Racing career

And it was frigid. A very cold day, and the race long - long for me. The longest I'd done before that was a 100-mile Formula Atlantic race, and this was a 200-mile grand prix. I just wanted to get to the end and get to the next race. It was a workman-like debut.

Rahal, spekaing about his Formula One debut at Watkins Glen

Rahal began his career in SCCA feeder categories, eventually finishing second to Gilles Villeneuve in the 1977 Formula Atlantic championship. The following year, he competed in European Formula Three with Wolf Racing. Near the end of the season, Rahal raced for the Wolf Formula 1 team in the 1978 United States Grand Prix and the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix. The deal with Wolf did not continue into the 1979 season, as Wolf signed up James Hunt for the one and only car available. Rahal began the 1979 racing a Chevron in Formula Two, but returned to America mid-season and raced in the Can-Am series. During the next few seasons, he competed in various sports car events, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the IMSA GT Championship.

In 1982, Rahal entered the CART series with the Truesports team, winning two races and finishing second in the championship behind Rick Mears. He continued racing for Truesports through the 1988 season, winning at least one race every year. In 1986, Rahal dramatically passed Kevin Cogan on a restart with two laps to go to win the Indianapolis 500, only days before his team owner, Jim Trueman died of cancer. Later that year, Rahal won his first CART championship, and successfully defended it the following year.

In 1988, Rahal won the last race the Truesports team ever won, the Quaker State 500 at Pocono, the only victory for the Judd engine ever.

By 1989, Rahal had ended his occasional forays into sports car racing and focused solely on CART. He moved over to the Kraco race team, but this association produced only two wins over three seasons.

Rahal competed in one NASCAR race in his career. In November 1984 he drove the 7-11 sponsored Wood Brothers #21 Ford (substituting for Buddy Baker) to a 40th-place finish in the Winston Western 500 at Riverside International Speedway, completing only 44 laps before breaking a rear end gear.

IndyCar owner

After losing the championship to Michael Andretti in 1991, Rahal (with partner Carl Hogan) acquired the assets to the former Pat Patrick Racing team, with Rahal becoming an owner-driver. The team was an immediate success in 1992, producing four wins for Rahal and his third CART championship, making him the last owner-driver to win the CART title, and the last driver to win a race in his own car until Adrian Fernandez did so in 2003. In 1993, Rahal attempted to develop his own Rahal-Hogan chassis, but reverted to the Lola chassis after failing to qualify for the 1993 Indianapolis 500. In 1994 the team brought the Honda engine into the CART series. Except for a second-place finish at Toronto, he and teammate Mike Groff struggled to show the full potential of an engine that would soon dominate the series. In 1995 at Long Beach Rahal became the 10th driver in Championship Car history (including AAA, USAC, and CART) to start 200 races in his career. Despite no wins, Rahal finished a strong 3rd in the 1995 standings using the Mercedes engine.

Rahal continued as a racing driver until his retirement in 1998. Meanwhile, Hogan left to form his own team and talk show host David Letterman became a minority owner in 1996. The team became known as Team Rahal in 1996 and Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004, when Rahal switched from CART to the IRL full-time.

Other business roles

In 2000, Rahal joined the Jaguar Formula One team in a managerial capacity. During this time, Rahal attempted to hire championship-winning aerodynamicist Adrian Newey, briefly believing that the deal had been completed. However, Rahal was fired after reportedly attempting to sell driver Eddie Irvine to rivals Jordan. Ironically, the team fired Irvine little more than a year after firing Rahal.

Rahal was the interim President and CEO of CART for six months during the 2000 season.

His business interests include a network of car dealerships in western and central Pennsylvania.

Rahal was also involved in the development and testing of the Honda NSX. NSX chief engineer Shigeru Uehara and his team were present at the test track to fine-tune the car's handling according to Rahal's feedback.

Awards

• International Motorsports Hall of Fame (2004)
• Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2004)
• SCCA Hall of Fame (2013)
• Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Auto Racing Hall of Fame (2014)

Tribute

At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the back straight leading up to the corkscrew was named for Rahal.

Personal life

Rahal formerly lived in New Albany, Ohio. Rahal is a graduate of Denison University. He now lives in Lincoln Park, near the lakefront of Chicago. He is the son of sports car racer Mike Rahal and the father of Graham Rahal, who raced for the Lebanon A1 Grand Prix team during the 2005-2006 season because of the Rahal family's Lebanese ancestry. Graham now races in the IndyCar Series.

Bobby owns a 1975 Lola T360 which he occasionally races at vintage racing events.

