Arab Americans

Graham Rahal

Graham Rahal (born January 4, 1989 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American race car driver. He currently participates in the Verizon IndyCar Series. He is the son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal for whom he also drives.

Racing career

Early racing

In 2005, he won the Formula Atlantic class at the SCCA Runoffs and finished fourth in Star Mazda Series standings. He drove in the last two rounds of the 2005–2006 A1 Grand Prix season for A1 Team Lebanon as he is of Lebanesedescent. He moved to a full-time ride in the Champ Car Atlantic Series in 2006, where he won five races and finished second in the season standings. He also drove in the Indy Pro Series event on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in conjunction with the United States Grand Prix and finished second. SpeedTV reported in August 2006 that Graham would drive for Newman/Haas Racing in the Champ Car World Series in 2007.^[1]

2007

On January 27 Rahal drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona. One of four drivers of the Southard Motorsports Lexus Riley, the car ran into early troubles and finished 62nd out of 70 entries. On March 18, he drove in the 12 Hours of SebringAmerican LeMans Series race for his father’s Rahal Letterman Racing team. He drove a Porsche 911 GT3-RSR with two other drivers, finishing 6th in the GT2 class and 15th overall.

Rahal posing with a show car when he raced in Champ Car in 2007

On March 27 news reports from the previous summer were finally confirmed when he was announced as the second driver for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing in the Champ Car World Series^[2] and drove the #2 Panoz DP01 sponsored by MEDI|ZONE alongside his teammate, three-time series champion Sébastien Bourdais.

On April 8 in his debut in the Champ Car World Series at the Vegas Grand Prix, Rahal hit the wall on the front stretch on the first lap. He was knocked out of the race. On April 15 at Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach he finished his first Champ Car race, ending up 8th.

On April 22, in just his 3rd Champ Car race, he became the youngest ever podium finisher in Champ Car history after finishing 2nd in Houston. Rahal completed his rookie season in 5th place in series points with four podium finishes but without a race win.

2008

With the creation of a single American open wheel racing series for 2008, Rahal and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team became part of the IndyCar Series, including Rahal’s first Indianapolis 500.

He missed the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 due to a crash in testing after which his team could not get his car repaired in time for the race. He made his series debut at the second race of the season, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and despite an early spin in the race, Rahal won the race by 3.5192 seconds from two-time defending winner of the race, Hélio Castroneves. He is currently the youngest person to win a major American open wheel race^[3] and the fourth to win in his first appearance in the IndyCar Series. The best finish Rahal would manage the rest of the year was a pair of 8th places at Watkins Glen and Infineon and he finished 17th in points, 4th among series rookies.

2009

Rahal returned to Newman/Haas/Lanigan for the 2009 IndyCar Series season, taking over the #02 car with McDonald’s as his sponsor. He began the season by takingpole position at St. Petersburg, his first in his IndyCar career, thus becoming the youngest ever polesitter in IndyCar Series at 20 years and 90 days old. This was the first time a Rahal had won an IndyCar pole since his father started first at Toronto in 1992, which was Bobby’s third in a row that season.^[4] He finished seventh after damaging the car in a first lap clash. His season was also undermined by bad relations with his team-mate Robert Doornbos – when the Dutchman left midseason, Rahal commented “We could certainly have a second driver who is more of a team player.”^[5] He finished the season 7th in points with two podium finishes.

Rahal was linked with USF1, the American-based Formula One team set to debut in the 2010 World Championship. The team’s sporting director, Peter Windsor, has mentioned Rahal as a potential candidate for a seat with the Charlotte-based outfit.^[6] However, Windsor later decided against hiring either Rahal or Marco Andretti due to fears they may not be able to get their F1 Superlicenses in time for the 2010 season. Eventually, the team failed to answer the bell for the 2010 Formula One season.

2010

Graham Rahal did not return to Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season, due to McDonald’s discontinuing their sponsorship to focus on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

On March 10, 2010, Sarah Fisher Racing announced Rahal would pilot Fisher’s #67 Dollar General car in the first two North American events of 2010, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Sarah Fisher was originally planning on driving the races herself (in addition to seven ovals) before deciding that putting Rahal in the car could be a benefit to everyone, including her sponsor Dollar General, whose home office is in Goodlettsville, Tennessee (near the Alabama track).^[7] On April 6, 2010, Sarah Fisher Racing announced they will be adding the Grand Prix of Long Beach to Rahal’s schedule. Rahal’s placing in those three races were ninth, 17th, and 22nd (retired) respectively.

After the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Rahal was signed to drive for his father‘s team, Rahal Letterman Racing, in the 2010 Indianapolis 500. Graham qualified in the seventh position for the race, and finished 12th.

On June 10, 2010, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced the signing of Rahal for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway, filling in for the injured Mike Conway in the #24 entry. It was his only start for the team.

Rahal returned to Newman/Haas Racing for 6 of the remaining 8 races of the 2010 season, starting with Toronto and returned to Sarah Fisher Racing for the Kentucky Speedway race. Rahal’s 2010 totals include 12 starts for four different teams and a 20th place finish in points.

On October 10, 2010, Rahal finished runner-up at the RoboPong 200 all-star kart event at the New Castle Motorsports Park with teammate Conor Daly.^[8]

2011

Rahal has signed to drive the #38 car for Chip Ganassi Racing with Service Central sponsorship beginning in 2011 as the team will expand from two to four cars.^[9]

Rahal, co-drove the No. 01 TELMEX/Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates car to victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona along with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, and Joey Hand. It came 30 years after his father, Bobby, along with Brian Remond and Bob Garretson won the race.

Personal life

Graham Rahal takes a selfie at the 2015 Indianapolis 500

Rahal attended New Albany school systems in Ohio and graduated in June 2007 with plans to attend Denison University. Rahal started the Graham Rahal Foundation in 2009 to support Alex’s Lemonade Stand for Childhood Cancer and The Association of Hole in the Wall Camps (known as SeriousFun Children’s Network as of April 2012).^[10]

He is engaged to NHRA drag racer Courtney Force, daughter of 16-time NHRA drag racing champion and legend John Force.^[11]

Motorsports career results

Career summary

* Season in progress.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

American open–wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

Champ Car Atlantic

Champ Car

IndyCar Series

(key)

* Season still in progress

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

³ The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

References