AUSTIN, Texas – Potential Indy car racers of tomorrow had the chance to meet an NTT IndyCar Series star of today when Graham Rahal spoke to a group of nearly 100 U.S. Auto Club .25 National Series racers ages 5-16 at Circuit of The Americas on Friday night.
On Saturday, Rahal was honored as grand marshal for the quarter-midget race at COTA run in connection with the NTT IndyCar Series’ INDYCAR Classic weekend.
“It’s cool and actually I loved quarter-midgets, I loved it,” Rahal said. “I went down the go-kart-specific aspect, but I always tried to convince Dad (Rahal’s father and NTT IndyCar Series team co-owner Bobby Rahal) to get me a quarter-midget. I always enjoyed it. They have huge fields.”
“I think it is really cool what Danielle Frye (USAC series director) and USAC are doing getting them closer to INDYCAR. You are getting exposure to all the right categories and you can pick from there where you want to go after quarter-midgets.”
As the kids gathered around Rahal and his No. 15 TOTAL Honda in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing garage at COTA, he told the group, “Have fun. In anything you do in life, if you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. I hope you enjoy your time out here.”
Rahal, who turned 30 in January, reminded the children that it wasn’t that long ago that he was their age, beginning his racing career. He went on to become the youngest winner in Indy car history, capturing the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in 2008 when he was 19 years, 93 days old.
“One of our biggest jobs … is to get you guys in a position to one day take my job, to get the younger generation of drivers to want to be Indy car drivers someday,” Rahal said.
Rahal’s chief mechanic at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is Derek Davidson. From January 1996 to October 2003, Davidson raced in the USAC Sprint and Silver Crown series. He finished third in USAC National Sprint Car points three times in his career.
“It’s good to get the young fans involved again,” Davidson said. “I grew up watching Indy car racing, and now for these kids, it’s good to get up close to the Indy cars because Indy cars are pretty cool.
“This is what everybody dreams of – racing in the Indianapolis 500. That’s what these kids are trying to do.”
Rahal explained the intricate steering wheel he uses to the kids, going into great detail about the buttons and features available to him on it. He said it is essentially his dashboard, providing vital information and controls for the Dallara chassis and Honda engine.
Adam Krahn of Austin, Texas, is 16 and was the oldest driver in the USAC group.
“I want to be able to go on to other types of racing, like asphalt types of racing on big tracks,” Krahn said. “It’s cool that Colton Herta is just a few years older than me and he’s going to be running in the race on Sunday.
“I hope that’s me one day.”
The youngest driver in the USAC quarter-midget group was 5-year-old Kendall West.
“I want to drive that Indy car one day,” West said. “One day, I was practicing (the quarter-midget) and I wanted to do it 100 times.”
Children from as far away as Washington state and the eastern United States attended the gathering. Former NASCAR Cup champion Bobby Labonte, a quarter-midget alum himself, spent time with the kids on Friday at COTA.
“You want to give them experiences and this was a pretty cool experience,” said Danielle Frye, whose husband, Jay, is the president of INDYCAR and attended the event along with INDYCAR race steward Max Papis. “Most of these kids would never get a chance to come in here and see this and get to spend time with Graham Rahal.”
Rahal enjoyed his time giving back because he knows that the aspiring racers are the future of the sport.
“It’s cool to see these kids,” Rahal said. “They are all having fun racing around here, doing their thing in the quarter-midgets, watching some Indy car racing. It’s all good.
“As a series, you have to continue to connect with the grassroots and USAC racing is the grassroots.”