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| Last updated: 10-October-2001 | |
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1970-74
Brought up on cars; SCCA B/Sports series Champion |
Robert Woodward Rahal was born in Medina, Ohio, USA, the oldest son of Mike and Barbara Rahal. His first taste of top-class auto-racing came around 1970. It was in that year that Mike, an accomplished racer in his own right, took the Rahal clan on a European vacation that along the way included a stop at the Lola and Chevron shops as well as the Monaco GP.
No doubt enthused by the experience, Bobby ran his first car race in Harewood Acres, an airport circuit in Canada, driving a Porsche his dad had sold to Hugh Wise. In the first race, Bobby ran away from the field, leading by a lap until spinning off. In the second, Bobby came from 37th to 11th, setting fast lap along the way. In 1974 he captured the B/Sports series national title. |
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1975
Sponsored by Trueman, ventures into Formula Atlantic, is U.S Champion |
Not one to neglect his education, Rahal went to Denison University and majored in history. He was then drafted, but got turned down because he had a bad knee. At this point Bobby did not really know what to do with his life. He eventually decided, though, and in 1975, Bobby purchased a Lola T360 to race in the Canadian Formula Atlantic series. The car was maintained in the shop beside Bobby's house and carried an omen of the future with small sponsorship from Red Roof Inns owned by Jim Trueman.
Most of Bobby's season was marred by unreliability, but at Brainerd, Bobby and Bill Brack lapped the entire field, including a young 23 year old Gilles Villeneuve. It was a different story in U.S. Formula Atlantic, in which he was much more successful and was awarded SCCA President's Cup as top amateur driver. |
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1976-77
Unlucky year, then briefly quits before battling for FAtlantic title |
In 1976, Rahal agreed to drive for Doug Shierson in a March. Rahal was extremely unlucky for most of the year, but won near the end of the season at Mosport. Meanwhile, the title was won by Villeneuve. Rahal was devastated, as he had run at the front for most of the year, but various problems meant he had finished little. 1976 also saw him enter the Sebring 12hrs with Trueman as his co-driver - they qualified their Chevrolet Monza 8th but failed to finish.
Disheartened by his season, he briefly quit racing, but in 1977 was back in Atlantics. This was a great year, battling alongside drivers like Villeneuve and Keke Rosberg, eventually finishing second to Villeneuve in the final Championship standings. It also saw his first forays into Can-Am, where he was entered by Trueman's Red Roof Inns team, driving a Lola T292 and T296 with both Ford and Hart engines. Results included a fine 6th at Trois-Rivieres in September, and with 3 points he was 23rd overall. |
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1978
Heads to Europe, but disappoints somewhat in Formula 3 |
Targeting F1, which he has always claimed was his dream, the decision was made to leave North America and venture to Europe, competing in Formula Three for 1978. Rahal joined the Canadian outfit Wolf Racing, who were already having some success in F1, but he had a rather lacklustre season, not scoring points until the sixth round at the daunting Nurburgring.
Undeterred, he raced brilliantly to take his Dallara-Toyota WD1 to a podium spot behind Patrick Gaillard and Jan Lammers, who would eventually finish 3rd and 1st in the Championship respectively. His only other points would come at Monza, a 6th place, just 0.04 secs ahead of 7th placed Daniele Albertin. This left him a disappointing 15th overall with 5 points for the season - but better things were just around the corner. |
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1978 Wolf Qualifies very well then manages to finish, all on debut! |
Talk had already surfaced about Rahal driving for Wolf in F1 during 1979, with two experimental races to be run in 1978, and Bobby had already tested the Wolf WR1 at Brands Hatch. So, his F3 season over, he joined Wolf back in North America for the final two races of the F1 calendar, replacing Keke Rosberg (who moved to ATS) in the second car alongside South African Jody Scheckter. He made his debut at the USGP East at Watkins Glen NY.
