SEBRING, Fla. -- Stints in a BMW Team RLL car during the 53rd Rolex 24 At Daytona temporarily whetted Graham Rahal's competitive appetite.
For the second year in a row, Rahal co-drove a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry, placing fourth in the GT Le Mans class (24 laps back after an accident just past the nine-hour mark cost the team 29 laps) on Jan. 24-25.
On Feb. 3-4, Rahal will begin on-track preparations for his third Verizon IndyCar Series season in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.
“Now it’s going to get busy over the next few weeks. It’s going to be tough because you have to try to balance what you do with mechanical work versus aero once we get the aero kits on these cars,” said Rahal, 26, who recorded a podium finish at Belle Isle 1 (advancing seven positions from his qualifying spot) among four top-10 finishes overall last season. “All in all, now it’s as much about tuning the cars as it is getting used to each other and working together.
“(Head of vehicle ride control development) Martin Pare has done a lot of great work for us already, and I can’t wait to work with (race engineer) Eddie (Jones). He’s the right personality type; someone who is pretty low key yet very competitive as I am. I think he and I will work well together.”
They worked together for the first time Nov. 10 during a test session at Barber Motorsports Park. The aerodynamic bodywork road/street and short oval bodywork kit supplied by Chevrolet and Honda will make their competition debut March 27-29 at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
“It’s exciting times at our team and I’m ready to get out there and give it a shot,” Rahal said.
Also scheduled to be on the track are Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (James Hinchcliffe and Conor Daly, who is auditioning for a ride), Andretti Autosport (Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Carlos Munoz), and CFH Racing (Josef Newgarden and new teammate Luca Filippi).
Filippi was named last week to drive the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Award Winning Vodka car on the road/street courses. Team co-owner Ed Carpenter will drive in the six oval races.
“It’s great for the new group that we’ll get back to working and have a couple of busy weeks at the track,” Newgarden said. “It’s the best way to get everyone gelling. I think that’s what everyone is excited for. Aside from that, running two cars again at more and more tests to figure out how to make that work well and use the most of it. We’ll be focusing on is trying to maximize a two-car program for us.”