Bobby Rahal

Bobby Rahal
Nationality	American
Achievements	1986, 1987, 1992 PPG Indy Car World Series Champion
IndyCar Series Career
Years	1981-1998

Bobby Rahal
Born	{{{birth_date}}} {{{birth_place}}}
Died	{{{death_date}}} {{{death_place}}}
Formula One career
Nationality
Years	1978

Bobby Rahal

Robert Woodward "Bobby" Rahal (born January 10, 1953 in Medina, Ohio) is an American auto racing driver and team owner. As a driver, he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. He also won the 2004 Indianapolis 500 as a team owner for the winning driver, Buddy Rice.

After retiring as a driver, Rahal held managerial positions with the Jaguar Formula 1 team and also was an interim president of the CART series. Rahal was also a sports car driver during the 1980s, and made one NASCAR start for the Wood Brothers.

Racing career

Rahal began his career in SCCA feeder categories, eventually finishing second to Gilles Villeneuve in the 1977 Formula Atlantic championship. The following year, he competed in European Formula Three with Wolf Racing. Near the end of the season, Rahal raced for the Wolf Formula 1 team in the 1978 United States Grand Prix and the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix. The deal with Wolf did not continue into the 1979 season, as Wolf signed up James Hunt for the one and only car available. Rahal began the 1979 racing a Chevron in Formula Two, but returned to America mid-season and raced in the Can-Am series. During the next few seasons, he competed in various sports car events, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the IMSA GT Championship.

In 1982, Rahal entered the CART series with the Truesports team, winning two races and finishing second in the championship behind Rick Mears. He continued racing for Truesports through the 1988 season, winning at least one race every year. In 1986, Rahal dramatically passed Kevin Cogan on a restart with two laps to go to win the Indianapolis 500, only days before his team owner, Jim Trueman died of cancer. Later that year, Rahal won his first CART championship, and successfully defended it the following year.

In 1988, Rahal won the last race the Truesports team ever won, the Quaker State 500 at Pocono, the only victory for the Judd engine ever.

By 1989, Rahal had ended his occasional forays into sports car racing and focused solely on CART. He moved over to the Kraco race team, but this association produced only two wins over three seasons.

Rahal competed in one NASCAR race in his career. In November 1984 he drove the 7-11 sponsored Wood Brothers #21 Ford (substituting for Buddy Baker) to a 42nd place finish in the Winston Western 500 at Riverside International Speedway, completing only 44 laps before breaking a rear end gear.

IndyCar owner

After losing the championship to Michael Andretti in 1991, Rahal (with partner Carl Hogan) acquired the assets to the former Pat Patrick Racing team, with Rahal becoming an owner-driver. The team was an immediate success in 1992, producing four wins for Rahal and his third CART championship, making him the last owner-driver to win the CART title, and the last driver to win a race in his own car until Adrian Fernandez did so in 2003. In 1993, Rahal attempted to develop his own Rahal-Hogan chassis, but reverted to the Lola chassis after failing to qualify for the 1993 Indianapolis 500. In 1994 the team brought the Honda engine into the CART series. Except for a second place finish at Toronto, he and teammate Mike Groff struggled to show the full potential of an engine that would soon dominate the series. In 1995 at Long Beach Rahal became the 10th driver in Championship Car history (including AAA, USAC, and CART) to start 200 races in his career. Despite no wins, Rahal finished a strong 3rd in the 1995 standings using the Mercedes engine.

Rahal continued as a racing driver until his retirement in 1998. Meanwhile, Hogan left to form his own team and talk show host David Letterman became a minority owner in 1996. The team became known as Team Rahal in 1996 and Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004, when Rahal switched from CART to the IRL full-time.

Other business roles

In 2000, Rahal joined the Jaguar Formula One team in a managerial capacity. During this time, Rahal attempted to hire championship-winning aerodynamicist Adrian Newey, briefly believing that the deal had been completed. However, Rahal was fired after reportedly attempting to sell driver Eddie Irvine to rivals Jordan. Ironically, the team fired Irvine little more than a year after firing Rahal.

