Graham Rahal Wins St. Petersburg Grand PrixEvent to be Extended Five More Yearsby Carl Wagenfohr
Graham Rahal (left) passes Ryan Hunter-Reay for the lead. photo by Carl Wagenfohr St Petersburg, Fla - Just minutes before the start of last Sunday's St. Petersburg Grand Prix, the threatening sky unleashed a downpour that soaked the track and turned the first several laps into a low speed procession behind the safety car. But the rain did not dampen the spirits of the crowd, who were rewarded for enduring the weather with a very exciting race and a popular result. Graham Rahal, son of legendary sports car and open wheel racer Bobby Rahal, won the event and in the process became the youngest ever winner of an Indy Racing League (IRL) race. The weeks leading up to St. Pete did nothing to foretell Rahal's remarkable result. Only weeks earlier, the Champ Car open wheel racing series closed its doors, leaving Rahal and his team, Newman Haas Lanigan Racing, free to join the IRL. While Champ Car and the IRL both race open wheel cars, the IRL's Dallara chassis, Honda engines and race circuits were unfamiliar to the drivers and teams coming over from Champ Car. Inexperience and a shortage of parts deprived Rahal of his first IRL start at the Homestead/Miami oval on March 29, when he crashed in practice and the car could not be repaired in time to race. Rahal's inexperience with the Dallara chassis on road and street circuits also lowered fan expectations of his St Pete competitiveness. Rahal's first test of his new IRL car was at Sebring only days before the race. He arrived in St Pete with only 16 laps of road course testing, never having started an IRL race and never having driven his new car in the rain! But Rahal was undaunted. Satisfied that his lap times at Sebring were competitive, Rahal set his sights on a qualifying pace that would put him ahead of mid-pack, important on a street circuit where it is difficult to pass. That's exactly what he did, qualifying 9th in a field of 26, missing out on the Fast 6 final qualifying session by only .125 second. Following the yellow flag start, Rahal ran with the leaders early in the race, reaching as high as third as differing pit stop strategies shuffled the field. Pit strategies played an important role in the outcome, Rahal making only two stops versus the three of his closest rivals, Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan. Because of the early caution laps, the race was cut short of its scheduled 100 laps by a 2-hour time limit. The fuel Rahal took on during his pit stop on lap 45 carried him through to the finish on lap 83. Asked before the event what it feels like to be racing against his father's team, Rahal Letterman Racing, he replied, "It feels good as long as we beat him. We have a great team that wants to win, and it's certainly not out of the cards for us to do it." And Rahal did it emphatically, taking over the lead on lap 65 as he passed Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver for the Rahal Letterman team. Castroneves, a 2-time winner of the event, challenged Rahal from lap 69 till the finish. But he couldn't make an impression, as Rahal drove confidently, making no mistakes and enjoying a speed advantage due to his light fuel load. While his fuel supply at the finish was low, there was enough left for Rahal to celebrate with a long smoky burnout, much to the delight of the fans in grandstand 10. After his victory, Rahal said, "It feels awesome to win! I'm so happy to have won a race and so proud of my guys. Helio is very successful and won a lot of races but I knew we had the pace that we could pull away." Graham Rahal's future looks bright, and so does the St. Petersburg Grand Prix's. The City of St. Petersburg, Indy Racing League, American Le Mans Series, Andretti Green Promotions, Honda and Acura announced their intentions to extend the agreement to host the event for another five years. With this announcement, the Grand Prix's contract would run through 2013, subject to the approval of St. Petersburg City Council. "The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has emerged as the city's signature weekend event. As another great day of racing begins today, we are looking forward to many more years to come," said Mayor Rick Baker during a morning press conference before the race start.
Graham Rahal celebrates his first IRL win with a burnout in front of grandstand 10. photo by Carl Wagenfohr
|