Motorsports career results

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

Year	Track	Car	Engine	Class	Finish	Start	Status
1974	Road Atlanta	Lola T290	Ford	B Sports Racing	3	3	Running
1975	Road Atlanta	March 75B	Ford	Formula B	1	2	Running
1977	Road Atlanta	March 75B	Ford	Formula B	18	1	Retired

Formula One

(key)

Formula One results
Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1978	Walter Wolf Racing	Wolf WR5	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA		NC	0
		Wolf WR1	Cosworth V8																CAN

American Open Wheel Racing

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

PPG Indycar Series

PPG IndyCar Series results
Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
1982	Truesports Co.	March 82C	Cosworth DFX V8t	PHX	ATL	MIL	CLE	MCH	MIL	POC	RIV	ROA	MCH	PHX									2nd	242
1983	Truesports Co.	March 83C	Cosworth DFX V8t	ATL	INDY	MIL	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	RIV		MCH			PHX							5th	94
			Chevrolet V8									MDO		CPL	LAG
1984	Truesports Co.	March 84C	Cosworth DFX V8t	LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	PHX	LAG	CPL				3rd	137
1985	Truesports Co.	March 85C	Cosworth DFX V8t	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	LAG	PHX	MIA					3rd	133
1986	Truesports Co.	March 86C	Cosworth DFX V8t	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	ROA	LAG	PHX	MIA			1st	179
1987	Truesports Co.	Lola T87/00	Cosworth DFX V8t	LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH	POC	ROA	MDO	NAZ	LAG	MIA					1st	188
1988	Truesports Co.	Lola T88/00	Judd AV V8t	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	MEA	MCH	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	MIA					3rd	136
1989	Kraco Racing	Lola T89/00	Cosworth DFS V8t	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG					9th	88
1990	Galles-Kraco Racing	Lola T90/00	Chevrolet 265A V8t	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG				4th	153
1991	Galles-Kraco Racing	Lola T91/00	Chevrolet 265A V8t	SRF	LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG			2nd	200
1992	Rahal-Hogan Racing	Lola T92/00	Chevrolet 265A V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	DET	POR	MIL	NHA	TOR	MCH	CLE	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LAG				1st	196
1993	Rahal-Hogan Racing	Rahal-Hogan RH-001	Chevrolet 265C V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY																4th	133
		Lola T93/00						MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	NHA	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LAG
1994	Rahal-Hogan Racing	Lola T94/00	Honda HRX V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH		MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	MDO	NHA	VAN	ROA	NAZ	LAG				10th	59
		Penske PC-22	Ilmor 265D V8t				INDY
1995	Rahal-Hogan Racing	Lola T95/00	Mercedes-Benz IC108B V8t	MIA	SRF	PHX	LBH	NAZ	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	ROA	TOR	CLE	MCH	MDO	NHA	VAN	LAG			3rd	128
1996	Team Rahal	Reynard 96i	Mercedes-Benz IC108C V8t	MIA	RIO	SRF	LBH	NAZ	500	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAG				7th	102
1997	Team Rahal	Reynard 97i	Ford XD V8t	MIA	SRF	LBH	NAZ	RIO	GAT	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAG	FON			12th	70
1998	Team Rahal	Reynard 98i	Ford XD V8t	MIA	MOT	LBH	NAZ	RIO	GAT	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAG	HOU	SRF	FON	10th	82

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
1982	March	Cosworth	17th	11th	Truesports
1983	March	Cosworth	6th	20th	Truesports
1984	March	Cosworth	18th	7th	Truesports
1985	March	Cosworth	3rd	27th	Truesports
1986	March	Cosworth	4th	1st	Truesports
1987	Lola	Cosworth	2nd	26th	Truesports
1988	Lola	Judd	19th	5th	Truesports
1989	Lola	Cosworth	7th	26th	Kraco
1990	Lola	Chevrolet	4th	2nd	Galles/Kraco
1991	Lola	Chevrolet	4th	19th	Galles/Kraco
1992	Lola	Chevrolet	10th	6th	Rahal/Hogan
1993	Rahal	Chevrolet	Failed to Qualify		Rahal/Hogan
1994	Penske	Ilmor	28th	3rd	Rahal/Hogan
1995	Lola	Ilmor-Mercedes	21st	3rd	Rahal/Hogan

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * - Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	NWCC	Pts
1984	Wood Brothers Racing	21	Ford	DAY	RCH	CAR	ATL	BRI	NWS	DAR	MAR	TAL	NSV	DOV	CLT	RSD	POC	MCH	DAY	NSV	POC	TAL	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	CLT	NWS	CAR	ATL	RSD	91st	43

[ Source: Wikipedia ]