters series which is open to former Formula One drivers over the age of 45. In the championship's first ever event at Kyalami International Raceway in South Africa, Cheever finished in 8th position[2]. Cheever finished 4th in the 2nd GP Masters race on April 29, 2006 at the Losail International Raceway in Qatar [3].
Recently, in the 3rd GP Masters race on August 13, 2006 at the Silverstone Circuit in England, he took the victory under wet track conditions [4].

Career statistics

Complete World Championship Formula One Results

()

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Team	WDC	Points
1978	Theodore	ARG DNQ	BRA DNQ	RSA Ret	USW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA	CAN	Hesketh	-	0
1980	Osella	ARG DNQ	BRA DNQ	RSA Ret	USW Ret	BEL DNQ	MON DNQ	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA 12	CAN Ret	USA Ret			Osella	-	0
1981	Tyrrell	USW 5	BRA NC	ARG Ret	SMR Ret	BEL 6	MON 5	ESP NC	FRA 13	GBR 4	GER 5	AUT DNQ	NED Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 12	LVS Ret		Tyrrell	12th	10
1982	Ligier	RSA Ret	BRA Ret	USW Ret	SMR	BEL 3	MON Ret	USE 2	CAN 10	NED DNQ	GBR Ret	FRA 16	GER Ret	AUT Ret	SUI NC	ITA 6	LVS 3	Ligier	12th	15
1983	Renault	BRA Ret	USW 13	FRA 3	SMR Ret	MON Ret	BEL 3	USE Ret	CAN 2	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT 4	NED Ret	ITA 3	EUR 10	RSA 6		Renault	7th	22
1984	Alfa Romeo	BRA 4	RSA Ret	BEL Ret	SMR 7	FRA Ret	MON DNQ	CAN 11	USE Ret	USA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED 13	ITA 9	EUR Ret	POR 17	Alfa Romeo	16th	3
1985	Alfa Romeo	BRA Ret	POR Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 17	USA 9	FRA 10	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	BEL Ret	EUR 11	RSA Ret	AUS Ret	Alfa Romeo	-	0
1986	Haas Lola	BRA	ESP	SMR	MON	BEL	CAN	USA Ret	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	MEX	AUS	Haas Lola	-	0
1987	Arrows	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	BEL 4	MON Ret	USA 6	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 8	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR 6	ESP 8	MEX 4	JPN 9	AUS Ret	Arrows	10th	8
1988	Arrows	BRA 8	SMR 7	MON Ret	MEX 6	CAN Ret	USA Ret	FRA 11	GBR 7	GER 10	HUN Ret	BEL 6	ITA 3	POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	Arrows	12th	6
1989	Arrows	BRA Ret	SMR 9	MON 7	MEX 7	USA 3	CAN Ret	FRA 7	GBR DNQ	GER 12	HUN 5	BEL Ret	ITA DNQ	POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN 8	AUS Ret	Arrows	11th	6

CART career results

Year	Team	Wins	Points	Championship Finish
1986	Arciero Racing	0	0	Unclassified
1990	Chip Ganassi Racing	0	80	9th
1991	Chip Ganassi Racing	0	91	9th
1992	Chip Ganassi Racing	0	80	10th
1993	Menard/King/Turley	0	21	17th
1994	Menard/Foyt	0	5	27th
1995	Foyt Enterprises	0	33	18th

Best race finish: 2nd (Phoenix - 1992), best championship result: 9th

IRL IndyCar career results

Year	Team	Wins	Poles	Points	Championship Finish
1996	Team Menard	0	0	49	16th
1996-1997	Team Cheever	1	0	230	3rd
1998	Team Cheever	1	0	222	9th
1999	Team Cheever	1	0	222	7th
2000	Team Cheever	1	0	257	3rd
2001	Team Cheever	1	0	261	8th
2002	Team Cheever	0	1	280	10th
2006	Cheever Racing	0	0	114	19th

5 wins, best championship finish: 3rd

Wins	Poles	Best Championship Finish	Career Points
5	1	3rd (1996-1997, 2000)	1635

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
1990	Penske	Chevrolet	14th	8th
1991	Lola	Chevrolet	10th	31st
1992	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	2nd	4th
1993	Lola	Buick	33rd	16th
1994	Lola	Buick	11th	8th
1995	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	14th	31st
1996	Lola	Menard-Buick	4th	11th
1997	G-Force	Oldsmobile	11th	23rd
1998	Dallara	Oldsmobile	17th	'1st'
1999	Dallara	Infiniti	16th	18th
2000	Dallara	Infiniti	10th	5th
2001	Dallara	Infiniti	26th	25th
2002	Dallara	Infiniti	6th	5th
2006	Dallara	Honda	19th	13th

References

★ Eddie Cheever

★ Wheel 2 Wheel: Eddie Cheever

External links

★ Red Bull Cheever Racing

★ The "meteoric" rise of Eddie Cheever