SEBRING, Fla. — Bobby Rahal is still searching for sponsorship for an IndyCar effort in 2009, but his team will keep busy, regardless, running all-new BMW M3 sports cars in the American Le Mans Series.
Rahal Letterman Racing, co-owned by late-night TV host David Letterman, has partnered with BMW of North America to race two of the redesigned M3s in the GT2 class for the full 10-race ALMS schedule, beginning with Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
“Most people associate me with IndyCars, but my background, the first five to seven years of my career, was in sports cars,” said Rahal, winner of the 1985 Indianapolis 500 and a three-time series champion. “I won here in ‘87 with a (Porsche) 962, so sports cars has always been a priority of mine, and all of our engineers have been involved in sports cars.”
Rahal said Friday he had been exploring a relationship with BMW for about three years before it finally came together last year.
Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen are co-driving one M3, while the other is shared by Tommy Milner and Dirk Muller. They qualified well back in the pack on Thursday.
“We’ve been reasonably competitive,” Rahal said. “It’s a new car. Some of these other cars are pretty well developed. To expect us to immediately be the fastest is perhaps a bit unrealistic, particularly at a place like this.
“For us here, my goal is to finish. That may sound a little underwhelming, but this is a very difficult race and, for a brand new car that’s never been run in anger in a race, I think finishing will be a victory in itself. … We don’t know where we quite add up. I think the Ferraris and Porsches are a bit quicker, but I think we just have to focus on ourselves and see where we end up.”
Dr. Mario Theissen, head of BMW’s worldwide motorsports program, said he agreed with Rahal.
“From our point of view, the season starts here, it doesn’t finish here,” Theissen said.
Rahal said the IndyCar team is still looking for sponsorship for 2009, or at least for a run in the Indianapolis 500 in May.
“I don’t want to just go there to be there,” Rahal said. “If we go, we want to have a competitive effort.”
The IndyCar Series opens at St. Petersburg on April 5.
ANNIVERSARY EVENT: Sebring International Raceway is the venue where Jack Brabham wrapped up the first of three Formula One championships on Dec. 12, 1959, with a memorable moment, pushing his Cooper-Climax T51 across the finish line four a fourth-place finish after it ran out of fuel.
Now 82, Brabham was not well enough to make the trip from his home in Australia to Sebring, but David Brabham, the youngest of his three sons, is here to race in Saturday’s 12-hour event and to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of his father’s first title.
David Brabham, who will co-drive a Patron Highcroft Racing Acura in the race, was scheduled to re-enact his father’s famous Sebring finish Friday. He also has driven a handful of laps in the same car in which his father won that 1959 championship.
“I have to say there’s so much emotion going on when I sit in that car, obviously because of the family value of it and the historic value,” Brabham said Friday. “It’s quite touching to be having this experience, to be able to drive it.”
BATTLING MALARIA: Patron Highcroft Racing and team owner Duncan Dayton have hooked up with Malaria No More, a nonprofit working to end malaria deaths in Africa by providing prevention and treatment tools, including lifesaving mosquito nets.
Dayton has pledged to donate $5 for every mile the team completes in the ALMS this season — about 4,500 miles are possible — with sponsor Tequila Patron adding another $5 per mile. Race fans can join in by visiting www.milestoendmalaria.org and pledging as little as 1 cent per mile.
A spokesman for Malaria No More said the disease kills one child in Africa every 30 seconds, but a $10 mosquito net can protect two children or a mother and a baby, reducing the spread of the disease and saving lives.
“Every mile we complete will be very important in achieving our goal of challenging for the championship, but now every mile will be even more vital,” Dayton said.
The season begins Saturday with David Brabham, Scott Sharp and former Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti co-driving the team’s new Acura ARX 02a prototype.
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