Rahal was the interim President and CEO of CART for six months during the 2000 season.

His business interests include a network of car dealerships in western and central Pennsylvania.

Rahal was also involved in the development and testing of the Honda NSX. NSX chief engineer Shigeru Uehara and his team were present at the test track to fine-tune the car's handling according to Rahal's feedback.

Awards

• Rahal was inducted into both the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2004. He will be inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame on March 2, 2013.

Personal life

Rahal currently lives in New Albany, Ohio. Rahal is a graduate of Denison University. He is the son of sports car racer Mike Rahal and the father of Graham Rahal, who raced for the Lebanon A1 Grand Prix team during the 2005-2006 season because of the Rahal family's Lebanese ancestry. Graham now races in the IndyCar Series. Bobby owns a 1975 Lola T360 which he occasionally races at vintage racing events.

Race results

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1978	Walter Wolf Racing	Wolf WR5	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA 12		NC	0
		Wolf WR1	Cosworth V8																CAN Ret

PPG Indycar Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
1982	Truesports Co.	PHX 18	ATL	MIL 20	CLE 1	MCH 3	MIL 2	POC 3	RIV 15	ROA 3	MCH 1	PHX 5									2nd	242
1983	Truesports Co.	ATL 21	INDY 20	MIL 6	CLE 19	MCH 5	ROA 10	POC 5	RIV 1	MDO 3	MCH 2	CPL 9	LAG 7	PHX DNS							5th	94
1984	Truesports Co.	LBH 14	PHX 7	INDY 7	MIL 14	POR 14	MEA 11	CLE 14	MCH 18	ROA 2	POC 3	MDO 2	SAN 2	MCH 5	PHX 1	LAG 1	CPL 7				3rd	137
1985	Truesports Co.	LBH 27	INDY 27	MIL 9	POR 20	MEA 25	CLE 28	MCH 6	ROA 4	POC 4	MDO 1	SAN 10	MCH 1	LAG 1	PHX 6	MIA 2					3rd	133
1986	Truesports Co.	PHX 16	LBH 18	INDY 1	MIL 6	POR 20	MEA 3	CLE 15	TOR 1	MCH 10	POC 14	MDO 1	SAN 1	MCH 1	ROA 5	LAG 1	PHX 3	MIA 8			1st	179
1987	Truesports Co.	LBH 24	PHX 2	INDY 26	MIL 2	POR 1	MEA 1	CLE 2	TOR 3	MCH 3	POC 5	ROA 23	MDO 2	NAZ 2	LAG 1	MIA 7					1st	188
1988	Truesports Co.	PHX 16	LBH 2	INDY 5	MIL 6	POR 12	CLE 2	TOR 5	MEA 5	MCH 2	POC 1	MDO 18	ROA 2	NAZ 12	LAG 4	MIA 18					3rd	136
1989	Kraco Racing	PHX 18	LBH 4	INDY 26	MIL 13	DET 18	POR 2	CLE 3	MEA 1	TOR 19	MCH 9	POC 6	MDO 22	ROA 28	NAZ 7	LAG 6					9th	88
1990	Galles-Kraco Racing	PHX 2	LBH 12	INDY 2	MIL 4	DET 2	POR 11	CLE 2	MEA 25	TOR 22	MCH 2	DEN 3	VAN 8	MDO 6	ROA 7	NAZ 3	LAG 5				4th	153
1991	Galles-Kraco Racing	SRF 2	LBH 2	PHX 2	INDY 19	MIL 4	DET 2	POR 3	CLE 3	MEA 1	TOR 3	MCH 11	DEN 20	VAN 2	MDO 3	ROA 4	NAZ 2	LAG 24			2nd	200
1992	Rahal-Hogan Racing	SRF 3	PHX 1	LBH 2	INDY 6	DET 1	POR 14	MIL 2	NHA 1	TOR 2	MCH 11	CLE 4	ROA 3	VAN 22	MDO 24	NAZ 1	LAG 3				1st	196
1993	Rahal-Hogan Racing	SRF 6	PHX 22	LBH 2	INDY DNQ	MIL 4	DET 5	POR 4	CLE 28	TOR 4	MCH 9	NHA 7	ROA 3	VAN 2	MDO 6	NAZ 6	LAG 7				4th	133
1994	Rahal-Hogan Racing	SRF 26	PHX 14	LBH 30	INDY 3	MIL 7	DET 6	POR 12	CLE 28	TOR 2	MCH 28	MDO 27	NHA 9	VAN 7	ROA 9	NAZ 14	LAG 29				10th	59
1995	Rahal-Hogan Racing	MIA 3	SRF 2	PHX 21	LBH 21	NAZ 6	INDY 3	MIL 13	DET 24	POR 3	ROA 5	TOR 2	CLE 4	MCH 8	MDO 26	NHA 10	VAN 5	LAG 7			3rd	128
1996	Team Rahal	MIA 5	RIO 6	SRF 20	LBH 14	NAZ 6	500 19	MIL 7	DET 21	POR 6	CLE 15	TOR 3	MCH 24	MDO 5	ROA 2	VAN 2	LAG 7				7th	102
1997	Team Rahal	MIA 16	SRF 10	LBH 10	NAZ 6	RIO 10	GAT 20	MIL 11	DET 9	POR 24	CLE 5	TOR 9	MCH 17	MDO 3	ROA 6	VAN 24	LAG 19	FON 5			12th	70
1998	Team Rahal	MIA 19	MOT 17	LBH 17	NAZ 6	RIO 8	GAT 8	MIL 5	DET 11	POR 6	CLE 8	TOR 4	MCH 7	MDO 3	ROA 8	VAN 25	LAG 16	HOU 23	SRF 25	FON 11	10th	82