Bobby qualified a brilliant 20th, considering his inexperience, just 1.7 seconds behind Scheckter. Come race day, he finished a steady 12th, one lap behind. Rahal was understandably conservative, but was still within a second of Scheckter in the lead Wolf, who came 3rd behind Carlos Reutemann and Alan Jones. |
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1978
A spin damages his car, so they pull a WR1 out of mothballs |
Then the paddock moved to Montreal. In practice, a rainy session saw Bobby climb as high as fifth in the standings, but on his last flying lap, Bobby spun trying to "show everyone how good he was". Although it was just a minor spin, it damaged the underside of the ground effect WR5 and an old WR1 car would be taken out of a hotel and used as the race car.
This was Scheckter's original chassis, it was not in race trim, and had a '1' hurriedly taped over the existing car number '0' to make the car number 21. No one truly expected Bobby to qualify the old car, as it was outdated and wasn't even a ground effects machine. But to the amazement of everyone, Bobby put it on the grid in 20th. |
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1978
Fuel system causes retirement which ends his GP career |
Bobby made a great start, passing four cars on the first lap. After 9 laps he was up to 11th, just behind Patrick Tambay in the McLaren, looking for a way past, when the flapper valve in the fuel system stuck open, effectively ending his day. The day after the Canadian GP, Rahal had a meeting with Peter Warr from Wolf.
Wolf had signed James Hunt for 1979 and James wanted only a single car focused only on him, or there was no deal. With no other drives on offer, this is what ended Rahal's F1 hopes, something that Rahal says is "the regret of his career". The great irony was that, seven races into the season, Hunt simply had enough of F1 and walked out, leaving Rosberg to take over the seat for the rest of the season. |
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1979
Back to F2, but mid-year he returns to Can-Am in a Prophet |
In an effort to reach F1 again, Rahal returned to Europe, moving up a category and contesting a full F2 season with Chevron. He started well, taking 4th at the season opener at Silverstone. A 5th place at Thruxton followed, then a 4th two races later at Vallelunga. When he took his Chevron B48 Hart to another points finish at Mugello, he was one of the Championship leaders. But after that he would only score one further point, at Hockenheim, and he finished a lowly 11th place overall with 10 points.
The reason was that, by July, he had left Europe for America to race in the second half of the Can-Am Championship. It was a triumphant homecoming, Bobby taking his Prophet 1 Chevrolet to 3rd at Brainerd, 2nd at Trois-Rivieres, 2nd at Riverside and 1st place at Laguna Seca. With 25 points he finished fifth overall. One wonders where he could have placed had he done the entire series! Meanwhile, Rahal also won a 500 mile race at Mid Ohio in a Ralt with Brian Redman. |
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1980
A busy year sees his first Le Mans, partnering Moffat and Garretson |
1980 was similarly a full year, racing in Can-Am in the Prophet Chevrolet, and in selected endurance events. But he went winless all season, his best results in Can-Am were 3rd at Golden State, Trois-Rivieres and Road Atlanta, and he finished outside the top 20 outright. His first Le Mans 24hrs in a Dick Barbour Porsche 935 K3 alongside Bob Garretson and Allan Moffat finished with a piston failure.
In the other endurance events, he did races at Riverside, Watkins Glen, Mosport and Road America with Garretson in a Porsche 935, while he drove another 935 turbo at Daytona at the start of the year with Roy Woods and Bob Akin. He also competed at the Sebring 12hrs with Garretson and Kees Nierop in yet another Porsche, while he also did the 100 mile Golden State event on his own, in, guess what, a Porsche 935 Turbo. |
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1981
Wins at Daytona, more success in IMSA and endurance racing |
Initially leaving Can-Am in 1981, Rahal started the year in magnificent style, taking a sterling win at the Daytona 24hrs in a Porsche 935 K3 Turbo with Garretson and Redman, although the same combination didn't succeed at the Sebring 12hrs. It was only towards the end of the year that he dabbled in Can-Am once again, driving a March 817 Chevrolet for Paul Newman's team. With a 2nd place at Mosport amongst other results, Bobby was still 8th in Can-Am with 97 points.
