Bobby Rahal

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**Bobby Rahal**
Nationality	American
Active years	1982 - 1998
Team(s)	Truesports (1982-1988) Kraco (1989) Galles-Kraco (1990-1991) Rahal-Hogan (1992-1995) Team Rahal (1996-1998)
Race starts	264
Championships	3 (1986, 1987, 1992)
Wins	24
Podium finishes	88
Pole positions	18
First Champ Car race	1982 Kraco Car Stereo 150 (Phoenix)
First win	1982 Budweiser Cleveland 500
Last win	1992 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix (Nazareth)
Last Champ Car race	1998 Marlboro 500 (Fontana)

Robert "Bobby" Woodward Rahal (born January 10, 1953 in Medina, Ohio) is an American auto racing team owner and former driver, spending most of his driving career in the CART open-wheel series, winning three championships there.

As a driver, Rahal raced in Formula 1 and CART, including owning the team he drove for during most of his career. That team is now known as Rahal Letterman Racing. 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 currently lives in New Albany, Ohio.

1 Driving career
2 Car owner
3 CART President
4 Awards
5 NSX Involvement
6 Race results
- 6.1 Complete Formula One Results
- 6.2 Indy 500 results
7 Bobby Rahal Automotive Group
8 Other family members in auto racing
9 External link

[edit] Driving career

As a driver, he won three CART (now Champ Car) championships (with Michael Andretti finishing as runner-up each time) and 24 races, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. He also started 2 Formula One races for Walter Wolf in 1978, and was in contention for driving their second car until they chose to focus solely on James Hunt for the next season. He also had success in sports car races, winning the 1981 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 1987 12 Hours of Sebring. He retired from competitive driving in 1998, ranking first in career starts, second in career earnings, third in laps led, fourth in wins and fifth in pole positions in Champcars history.

[edit] Car owner

He is co-owner of Rahal Letterman Racing, in partnership with David Letterman, who became a minority owner in 1996. The team, originally known as Rahal-Hogan Racing, was formed, in 1992, after Rahal and partner Carl Hogan acquired the assets to the former Pat Patrick Racing team in late 1991. The name changed to Team Rahal when Hogan left to form his own team. It changed its name again to Rahal Letterman Racing in May 2004. The team won the title for Rahal in 1992, making him the last owner-driver to win the IndyCar title, and the last driver to win a race in his own car until Adrian Fernandez did so in 2003. The team was consistently successful in the series until 2003, Kenny Brack finishing as rookie of the year in 2000 and championship runner-up in 2001. In 2003, they first entered an IRL car, and have focused on this series since 2004.

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 sacked after reportedly attempting to sell driver Eddie Irvine to rivals Jordan {citation needed}. Ironically, the team fired Irvine little more than a year after firing Rahal.

Rahal's team won the Indianapolis 500 in 2004 with a car driven by Buddy Rice. In 2005, his team made racing history with Danica Patrick becoming the first woman to lead a lap in the Indianapolis 500 among her other notable achievements at the race, qualifying and practice sessions.

[edit] CART President

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

[edit] Awards

Rahal was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994.
He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2004.

[edit] NSX Involvement

Rahal, whose IndyCar team used Honda engines in the early 1990s, and McLaren-Honda Formula One driver Ayrton Senna were the only two top level race car drivers to have provided vital inputs to the the Honda NSX's final development. Rahal's NSX testing was conducted at Laguna Seca Racetrack in California, while Senna was called in to fine-tune the car at Suzuka Circuit in Japan. NSX chief engineer Shigeru Uehara and his team were physically present at the track alongside Rahal to oversee and proactively fine-tune the car's handling.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Race results

[edit] Complete Formula One Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

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	SAF	USAW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	DUT	ITA	USA 12		-	0
1978	Walter Wolf Racing	Wolf WR1	Cosworth V8																CAN Ret	-	0

[edit] Indy 500 results

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

[edit] Bobby Rahal Automotive Group

The Bobby Rahal Automotive Group sells and services Honda, Acura, Toyota, Lexus, Scion, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, and BMW cars through its dealerships in western and central Pennsylvania.

[edit] Other family members in auto racing

Rahal's son, Graham Rahal, finished 2nd in the 2006 Champ Car Atlantic Championship season. After running the final two races for the Lebanon A1 Grand Prix team in the 2005-2006 season, he will again race a partial season for Lebanon in the 2006-07 season. The Rahal family ancestry includes some Lebanese descent.

[edit] External link

Rahal Letterman Racing website

Preceded by Danny Sullivan	Indianapolis 500 Winner 1986	Succeeded by Al Unser
Preceded by Al Unser	CART Series Champion 1986-1987	Succeeded by Danny Sullivan
Preceded by Michael Andretti	CART Series Champion 1992	Succeeded by Nigel Mansell