Graham Rahal
From Motorsportpedia
| |
| IndyCar Career | |
| Nationality |  USA
|
|---|---|
| Series / Years | 2006-2008 (CCWS) 2008 (IRL) |
| Current Team | Newman/Haas/Lanigan (IRL) |
| Past Team(s) | Newman/Haas/Lanigan (CCWS) Newman/Haas* (CCWS) * as test driver |
| Races | 14 (CCWS) 16 (IRL) 30 (Total) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 (CCWS) 1 (IRL) 1 (Total) |
| Poles | 0 |
| First Race | 2007 CCWS Las Vegas |
| First Win | 2008 IRL St. Petersburg |
| Last Win | 2008 IRL St. Petersburg |
| Last Race | Driver Still Active |
Graham Rahal is an American driver, who has represented the Lebanon in A1 Grand Prix. He has also driven in Formula Atlantics, Champ Car and IndyCar series. He is the son of Indy 500 Winner and former IndyCar Champion Bobby Rahal.
Contents |
Stats
- Full Name: Graham Rahal
- Born: January 4, 1989 - Columbus, OH., United States
Career
Karting
2000-2002: Produced numerous wins and podium finishes competing in both regional and national karting series and competitions.
2003: Finished fourth in the ICC (125cc shifter kart) division in the National Stars of Karting Series. Earned first national win at the ICC main event at Road America. Was third in Stars of Karting National Championship race.
Formula BWM
2004: Recorded four top-five finishes and a podium result at Denver in the Formula BMW USA Series. Finished seventh in the overall season ranking and third in the seres’ top rookie rundown.
Star Mazda
2005: Produced his first professional win at Portland to go along with six podium finishes in the Star Mazda Series. Finished fourth in the series standings as a rookie.
Grand-Am
2006: Competed in January’s Rolex 24 endurance race at Daytona for Tafel Racing finishing 6th in the GT class and 16th overall.
2007: Returned to Daytona for the second year running, this time driving for Southard Motorsports. Was classified in the results as 28th in class and 62nd overall.
2008: For a third year in a row Graham would compete in the 24 hours of Daytona. Driving for Michael Shank Racing for his second attempt in a Daytona Prototype. Partnering him will be fellow Champ Car driver Justin Wilson, Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri. The team qualified on pole for the race but finished 6th after an accident during one of Justins stint put them a number of laps down.
Indy Lights
2006: Drove for Kenn Hardley Racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway finishing second. In his one race in the series he scored 43 points giiving him a 28th place classification in the championship.
Atlantics
2005: Raced in the Formula Atlantic class and won the same national title that his father claimed 30 years earlier in the SCCA National Run-offs at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course. Established several records at the Run-offs including becoming the youngest-ever Atlantic winner at the event.
2006: One of the top young stars of American road racing, Graham Rahal continues his rise up the open-wheel ladder this season as he enters the Champ Car Atlantic Championship with Mi-Jack Conquest Racing. Graham won 5 races (Fundidora Park, Cleveland x2, Denver and Montreal) on his way to second in the overall championship and 2nd in the rookie of the year standings. An impressive season that opened some Champ Car team owners eyes to this young man's talents.
A1 Grand Prix
2005-06: Rahal, who family is of Lebanese descent, competed for the A1 Team Lebanon squad over the final three rounds of competition of the 2005-06 A1 Season. In his 6 starts for the team his best finish was 11th in the feature race at Shanghai. The team failed to score any points over the season and were not classified in the championship.
2006-07: Graham returend to drive for A1 Team Lebanon in round 2 of the series 2006-07 A1 Season before retiring from the series to concentrate on Champ Car. During the rest of the season the team failed to score any points and again were not classified in the championship standings.
IndyCar
2006: At the end of the 2006 Season Graham tested for Newman-Haas Racing at Sebring. While still unsigned for the following season PKV Racing team owner Kevin Kalkhoven stated in an interview that if newman-Haas Racing didn't offer Graham a contract his team would.
2007: Graham started the 2007 season testing for Newman-Haas Racing at Sebring International Raceway and MSR Houston. This was the first time, he or any other drivers had driven the new Panoz DP01 chassis. On 29th March it was formally announced that Graham would be driving the #2 car for the recently renmaed Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team. Graham crashed out of his first race on lap 1 at turn 1, when Dan Clarke forced him wide and he hit the wall. He scored his first posium at round 3 in Houston finishing second to team mate Sebastien Bourdais. A second podium didn't come until round 8 of the series in Edmonton where he had a stong weekend finishing 3rd overall. A third podium came at Road America where he finished behind winner and team mate Sebastien Bourdais and Dan Clarke. Another podium finish follwed with a string 3rd at Zolder in Belgium. As a result of his rookie season Graham was nominated for the Greg Moore Legacy Award. At the final round of the season Graham was penalised 30 seconds of his Power-to_pass for laying rubber down on his grid position during the Sunday morning warm up. This did not haper his race to much and he finished the season off with a 4th place finish. He collected 243 points over the season leaving him 5th in the drivers championship and second in the rookie of the year standings.
