Rahal-Letterman to quit IRL unless a sponsor steps up
Click for a gallery of shots from the 2008 Detroit Grand Prix
Roger Penske once said "the quickest way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a large fortune." Bobby Rahal is a racer, but he's no fool, and he appears to be taking Penske's sage words to heart. Unless a company steps up in the next couple of months with a truck-load of cash, Rahal-Letterman Racing won't be fielding a car in the 2009 IRL season. Rahal has seen plenty of other teams soldier on without a sponsor over the years only to finish at the back of the pack (if they finish at all) until they go bust. Rahal doesn't plan to be in that spot now that the ethanol company that sponsored his IndyCar team has pulled out. He and his partner David Letterman want to run in IndyCar, but if no one steps up before the the season opener on April 5, they won't be fielding a team. Rahal is confident the crew can at least line up something for the Indy 500 and the firm plans to remain in business regardless of what happens on the IRL front. The team has operations in Indy Lights, Formula BMW Americas and its factory ALMS GT2 program with the new BMW M3.
Gallery: Detroit Grand Prix 08: IndyCars
[Source: TSN]
Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ken_aisin 9:04AM (1/30/2009)
Damn... even Letterman has to tighten his belt.... I guess we're really in recession this time....
Reply
Mobius_1 9:37AM (1/30/2009)
He could try to ask for a bailout...
ken_aisin 10:08AM (1/30/2009)
How about autoblog.com asks for a bail-out, and uses the bail-out money to sponsor the Rahal-Letterman team.
They can then rename the team as Rahal-Letterman@autoblog.com ;)
Soccer Mom 9:35AM (1/30/2009)
Indi cars looks like early '90s F1 vehicles. It is a Retro/Hand-me-down racing series?
Reply
slicecom 10:10AM (1/30/2009)
Early 90's F1 cars were nowhere near as hideous looking as current IRL cars.
pmiddle5 2:06PM (1/30/2009)
^^^ or slow
Mobius_1 9:37AM (1/30/2009)
I'll give you a dollar?
Reply