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IndyCar
RAHAL: Ready For The Next Chapter
Now that my three races are over with Sarah Fisher Racing, I've been hard at work trying to write the next chapter in my career.
For those who saw Rahal pedal the Dollar General car from St. Pete to Long Beach, there was no question the 21-year-old was pushing harder than anyone to extract fast laps from his car. (Marshall Pruett)
Hi everyone -- now that my three races are over with Sarah Fisher Racing, I've been hard at work trying to write the next chapter in my career. With all of the effort that has been put in on a daily basis, the goal is for that chapter to be a long one. I'll get to the future in a moment, but first, let's talk about my time with SFR and the last race at Long Beach.
It was a great opportunity with Sarah reaching out to me and giving me a chance to drive, and I think we were all very excited and felt that it was an opportunity that we could excel in. We did struggle from time to time, and, naturally, I think that people were pretty frustrated with our lack of results, but I couldn't have asked for a better supporting cast than what we had.
The SFR team worked endlessly and tirelessly to make sure that there was nothing that they were missing all along and to make sure that we were putting a safe car on the track each and every time. Unfortunately, we didn't quite have the pace that was expected. We found out a little late that the chassis was not up to spec in the sense it either had a delamination spot or a crack in it that limited our ability to be competitive.
And that issue dates back to when Sarah ran this same chassis for the first time at Homestead last year and she made it very clear that she really struggled too. The car would not react to changes that they were making, and their competitiveness, as compared to where they were at the other super speedway races, was down. So we carried on to St. Pete, Barber, and Long Beach and the same story can be told.
Competitiveness seemed to be down and we made – and I'm not even kidding here – we probably made more changes in three races than I made at Newman/Haas all last year. And nothing we did made the car significantly better. Nothing. And so that's why we started to really draw into question what was going on. We looked at some of the numbers from when they tested the torsional stiffness of the chassis and showed the Dallara guys and, sure enough, they were certainly not within the specs that Dallara knows that all chassis should be.
All chassis should be within 4 or 5% stiffness of each other, they said. And this particular chassis was 35% softer than any of the other ones they've seen. So it was clearly an issue but the timing wasn't there to go back and change it and start fresh. We’d already gone through a few weekends and we were trying to make the best of the situation.
The SFR team tried everything they could think of to make the car handle, but in hindsight, and with the chassis flexing and twisting so much, we were always going to be slow. With a regular chassis, you turn the steering wheel and the car reacts instantly. It cuts right to the apex. We were never able to make that happen; it was always lazy and made you wait before the front would point or the rear would settle down. Each time that happens, you lose little bits of time and when you add all of those little bits up through a dozen corners, you end up with lap times that are well off the leaders. I can honestly say I've never driven so hard to end up so far away from the front of the pack.
I guess you'd call it a "character building" experience, and Long Beach had plenty of that! Unfortunately in the race, Mario Romancini thought that the first turn was 300 yards further away than it actually was, and decided to use me and the Dollar General car as his brakes, which he successfully completed. Day over. I wish I had more to say about the race, but it started tough and ended with a rookie mistake.
The positives from the SFR experience were the people, and Sarah in particular. She was very supportive from day one. She treated me extremely well through the entire process. Obviously, there were times where it was certainly tough and she was the first person to step up and make me feel better as she has been through it before in her career. She knows how it feels. She was awesome and I couldn't ask for any more.
I leave wishing there was more opportunity to help the team improve because they said when I walked out of Long Beach that they felt that I helped them highlight some weak points within the team and they felt like they were a much stronger team and better off afterwards. And I felt the same. As I move forward I feel like I’ll be better off after having had that sort of experience. I wish nothing but the best for them in the future.
Now let's talk about the future, and I'll apologize up front that I can't get too specific on things here.
