Rahal Letterman calls it quits

[pchall]

Without the American ethanol deal there are no present plans for 2009 IRL season entry citing lack of sponsorship. What, couldn't Booby get any of the millions that the IRL said would be pumped into the series by the Brazilian ethanol deal? So much for fielding an American driver in the series that races at Indy. ;)

With the big hedge in the Rahal quote I'd say this is really a plea for :tony:¥¥¥. Probably the first of many.

indyscar link (http://www.indystar.com/article/20090129/SPORTS0107/901290455/1217)



Rahal Letterman Racing has pulled out of the 2009 IndyCar Series because it cannot find a sponsor to support its program.

RLR becomes the latest racing team to be affected by the reeling economy. The team won the Indianapolis 500 with Buddy Rice in 2004 and brought Danica Patrick to the IndyCar Series.

"[B]At this time Rahal Letterman will not be in the IRL in 2009," team co-owner Bobby Rahal told The Associated Press in an e-mail today.

The team, which ran one car for American driver Ryan Hunter-Reay last season and won the race last July at Watkins Glen, will continue to seek sponsorship. RLR will concentrate on its sports car alliance with BMW in the American Le Mans Series.

Rahal Letterman Racing has pulled out of the 2009 IndyCar Series because it cannot find a sponsor to support its program.

RLR becomes the latest racing team to be affected by the reeling economy. The team won the Indianapolis 500 with Buddy Rice in 2004 and brought Danica Patrick to the IndyCar Series.

[dando]

:eek:

33 is just a number and this May is going to prove that. :shakehead

-Kevin

[patski]

Great News! Just the start I hope.

[Methanolandbrats]

Great News! Just the start I hope.:thumbup:

[Don Quixote]

yep :thumbup:
I love how his legacy is defined by bringing the princess into the league.

[Andrew Longman]

While I appreciate the Schadenfreude, this is not some Carmello team folding. This is a multi times series champ and I500 winner with a long history of handling the business end of racing successfully and he is calling it quits.

This is sad and an embarrassment for the league and shows just how screwed up things are.

But at this point that pretty much what knowledgeable fans who feel they've been screwed by the PTB want.

But it is still sad.

[Michaelhatesfans]

I predict that they will be on the grid but it will be Tony's money, not Honda's. I think Honda's just about had enough of this crap.

[Methanolandbrats]

For there to be any chance of real racing to emerge from this disaster, the IRL must die. RL racing is not folding, they are running in the ALMS. The only sad aspect of this is that :tony: and the :gomer::gomer::gomer: will blame it on the "economy" when in reality, nobody in business would GAF about the IRL anyway.

[Chief]

DAMN! If he hadn't hired foreigners BUDDY RICE or RYAN HUNTER-REAY or PAUL DANA this wouldn't have happened.

WOW, economy TRUMPS Indy 500? Darn....FTG musta knew all this when he saved AOW.:thumbup:

[Sean Malone]

I got the feeling that Bobby didn't like competing against his son last year. Coupled with having to get sponsorship for a dieing spec racing series in this economy....easy decision.

[dando]

Funny part in all of this is that Rahole took his stock $$$ and built a brand new shop over in Hillyards, and now they're running one car out of a huge shop. Karma's a bitch, yo.

-Kevin

[SurfaceUnits]

they still list 26 car/drivers

[TravelGal]

So long. See ya down the Rathole.

[pchall]

Funny part in all of this is that Rahole took his stock $$$ and built a brand new shop over in Hillyards, and now they're running one car out of a huge shop. Karma's a bitch, yo.

-Kevin

That place has bays for preparing eight cars, a shock development section, and the ability to fabricate new bodywork and aero bits. Conference rooms and offices and display space. Not to mention two indoor loading docks where they just back in the transporters and lots of space for odd little things like a GT40 MkII, a Porsche 907 and other stuff Rahal used to keep in the barn. And now he's down to running a one car ALMS GT operation.

[Ray Scar]

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.....:D

[trish]

:D

[pchall]

Another good quote from Booby, this time at autosport (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73057) :


"Let's face it, the economy is such that people are being awfully careful with their money," Rahal said. "The environment is not good and we're being affected by it.

"To be honest, unless pennies from heaven fall in our lap, I don't see, at this stage, getting the appropriate level of funding to put forth a good, competitive effort for the season. Indy is a whole different animal, but we don't want to just be there. We want to be competitive."

And an attribution to IRL spokesman John Griffin in another AP wire story (http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports/motor_sports/article/RAHAGAT29_20090129-174811/192524/) :


Griffin said the IndyCar car count right now, excluding RLR, stands at 18.

[stroker]

So if YEN falls in his lap that's no good? It has to be pennies?

[pchall]

So if YEN falls in his lap that's no good? It has to be pennies?

Wow, the ¥ is now trading higher than a penny.

1 JPY = 0.0111759 USD

When I lived there as a kid I remember it was trading 400+ to the dollar.

[Methanolandbrats]

I just fired up my crystal ball and I predict Honda will find a way to bail. :thumbup:

[chop456]

I just fired up my crystal ball and I predict Honda will find a way to bail. :thumbup:
I hope they repo all their engines the morning of 5/24. :thumbup:

It's gotta' kill Bob to see his kid twirling around in one of those lumbar rearrangers.