The rest of the year Rahal had spent in both the IMSA GT series and the World Endurance Championship, driving a Porsche 935 in both, with drivers such as Garretson and Gianpiero Moretti in particular. He was 4th in IMSA with 105 points, and 3rd in the WEC with 109 points. Elsewhere there was also a one-off drive in a Mazda RX-3 at a Daytona 6hr race with H. Tide Ebding, while an attempt at Le Mans in a Cooke-Woods Lola T600 Porsche with Redman ended in a DNQ. |
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1982
Burst onto the scene as he becomes Rookie of the Year in CART |
Rahal made his Indy car debut at Phoenix in 1982, driving for Truesports in a March 82C Cosworth, having kept up his association with team boss Jim Trueman. It was a seamless transition. Bobby won his first CART race in Cleveland, and then took second win at Michigan 150. With 242 points he finished second in PPG Cup to Rick Mears, and thus easily won CART Rookie of the Year.
Trueman was also Rahal's co-driver at Daytona earlier (along with Bruce Canepa) in the year where they scored pole in a March 82G Chevrolet, but failed to finish. In the same car, with Trueman and Mauricio DeNarvaez though, Rahal won the Sebring 12hrs, but with Trueman and Skeeter McKitterick he could only DNF at Le Mans. Rahal also drove the car in individual races at Road Atlanta and Laguna Seca and was 30th in IMSA with 18 points. |
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1983
Leaner years see just one CART win, and 14th overall in IMSA |
1983 was a leaner year. He finished 5th with 94 points in CART Championship, with just one victory at Riverside, although he picked up nine top tens in twelve events in his Truesports March 83C Cosworth. In a close championship, he was part of an upper-midfield bunch where 4th down to 8th in the standings were separated by only 12 points.
At the same time, he joined Zakspeed Racing, finishing 14th in IMSA GT competition in his Ford Mustang GTP/Turbo with 47 points. His best results were 3rd at Laguna Seca, and another 3rd at Elkart Lake when partnering Geoff Brabham, while Tom Gloy drove with Bobby at Road Atlanta. Rahal also won another 6hr race at Mid Ohio with Trueman and Doc Bundy in a Holbert Racing March 83G Chevrolet. |
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1984
Newey's aero dynamics help Rahal to more CART wins; flirts with NASCAR |
In 1984, Truesports hired a young designer named Adrian Newey. Newey made several changes to the off the shelf March 84C Cosworth of 1984, by lowering the engine and gearbox, lighting the car, and fine tuning the aerodynamics. Rahal was competitive again, earning back-to-back CART wins at Phoenix and Laguna Seca, finishing third in driver standings with 137 points.
Throughout the year, he had also competed in five IMSA rounds, four of them with Zakspeed in a Ford Mustang GTP alongside Klaus Ludwig, and one in a Porsche 962 with Hurley Haywood. Despite two poles, results were hard to come by, and Rahal was only equal 48th overall on 12 points. He also raced in the Daytona 24hrs in a Porsche 935 with Akin and John O'Steen, and had a brief flirt with NASCAR, driving a Wood Brothers entry at Riverside. |
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1985
As Ferrari plan a CART invasion, Truesports sees Newey off to F1 |
In 1985, he was 3rd in IROC, and did two IMSA races in a Dyson Racing Porsche 962 with Drake Olson, winning one of them at Elkhart Lake, and was 23rd in IMSA with 23 points. In CART, in his Truesports March 85C Cosworth, he took 7 poles but only won 3 races to come 3rd overall on 133 points, after which Truesports lost Newey's services as March took him for their F1 program, despite the fact that Newey rated Rahal very highly and never "clicked with any other driver like Rahal except Damon Hill". The two stayed close friends, but that was not the end of the Rahal-Newey story.