I, my father, my management team -- we as a package -- have been working on a lot of things regarding my future in open-wheel, very few of which pertain to Rahal/Letterman Racing. I know there’s a lot of people that think, “If nothing else happens, his dad will run him in Indy.” And to a certain extent that may be true but also to a certain extent it's false because, yes, my dad would do whatever it takes to win another Indy 500, but who would ever think that a Rahal, or really Rahals as a package, one of which being an Indy 500 champion would go there unsponsored? That's a very real possibility right now.
We certianly aren't owed anything by anybody, but if you look at what we have to offer, it helps to illustrate how hard it is to find corporate partners these days.
That reality is what I've been spending so much time trying to overcome is the same thing others are struggling with. This sport isn't easy; it never has been and I don't expect that to ever change, really. If Roger Penske is having a hard time finding sponsors for two of his three cars, it really tells you about the situation for the rest of us.
It's not for my dad, my mom, my uncle, my grandparents, it's not for anybody to write a check for me to go racing. This is a business, not a gift or a present. I have other opportunities that we're working hard on, some of which may start at Indianapolis, some of which may not be till 2011. It's so up and down but I think we've made some huge strides forward and I think we've got a lot of companies that are interested in our program. We're going to have to wait and see over the next couple of weeks to learn exactly what will happen, but it has signs of life and it could be good.
Some of you know that I tested for Corvette Racing last month, and that went very well, but for now, my focus is set on the IndyCar Series. I've tried to stay very committed to my craft, so to speak. Because, as I've made clear before, IndyCar racing has gone through its ups and downs, and as so many people know, I want to be one of those people that helps bring it back up. I've said that from the very start of my career that I grew up wanting more than to just be an IndyCar driver, I grew up as a big fan of the sport. As a kid, I couldn't get enough of it. I would go with my dad to his test days just to hear the car and I remember the smell of methanol; that type of stuff vividly sticks in my brain and there's a lot of things that take me back to that.
So to me, it’s more than just driving the car. It's such a history-rich sport; to be a part of that is why I love being here and that's why I stay so committed to making sure I’m a reason that IndyCar racing is going forward not backwards.
Another aspect of being responsible for finding my own sponsorship has come in the form of a fast education in the business side of the sport -- from the team side. Having to learn about the proposals, the pitches, the branding and promotions that are tied to sponsorships, and the types of levels of backing needed to create opportunities for this year and beyond has been an eye opener. It makes just having to drive the car look easy.
I have a greater appreciation for what people like Sarah Fisher or even my dad when he first started his team had to go through to find the funding to make their programs happen, and then keep it going and growing for years to come.
I think that what it does do, very simply, is it makes you appreciate the good times. I think when I get the opportunity to get back into the race car full time it's going to be such a relief, it's going to be quite nice. I don't think that anybody realizes, anybody but the people that have been in this exact situation, how hard it really is. I think the one thing that we all know is that it doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter what name you have (although maybe I should change my first name to 'Danica' to see if that helps...), it doesn't matter what you do; the work ethic, and sometimes even the results don't tend to matter.
If everybody that deserved sponsorship got it, you'd probably see a lot of bare cars suddenly filled with sponsor logos, and some cars currently filled with logos would be empty.
We all know that it takes a lot of effort to be successful and I'm just fortunate and hope I'm experiencing this early in my career and that it will be done and over with. I want nothing more than a long, successful career. That's the hope.
The past six months have been a blessing and a nightmare at the same time. I want to be fighting with Will Power for the lead at Barber, or passing one of the Ganassi cars or someone else for the win this weekend at Kansas, but I've had some challenges put in front of me to overcome first. I'm still only 21 years old, but I can tell you this process makes you to grow up even faster than before. I know I feel a lot older than 21 these days.
I'm not going bald nor do I have any gray hair yet, but it's got to be coming!
Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you guys next month,
~Graham
Graham Rahal grew up attending racetracks around the world with his father, 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal. He cut his teeth in karting and moved up the formula ranks. In 2008, a victory at St. Petersburg -- in his IndyCar Series debut -- made him the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing history.