Indy 500 results

File:Bobbyrahal1986.jpg

Rahal during the 1986 Indy 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
1982	March	Cosworth	17th	11th	Truesports
1983	March	Cosworth	6th	20th	Truesports
1984	March	Cosworth	18th	7th	Truesports
1985	March	Cosworth	3rd	27th	Truesports
1986	March	Cosworth	4th	1st	Truesports
1987	Lola	Cosworth	2nd	26th	Truesports
1988	Lola	Judd	19th	5th	Truesports
1989	Lola	Cosworth	7th	26th	Kraco
1990	Lola	Chevrolet	4th	2nd	Galles/Kraco
1991	Lola	Chevrolet	4th	19th	Galles/Kraco
1992	Lola	Chevrolet	10th	6th	Rahal/Hogan
1993	Rahal	Chevrolet	Failed to Qualify		Rahal/Hogan
1994	Penske	Ilmor	28th	3rd	Rahal/Hogan
1995	Lola	Ilmor-Mercedes	21st	3rd	Rahal/Hogan

• Rahal had a notable "odd-even/good-bad" streak at Indy through nearly his entire career as a driver. It was noted that from 1982-1994, during even years, his finishes were generally good (11th, 7th, 1st, 5th, 2nd, 6th, 3rd). But in odd years, his results were poor (20th, 27th, 26th, 26th, 19th, DNQ). The streak was broken in 1995, his final start, when he placed 3rd.

External links

• Rahal Letterman Racing website
• Rahal's automobile dealerships website
• The Greatest 33
• Bobby Rahal driver statistics at Racing-Reference

Preceded by: Al Unser

CART IndyCar Series Champion 1986, 1987

Succeeded by: Danny Sullivan

Preceded by: Michael Andretti	CART IndyCar Series Champion 1992	Succeeded by: Nigel Mansell
Achievements Preceded by: Danny Sullivan Indianapolis 500 Winner 1986 Succeeded by: Al Unser Preceded by: Bob Lazier CART Rookie of the Year 1982 Succeeded by: Teo Fabi Template:CART/CCWS Drivers' Champions Template:24 Hours of Daytona winners