Cheever withdraws from Scheckter wrangle.

Aggrieved team owner Eddie Cheever has officially dropped his legal pursuit of former driver Tomas Scheckter's contract, owing to problems elsewhere in its TWR partner company.

Cheever enjoys a high-profile tie-up with the TWR engineering concern but, taking into account the latter's involvement in the final throes of the Arrows Formula One operation, has decided that his case does not merit the greatest attention. The former F1 pilot - who co-incidentally drove for the Arrows team towards the end of his grand prix career - claims that Scheckter has no right to join another team in the midst of his Red Bull Cheever contract, despite walking out on the IRL operation before the end of his debut season. The South African is lined up to partner Scott Dixon at Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2003.

Cheever has issued the following statement regarding the state of legal proceedings with Scheckter:

"The contract dispute between TWR Group and Tomas Scheckter was due to be heard in English court on 9 December but, because of financial entanglements surrounding the Arrows Formula One team, TWR principles have decided to withdraw from the lawsuit. TWR has much larger problems to take care of with the troubles facing their Formula One team. I respect their decision."

Arrows was in court again yesterday [Tuesday], as equity investor Morgan Grenfell bank attempted to claim that the team had diluted its holding with the issue of new shares. The team has already been barred from entering next year's F1 world championship after missing six races in 2002, and is facing other lawsuits as it battles to survive.