Rahal graduated from New Albany (Ohio) High School with a 3.8 GPA in 2007 despite missing more than 50 days of school his senior year because of racing. He likes to work on cars, restoring a 1964 Mini Cooper for his senior class project. Rahal is an avid Ohio State University football fan, and plays sports for fun. Though he trains for racing, guilty pleasures are ice cream and white chocolate mocha drinks.
Learn more about Graham at www.GrahamRahal.com, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GrahamRahal.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
It was a great opportunity with Sarah reaching out to me and giving me a chance to drive, and I think we were all very excited and felt that it was an opportunity that we could excel in. We did struggle from time to time, and, naturally, I think that people were pretty frustrated with our lack of results, but I couldn't have asked for a better supporting cast than what we had.
The SFR team worked endlessly and tirelessly to make sure that there was nothing that they were missing all along and to make sure that we were putting a safe car on the track each and every time. Unfortunately, we didn't quite have the pace that was expected. We found out a little late that the chassis was not up to spec in the sense it either had a delamination spot or a crack in it that limited our ability to be competitive.
And that issue dates back to when Sarah ran this same chassis for the first time at Homestead last year and she made it very clear that she really struggled too. The car would not react to changes that they were making, and their competitiveness, as compared to where they were at the other super speedway races, was down. So we carried on to St. Pete, Barber, and Long Beach and the same story can be told.
Competitiveness seemed to be down and we made – and I'm not even kidding here – we probably made more changes in three races than I made at Newman/Haas all last year. And nothing we did made the car significantly better. Nothing. And so that's why we started to really draw into question what was going on. We looked at some of the numbers from when they tested the torsional stiffness of the chassis and showed the Dallara guys and, sure enough, they were certainly not within the specs that Dallara knows that all chassis should be.
All chassis should be within 4 or 5% stiffness of each other, they said. And this particular chassis was 35% softer than any of the other ones they've seen. So it was clearly an issue but the timing wasn't there to go back and change it and start fresh. We’d already gone through a few weekends and we were trying to make the best of the situation.
The SFR team tried everything they could think of to make the car handle, but in hindsight, and with the chassis flexing and twisting so much, we were always going to be slow. With a regular chassis, you turn the steering wheel and the car reacts instantly. It cuts right to the apex. We were never able to make that happen; it was always lazy and made you wait before the front would point or the rear would settle down. Each time that happens, you lose little bits of time and when you add all of those little bits up through a dozen corners, you end up with lap times that are well off the leaders. I can honestly say I've never driven so hard to end up so far away from the front of the pack.
I guess you'd call it a "character building" experience, and Long Beach had plenty of that! Unfortunately in the race, Mario Romancini thought that the first turn was 300 yards further away than it actually was, and decided to use me and the Dollar General car as his brakes, which he successfully completed. Day over. I wish I had more to say about the race, but it started tough and ended with a rookie mistake.
The positives from the SFR experience were the people, and Sarah in particular. She was very supportive from day one. She treated me extremely well through the entire process. Obviously, there were times where it was certainly tough and she was the first person to step up and make me feel better as she has been through it before in her career. She knows how it feels. She was awesome and I couldn't ask for any more.
I leave wishing there was more opportunity to help the team improve because they said when I walked out of Long Beach that they felt that I helped them highlight some weak points within the team and they felt like they were a much stronger team and better off afterwards. And I felt the same. As I move forward I feel like I’ll be better off after having had that sort of experience. I wish nothing but the best for them in the future.
Now let's talk about the future, and I'll apologize up front that I can't get too specific on things here.
I, my father, my management team -- we as a package -- have been working on a lot of things regarding my future in open-wheel, very few of which pertain to Rahal/Letterman Racing. I know there’s a lot of people that think, “If nothing else happens, his dad will run him in Indy.” And to a certain extent that may be true but also to a certain extent it's false because, yes, my dad would do whatever it takes to win another Indy 500, but who would ever think that a Rahal, or really Rahals as a package, one of which being an Indy 500 champion would go there unsponsored? That's a very real possibility right now.