2008: Rahal returned to Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing in 2008 with Justin Wilson as his new team mate. They kicked off the season with the first open test of the year at Sebring. Rahal was second fastest at the test behind Frenchman Franck Montagny but ahead of his team mate. Shortly after the test it was announced that Champ Car and the IRL would merge for the coming season to form a unified IndyCar Series. Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing annonced they would run in the unfired series taking Rahal, and team mate Justin Wilson, with them. Despite being one of the first Champ Car teams to announce their participation in the unified series they were unable to attend the first test session stating that they didn't get enough parts for their new cars in time, leaving Rahal to sit on the sidelines whilst other drivers got up to speed with the new cars. The team participated in the second test at Homestead but Rahal spun and hit the wall on the final day. The damage was enough that the car could not be repaired in time for the first race of the season. Upset at not being able to start the season opener Rahal came back strong a week later at St. Petersburg. In his first start he qualified well then dominated the final stages of the race to take victory. In Long Beach he was running well and in place for a top 5 finish when he hit the wall on the final lap and taking him out of the race and in Kansas he was 12th. The build up to the Indianapolis 500 was hampered by rain, resulting in Rahal getting less track time than he would have liked as a rookie. He qualified the car in 13th place on the grid but was the first driver to drop out of the race. As he was passing a slower car entering pit lane he ran too high and lost control of the car, ending up in the wall in turn 4. At the Milwaukee Mile Rahal ran fast in practice and qualified second on the grid behind Marco Andretti. Through-out the first half of the race he ran in the top three but on lap 29 as he passed backmarker Darren Manning he drifted to high and hit the wall ending his day. At Texas Motor Speedway he kept out of trouble to finish 11th and similarly at Iowa Speedway he finished 10th. A week later on the short oval at Richmond International Raceway Rahal ran well, qualifying 3rd and running up front until an accident put him out of the race. At Watkins Glen he finished 8th, 12th at nashville Superspeedway and 16th in his home race at Mid-Ohio. He crashed out of the race in Edmonton and failed to finish at Kentucky Speedway with his car suffering mechanical problems. Sears Point saw and improvement for Rahal with an 8th place finish and in the final road race of the season on Belle Isle Park in Detroit he finished 13th. Rahals didn't have a great race in the season finale at Chicagoland Speedway. During an early race pit stop he came out of his stall and collected Buddy Rice, the incident put Rice out of the race but Rahal was able to continue after some repairs. Later in the race Rahals repaired car clipped the wall this time ending his day completely. Over the season he had acumilated 288 points leaving him 17th in the championship standings and 4th in the rookie of the year standings. In October he headed to Australia for the non championship race at Surfers Paradise where he finished 6th.
Results
IndyCar
| Year | Series | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Points | C'ship | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | CCWS | Panoz-DP01 | Cosworth | 
| Newman/Haas/Lanigan | DNF | 8 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 7 | DNF | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 243 | 5 | ||
| 2008 | IRL | Dallara | Honda | 
| Newman/Haas/Lanigan | 1 | 12 | DNF | DNF | 11 | 10 | DNF | 8 | 12 | 16 | DNF | DNF | 8 | 13 | DNF | 288 | 17 | |||||
| Panoz | Cosworth |
| DNF | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Atlantics
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Teams | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Points | C'ship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Swift | Mazda-Cosworth | 
| Mi-Jack Conquest Racing | 5 | 15 | 1 | DNF | 1 | 1 | DNF | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | DNF | 242 | 2 |
Indy Lights
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Points | C'ship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Dallara | Infiniti | 
| Kenn Hardley Racing | 2 | 43 | 28 |
A1 Grand Prix
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Points | C'ship | ||||||||||||
| S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | S | F | ||||||||
| 05-06 | Lola | Zytek | 
| A1 Team Lebanon | 13 | 14 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 11 | 0 | -- | |||||||||||||||||
| 06-07 | Lola | Zytek |
| A1 Team Lebanon | 12 | 12 | 0 | -- | |||||||||||||||||||||