But more interestingly, in 1985, Enzo Ferrari made it clear that he was tired of the bickering of the FIA and threatened to go to Indy Car racing. He even constructed a car with a turbo engine. His proposed driver would be Bobby Rahal, who in theory, was to move to the new Ferrari CART team in 1987. Although Rahal made several trips to Maranello, and Enzo even had Michele Albereto test the car, Rahal believes that Ferrari never seriously considered an Indy car team and just used it as a threat to get his way - which, of course, he did. |
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1986
Wins first CART title, on top of an emotional Indy 500 win |
In 1986, team owner and Rahal's mentor Trueman was diagnosed with cancer, and it was obvious that he was not going to make it much longer. He was on hand, however, to see Rahal pass Kevin Cogan and Rick Mears in the final laps of the 1986 Indy 500 to go on and win, as the first driver to complete the famous race inside of 3 hours, setting a then race record of a 170.722 mph average. Trueman, founder of the team and the hotel chain Red Roof Inns, died 10 days later.
It was the start of an amazing winning streak for Rahal, taking his March 86C chassis and Cosworth DFX turbo engine to wins in Toronto, Mid-Ohio, Montreal, Michigan and Laguna Seca, taking out his first PPG CART Championship in the process with 179 points. In doing so, he became first PPG Cup driver to earn US$1,000,000 in a single season. Three IMSA GT races that year were not successful, as Bobby drove a Ralf Sanchez Racing March Chevrolet with Emerson Fittipaldi, and a Zakspeed USA Ford Mustang Probe with Pete Halsmer and Lyn St James. |
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1987
Back to back PPG titles see him etch his name in history |
Early the next year, the team tried a Lola T87/00, and liked what they saw. They switched to the new car for 1987, as the March turned out to be nothing more than a warmed up 1986 model. Bobby scored twelve top five finishes including three victories, winning a second straight title with 188 points, and beating Michael Andretti for the second year running. He also won the inaugural Marlboro Challenge invitational at Miami, and driving a Leven Racing Porsche 962 in 6 IMSA rounds, sometimes with Jochen Mass, he scored 3 wins and was 5th overall with 107 points.
But a turning point in his CART career came at the end of 1987, with the emergence of the Chevy turbo built by Ilmor. Although Rahal had just won the title, the writing was on the wall as the new Chevy had incredible electronic technology and power, and it was clear that the old Cosworth DFX, a relative of the F1 DFV, was becoming outdated, and fast. Truesports team head Steve Horne and Rahal had a meeting with Budweiser, the team's sponsor, to address the issue. |
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1988
Just one win all year sees Rahal leave Truesports come season's end |
They had three options: ask Budwieser to shell out an extra 1 million dollars for an Ilmor Chevy (an unheard of price at the time), stick with the DFX and start to slip back, or go with a third option, the Judd V8 turbo built by John Judd. There was a faint hope that Judd, who had built engines for Honda in the 1960's, would eventually be taken over by Honda. It was Horne who eventually made the call to go with the Judd. He felt the money could be spent elsewhere.
It was, perhaps, the wrong decision. Rahal won just once in 1988 in his Lola T88/00, at Pocono, the only non-Chevy win. He finished third in the standings with 136 points, but it now seemed time for him to leave Truesports. Nevertheless, when he announced his decision, he called it "Absolutely the hardest decision that I have had to make in my racing career."1988 also saw Rahal's last drives in IMSA, driving a Hendrick Lola T87/10 and T86/10 in 5 races, once with Sarel van de Merwe and once with Elliot Forbes-Robinson. Bobby was 42nd overall with 11 points. |
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1989-90
Power deficiency sees Rahal struggle in CART, 9th overall |
Concentrating on CART from then on, he briefly explored the possibility of driving for the Porsche March team, but in the end, Porsche wanted a European and went with Teo Fabi. Rahal ended up driving for KRACO, replacing Michael Andretti. The team had a lot of sponsors, STP, Molson, etc, but they were still using the outdated Cosworth DFX engine for their Lola T89/00, and they could not get their hands on a Chevy Ilmor.
