19 years, 93 days and his first Checkered Flag
Graham Rahal beat one of IndyCar racing's best to notch a place in auto racing history. The son of team owner Bobby Rahal (a pretty good driver in his day if you recall). held off Helio Castroneves to win the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and start putting to rest the speculation about the former Champ Car drivers being able to make the transition to the less powerful Honda powered Dallara machines. Polesitter Tony Kanaan was third. Scott Dixon suffered mechanical woes...and dropped to second in points behind Castroneves. Kanaan is also third in points...Rahal (the youngest driver ever to win a major league open wheel race) now 4th. The IndyCar series takes a break to get ready for a doubleheader on two continents in two weeks...the former Champ Car drivers (Rahal, Wilson, Will Power, etc) will stay behind to race in Long Beach...while the rest of the drivers work out on the Motegi oval. Everyone who runs the "last hurrah" for the old Panoz/Cosworth chassis will get IndyCar points...in 2009...you'll see the IndyCars take on Shoreline drive, etc. Rahal says he's looking forward to Long Beach. There may be anywhere from 12-20 cars...and Paul Tracy will drive the last roundup for Forsythe Racing.
Bobby Rahal came up to the press work room to chat with a few reporters...like any dad...even though his driver (Ryan Hunter-Reay) was running out of gas...Rahal the elder said he still thought of Graham as his little kid.
We'll rejoin you from Glitter Gulch with NHRA coverage next weekend.