We certianly aren't owed anything by anybody, but if you look at what we have to offer, it helps to illustrate how hard it is to find corporate partners these days.
That reality is what I've been spending so much time trying to overcome is the same thing others are struggling with. This sport isn't easy; it never has been and I don't expect that to ever change, really. If Roger Penske is having a hard time finding sponsors for two of his three cars, it really tells you about the situation for the rest of us.
It's not for my dad, my mom, my uncle, my grandparents, it's not for anybody to write a check for me to go racing. This is a business, not a gift or a present. I have other opportunities that we're working hard on, some of which may start at Indianapolis, some of which may not be till 2011. It's so up and down but I think we've made some huge strides forward and I think we've got a lot of companies that are interested in our program. We're going to have to wait and see over the next couple of weeks to learn exactly what will happen, but it has signs of life and it could be good.
Some of you know that I tested for Corvette Racing last month, and that went very well, but for now, my focus is set on the IndyCar Series. I've tried to stay very committed to my craft, so to speak. Because, as I've made clear before, IndyCar racing has gone through its ups and downs, and as so many people know, I want to be one of those people that helps bring it back up. I've said that from the very start of my career that I grew up wanting more than to just be an IndyCar driver, I grew up as a big fan of the sport. As a kid, I couldn't get enough of it. I would go with my dad to his test days just to hear the car and I remember the smell of methanol; that type of stuff vividly sticks in my brain and there's a lot of things that take me back to that.
So to me, it’s more than just driving the car. It's such a history-rich sport; to be a part of that is why I love being here and that's why I stay so committed to making sure I’m a reason that IndyCar racing is going forward not backwards.
Another aspect of being responsible for finding my own sponsorship has come in the form of a fast education in the business side of the sport -- from the team side. Having to learn about the proposals, the pitches, the branding and promotions that are tied to sponsorships, and the types of levels of backing needed to create opportunities for this year and beyond has been an eye opener. It makes just having to drive the car look easy.
I have a greater appreciation for what people like Sarah Fisher or even my dad when he first started his team had to go through to find the funding to make their programs happen, and then keep it going and growing for years to come.
I think that what it does do, very simply, is it makes you appreciate the good times. I think when I get the opportunity to get back into the race car full time it's going to be such a relief, it's going to be quite nice. I don't think that anybody realizes, anybody but the people that have been in this exact situation, how hard it really is. I think the one thing that we all know is that it doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter what name you have (although maybe I should change my first name to 'Danica' to see if that helps...), it doesn't matter what you do; the work ethic, and sometimes even the results don't tend to matter.
If everybody that deserved sponsorship got it, you'd probably see a lot of bare cars suddenly filled with sponsor logos, and some cars currently filled with logos would be empty.
We all know that it takes a lot of effort to be successful and I'm just fortunate and hope I'm experiencing this early in my career and that it will be done and over with. I want nothing more than a long, successful career. That's the hope.
The past six months have been a blessing and a nightmare at the same time. I want to be fighting with Will Power for the lead at Barber, or passing one of the Ganassi cars or someone else for the win this weekend at Kansas, but I've had some challenges put in front of me to overcome first. I'm still only 21 years old, but I can tell you this process makes you to grow up even faster than before. I know I feel a lot older than 21 these days.
I'm not going bald nor do I have any gray hair yet, but it's got to be coming!
Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you guys next month,
~Graham
Graham Rahal grew up attending racetracks around the world with his father, 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal. He cut his teeth in karting and moved up the formula ranks. In 2008, a victory at St. Petersburg -- in his IndyCar Series debut -- made him the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing history.
Rahal graduated from New Albany (Ohio) High School with a 3.8 GPA in 2007 despite missing more than 50 days of school his senior year because of racing. He likes to work on cars, restoring a 1964 Mini Cooper for his senior class project. Rahal is an avid Ohio State University football fan, and plays sports for fun. Though he trains for racing, guilty pleasures are ice cream and white chocolate mocha drinks.
Learn more about Graham at www.GrahamRahal.com, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GrahamRahal.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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