INDYCAR: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Principal Scott Roembke Passes Away

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Principal Scott Roembke Passes Away

Rahal Letterman Lanigan COO Scott Roembke has succumbed to a long battle with declining health, leaving a massive void within the team and racing community.

Robin Miller | Posted September 09, 2012

Scott Roembke was one of the driving forces within RLL's IndyCar and ALMS programs. (Photo: LAT)

Scott Roembke use to get out of Howe High School, jump on a bus for downtown Indianapolis, then take a transfer out to West 16th Street where he could catch Happy Hour -- the last hour of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That was his May ritual in the early ‘80s as he could never get enough of the Indianapolis 500.

So it was only fitting than Indy went from his passion to his profession.

Roembke, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 50, pretty much lived for Indy-car racing and spent the past 30 years entrenched in the sport he worshiped.

“Scott lived, breathed and ate racing,” said Buddy Rice, who won the rain-shortened 2004 Indianapolis 500 with Roembke calling his race for Rahal/Letterman Racing. “He was also a walking encyclopedia on Indy-car racing and he and (Dave) Letterman could sit and talk about the old days for hours.

“And he also just a great guy who helped a lot of people.”

After landing a job with Patrick Racing in 1986, Roembke joined Bobby Rahal and Carl Hogan in 1991 where he became team manager. He was promoted to chief operating officer in 2000 at Rahal/Letterman Racing and held that job until becoming gravely ill in 2011.

“He was a dear friend first and a loyal employee and we had a lot of good times together,” said Rahal. “Scottie was a smart guy and really helped shape this team.

“He could also give (IMS historian) Donald Davidson a run for his money.”

Roembke, who purchased the Gasoline Alley garage doors of Indy 500 legend Bill Vukovich a few years ago, owned as much Indy memorabilia as any two people. One of his favorite pass times was emailing old photos to his pals to identify the car, driver, track and year.

He was working for Kevin Cogan in ’86 when Rahal snatched Indy away with a late restart so he got sweet redemption in ’04.

“Scott was instrumental in my win,” recalled Rice. “I think the car stalled on the third or fourth pit stop and we fell back to ninth but he said not to worry that we had a fast car and plenty of time.

“Then he came on the radio, which he didn’t do a lot, and said the rain was coming and we needed to get going. So I went to full rich, full stiff on the bar and began passing people like crazy. I had a monster in and out lap on my last pit stop and was way in front of TK (Tony Kanaan) when it began raining a couple laps later. I was almost as happy for Scott as I was for myself.”

Roembke spent much of 2011 in the hospital before he was finally healthy enough to receive a heart and lung transplant.

“He vowed to me last winter that he was going to make it back to Indianapolis for the race and that’s exactly what he did,” said Rahal, who had Scott work with Michel Jourdain last May.

“It’s a very sad day but I’m glad he made it back to Indy one last time because he loved that place.”

Roembke is survived by wife Darcy and son Chris and funeral arrangements are pending,

SPEED extends its deepest sympathies to the Roembke family.