Bobby won at the Meadowlands in 1989, despite the horrible power disadvantage. But the KRACO engine crew were stretching the engine beyond its limits and it showed up in reliability, and he finished ninth overall in the Championship with 88 points. For 1990, Chevy claimed they were booked and were again not going to supply KRACO. So dominant was the Chevy that team boss Maury Kraines decided to merge the team with Galles Racing. |
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1990-92
Plenty of 2nd places but wins are few and far between |
KRACO closed its shops in California and moved to New Mexico with Galles. Rahal's team-mate became Al Unser Jr, who, by contract, used the Chevys - and became CART Champion. Rahal failed to win a single race, although he did manage several 2nds including the Indy 500, and came 4th overall with 153 points in his Lola T90/00. 1991 yielded just a single win, again at Meadowlands - but he had 13 top five finishes, including six 2nds. In doing so, he took the PPG points battle down to the final race of the year at Laguna Seca only to relinquish the fight to Michael Andretti when his car overheated early.
That year, he had scored 200 points in his Lola T91/00. But overall, Bobby wanted more. So he started talking to Pat Patrick about the 1992 season. But Patrick had ruined his relationship with Chevy, as he had sent one of their engines to Italy to help out his supplier Alfa Romeo, who were struggling at the back. It didn't work, and going into 1992, sponsor Miller stipulated that they must have Chevy engines after the Alfa fiasco, but Patrick could not get the said engines. |
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1992-93
Becomes first owner/driver to win the CART title in close battle |
In the end, Rahal ended up buying Patrick's team with St Louis businessman Carl Hogan. It was a watershed year, Rahal taking four wins (Phoenix, Detroit, New England and Nazareth) and three consecutive poles (Milwaukee, New England and Toronto) in his Lola T92/00 Chevy as he took the championship down to final race of the season in a three way battle with Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. With 196 Rahal triumphed by just four points, becoming the first ever owner/driver to win the CART title.
In 1993, the team acquired the assets of Truesports, which had fallen on hard times. The team rebadged the Truesports chassis the R/H 01, and hoped to follow Roger Penske in the art of building their own cars. Although plans called for a completely new car, the team eventually just got spruced up 1991 cars to race. The car had horrible aerodynamics, and after finishing a distant 2nd at Long Beach behind Paul Tracy, Rahal suffered the indignity of being bumped out of the field at Indy by Eddie Cheever. |
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1993-94
Rahal helps bring Honda into CART, but it all turns sour |
After Indy, Rahal went back to a Lola T93/07 while teammate Mike Groff got stuck with the moving chicane. His best effort was a ninth at Portland. Rahal finished fourth in the championship with 133 points but did not win a race. However, in January 1993, Honda announced they were entering CART, and it was announced that Rahal-Hogan was going to be the factory team. Although the first tests of the Honda on the dyno in 1990 and on the track in Indianapolis in 1993 showed the engine had a lot of promise, the tests revealed some problems with the structure of the engine.
Honda went with a brand new cast iron engine in 1994, and while everyone thought they would dominate, Honda bombed out. Rahal managed a second in Toronto in his Lola T94/00 thanks to a new flat crank engine, but that was the only highlight. The team even had to call up Penske and order year-old Penske PC22s just to make the 1994 Indy 500 (although Bobby drove to 3rd place with it!). In late 1994, after managing no better than 10th overall with 59 points, Bobby told Honda he was ending the partnership. |
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1995-96
Hogan out; talk show celeb David Letterman in, Boesel get a drive |
For 1995, Rahal decided to split with Hogan, and take up with the motor racing mad TV personality David Letterman, a close friend. He hired Raul Boesel to drive his second car, and switched his Lola T95/00s back to Ilmors, now badged Mercedes after Mercedes out bid Chevy for the naming rights. They went with Mercedes instead of Ford because of a guarantee that they would receive the infamous "push rod" engine that had dominated the Indy 500 in 1994. However, USAC banned the push rod. Even still, Rahal carried on with Ilmor.
