Travis Long’s four-year documentary project about NTT IndyCar Series team co-owner Bobby Rahal, which is set to debut Friday night on FOX Sports 1, is a racing-star-studded look at the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner.
And as that 40th anniversary of Rahal’s achievement approaches, son Graham Rahal—the veteran among the trio of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing—confessed to reporters during an NTT IndyCar Series press conference this week that “I’ve not seen it. I probably should have, but I have not. I’m just really interested to see what all they showcase. I’m very proud of him with everything that he’s been able to accomplish, not only in this sport, but as a father, as a businessman, as an entrepreneur.
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“I’m certainly very interested to see who’s in it. I know a lot of it, but I’m interested to see what’s said. I’m very proud of him in everything that he’s done. I’m excited about it,” the driver of the No. 15 Honda said as he took time from preparing for Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
He said, “A lot of what I do each and every day of my life is to strive to be like him: to build businesses, to do things outside of racing so that racing can continue for many years of my life to be a passion that I can be involved in after driving, which is exactly what he has done.”
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Courtney Force and Graham Rahal.
Graham Rahal, along with wife Courtney, has diverse business interests: a high-end performance automotive business specializing in the sale and servicing of elite street cars, a paint-protection service for luxury and performance vehicles, an automotive glass tinting company, two motorcycle dealerships, a Jaguar Land Rover store in Pennsylvania, a members-only social club and car storage facility, a fine-dining restaurant, interest in his father’s dealership network, and the Graham & Courtney Rahal Foundation that supports Turns For Troops/SoldierStrong and CSU’s One Cure.
“I’m very proud of him with everything that he’s been able to accomplish, not only in this sport.”
“Dad was such a methodical thinker and just such a great racer that he was able to have tremendous success,” the younger Rahal said. “One of my dad’s key highlights and key points, not only in life but in racing—and one of the greatest attributes of a lot of successful people—is the ability to surround yourself with other people that are extremely smart and successful, highlighting and finding the right people to put in the right places.
“You look at what he did early in his career at Rahal Hogan when they won the championship: obviously Adrian Newey. When you’ve got those people that you associate yourself and that you work with, you just don’t let them go.” He named longtime team executives Jimmy Prescott, Clay Filson, and Ricardo Nault, who have been with the Rahal family for 40 years or more. “They become part of the family,” he said.
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Bobby and Graham Rahal.
“I look at my dad’s business. If you look at the success of the car dealerships and hiring Ron Ferris to be the guy [CEO of Bobby Rahal Automotive Group], my dad has always been superb at having that eye. It’s something that most people don’t have a great eye for,” Graham Rahal said. “If you look at a lot of the most successful teams in racing, they all have that.”
He cited Roger Penske and Tim Cindric, Chip Ganassi with Mike Hull and Barry Wanser “and a lot of the great guys that they’ve had around that program,” and the Andretti team with J.F. Thormann.
“All the successful teams and businesses have are able to have that, and that’s where my dad was not only great on the racetrack, but great off. It’s led to a lot of his success in life for sure,” he said.
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Following in his father’s footsteps without an Indianapolis 500 victory isn’t an angst-ridden millstone in his life.
“I don’t think it’s been much of a burden for me. What I look at is when you look at all the people that have competed in the Indy 500, very few have ever won it. It’s just the reality. I don’t sit here and be disappointed in myself that 19 tries at Indy and I haven’t won it or whatever,” he said.
He has resigned himself to the notion that as far as public opinion goes regarding his own reputation, for a person in his position, “no matter what you do, it’s never going to be good enough. That’s the reality. I’m OK with that—if I’ve been blessed with one thing, I’ve been blessed with a mindset and the ability to block out a lot of this stuff. I do know there are a lot of drivers that that’s not the case. They get wound up. They see a comment or whatever.
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“You have to be able to mentally put all of that aside and stick to the plan, stick to the focus, and the reality is we’ve had a strong start to the year, and we’ve been fast in a lot of places. We’ve had some great results. I believe this weekend is an opportunity for us. That’s all I’m focused on,” Rahal said. “We’ll just keep pushing along, and everybody within my team knows my capabilities. And more importantly, go ask Will Power, go ask Scott Dixon, go ask all those guys that race wheel to wheel, I firmly believe that they would say very positive things about me, and those are the people and the opinions that matter. That’s all I really focus on.”
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Part of the catalyst for public conversation, he recognized, is the Internet and the information explosion today, in general.
“The accessibility of the fan today is a blessing, and it’s a curse. In my dad’s day, if they had a bad race, you weren’t going to hear anything about it because it was probably written in a newspaper and the reality was you weren’t ever going to see that newspaper. Today’s world is not that. Everybody has you at their fingertips.”
That just might be a blessing when it comes to the Bobby Rahal documentary.
Susan Wade has lived in the Seattle area for 40 years, but motorsports is in the Indianapolis native’s DNA. She has emerged as one of the leading drag-racing writers with nearly 30 seasons at the racetrack, focusing on the human-interest angle. She was the first non-NASCAR recipient of the prestigious Russ Catlin Award and has covered the sport for the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, and Seattle Times. She has contributed to Autoweek as a freelance writer since 2016.