1995 yielded a number of podiums including a 2nd at Surfer's Paradise and a 3rd in the Indy 500, but no victories and too many DNF's to challenge for the title, but Bobby was still 3rd with 128 points. Rahal changed to the Reynard 961 chassis and hired Bryan Herta to drive the second car in 1996, now backed by Shell. The season saw Rahal surge with several seconds in the last part of the season to 7th in the title on 102 points, while Herta was just behind in 8th. Herta narrowly missed a victory at Laguna Seca when Alex Zanardi made his infamous pass on the last lap. |
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1997-00
Announces 1998 is his final year driving, takes a 3rd in Cleveland |
In 1997, Rahal switched to Ford Cosworth for engines for his Reynard 971s. The season was disappointing and Rahal managed only 12th in points, with just 70 points. Rahal then announced that 1998 would be his last season as a driver. The year was highlighted by Herta's first victory at Laguna Seca as Rahal took 10th overall with 82 points in his Reynard 981. Bobby retired from competitive racing ranked 1st in all time CART career starts, 2nd in career earnings, 3rd in laps led, 4th in wins and 5th in pole positions.
Concentrating now on running his team, Rahal announced that Max Papis would take his place behind the Miller machine for 1999, and that year Papis was 5th and Herta 12th overall. In the year 2000, Rahal saw his team go from strength to strength, with Papis winning at Miami (although he slipped to 14th overall) and Herta's replacement Kenny Brack securing CART Rookie of the Year en route to 4th in the championship. |
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2000
Becomes interim CEO of CART, then team boss of Jaguar |
Rahal also took the place of Andrew Craig as CEO of CART, a series that needed expert leadership. Although it was only an interim appointment, Rahal did a superb job - among other things, he eliminated some of the non-successful events and made suggestions to lower power output, and oversaw the expansion of the FedEx Champ Car series into a truly international affair.
But then, in what seemed a surprise move at first but actually was quite logical, in December 2000 Bobby stepped down as CART CEO to take over the running of Ford's F1 team, Jaguar Racing, after the big cats' humiliating debut season. He moved from Cleveland to the UK as a result, and with success in open wheel racing's premier league being a goal he never got to realise as a driver, F1 was unfinished business for him. |
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2001
Another lacklustre year sees Lauda take over after Newey mess |
Showing that he wasn't afraid to take tough decisions, he replaced designer Gary Anderson with Steve Nichols as he aimed for Jaguar to gain "respectability" in 2001. He signed Pedro de la Rosa as test driver from under the Prost team's nose, and then replaced rookie race driver Luciano Burti four races into the season with the Spaniard as Eddie Irvine's team-mate. Rahal then had the satisfaction of seeing Irvine claim Jaguar's first podium, a 3rd place at Monaco.
But then things started going wrong. Ford had also taken on Niki Lauda in another managerial capacity, and he and Rahal never gelled. Bobby also made a very public, but ultimately failed bid to sign Adrian Newey, who had become F1's top designer, first with Williams, then with McLaren, in a saga which became known as 'Neweygate'. Without being given a chance to show what he could do in the long run, two-thirds of the way into the season, Rahal departed and Lauda took over the team full-time. |
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2001
The Jamie Lee Curtis fan returns to the US, and his CART team |
Some people surprisingly questioned Bobby's commitment, as he was still running his CART team at the time; regardless, it was to this that he returned. Having switched back to Lolas, 2001 has proven to be hugely successful for the Rahal team, though, with Papis taking one win so far, and Brack winning 4 times and challenging for the championship, although both Papis and Brack have earned Bobby's ire by colliding with each other on more than one occasion, and both seem to be on their way out for 2002.
On a personal note, Rahal is married to wife Debi, and has four children, Michaela, Jarrad, Graham, and Samantha. He likes pasta with pesto sauce, 60's rock and roll music, reading non-fiction, history, Jamie Lee Curtis and has an unquenchable passion for golf. He wishes he could play the piano, and spend more time on the golf course. Don't we all :-) |
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