[SurfaceUnits]

Earlier on Friday, Honda Motor Co warned for the fourth time this year it would not meet its annual profit target, while a source at Toyota said the industry leader would likely exceed its forecast operating loss of 150 billion yen.


In Japan, rising unemployment, slowing household spending and a dim industrial outlook added to investors' fears that Japan was flirting with deflation and would post a horror fourth-quarter GDP figure.

Japan's biggest electronics maker, Hitachi, warned on Friday it faced the biggest ever annual loss by a Japanese manufacturer while chipmaker NEC announced 20,000 job cuts, the biggest cutback in Asia since the financial crisis began.

Japan's quarterly GDP data, due in February, are expected to show its economy fell at a double-digit rate.

Industrial production fell a record 9.6 percent in December, with companies cutting output of cars, electronics and machinery while annual core inflation slowed to 0.2 percent.

"The sales environment is changing faster than we were able to predict," Honda Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo told a news conference, noting that four profit warnings in a single year was probably unprecedented in Honda's history.

"We don't expect conditions in the U.S. to improve in the first half of next year, and we can only hope they will start to recover in the second half," he added.

[Andrew Longman]

I just fired up my crystal ball and I predict Honda will find a way to bail. :thumbup:

At this point I don't think Honda is actually in for that much. For the last few years I don't think they have been supporting teams in any big way, except through sponsorships with a few of their supplier/partners - XM, Motorola (which kept Danica in the series), etc.

They lease engines, probably at about cost, and get to slap their sticker on the airbox. Even their media buys around the IRL have bee n pretty modest. I think I've seen more from Acura/ALMS, but maybe that's me.

Point is, I don't think they would get to the point of saying they would take money for engines, but there isn't much else they are doing anyway. JMO

[TKGAngel]

At this point I don't think Honda is actually in for that much. For the last few years I don't think they have been supporting teams in any big way, except through sponsorships with a few of their supplier/partners - XM, Motorola (which kept Danica in the series), etc.


Speaking of XM, has their merger with Sirius affected their "sponsorship" with AGR?

I noticed that every time I saw Bobby on screen last season he was in or near the NHL pits. It was very strange, especially since he had his own team to deal with.

[SurfaceUnits]

Another forem member reports:
KV just had a team meeting before lunch today and let half of the team go. Sad times.
So a one car effort?

[Gnam]

Is KV's driver, Mario Moraes, linked to the Brazilian ethanol deal?

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090112/SPORTS01/90112039/1052

[SurfaceUnits]

indycar magazine calls it quits

[Lux Interior]

indycar magazine calls it quits

There's an Indycar magazine? :saywhat:

[SurfaceUnits]

There's an Indycar magazine? :saywhat:

same reaction you'll get when TOney pulls the plug on the IRL and teaches all us haters a good lesson

[Don Quixote]

There's an Indycar magazine? :saywhat: Another tree falling in the woods with nobody there to hear it.

[Indy]

Bobby has done more for this f---ing series than anyone.

[pchall]

Bobby has done more for this f---ing series than anyone.

Actually, Rahal putting the Princess Permapout into a car has done more to doom the IRL than anything else. When they decided to ride their one trick pony as their media star they were really killing any coverage or interest in talented drivers or good racing.

This thread should be renamed as "The IRL Death Watch" and stickied to the top. The way things are going the field at St. Petersburgh will consist of two yellow Coynemobiles with Sonny's BBQ on the sidepods. But at least Dale will get a win at the end.

[Methanolandbrats]

Bobby has done more for this f---ing series than anyone.
Bobby has "done" just about anything that crossed his path.

[Indy]

Maybe I am drunk, but I am enjoying the hell out of all this. Really, I can assure you that my joy is genuine. I simply can not contain my mirth. :laugh:

[SurfaceUnits]

and they have no one else to blame it on, that's the best part, going down on their own crappiness

[G.]

Bobby has done more for this f---ing series than anyone.
How would YOU know? Did he tell you this hisself?


:laugh:

[stroker]

How would YOU know? Did he tell you this hisself?


:laugh:

That's a story I believe Chief can tell you about. Like Indy, it's also the first thing I thought of when I heard the story about Rahal.

[Chief]

OK, the question is:

HOW did any of these guys NOT make it in BIG TIME IRL prosperous times?

-Cory Witherall
-George Mack

[Don Quixote]

Bobby has done more for this f---ing series than anyone.

:laugh: (picture taken from CCF, and Indy's classic rahal confrontation thread)

http://www.champcarfanatics.com/photopost/data/500/Rahole.gif

[Chief]

^ It was epic:rofl:

BTW, does anyone know what happened to Murph? Ultra-critical of CARt, he left to pursue IRL dreams with Honda's blessing. I believe last heard he was outted from the IRL radio team. I'd love to hear his perspective now....

[TKGAngel]

indycar magazine calls it quits

I wonder if they killed just the print edition or both the print/digital versions? Links to subscribe to both are still posted on the IRL site.

[Don Quixote]

BTW, does anyone know what happened to Murph?
I think I read that he was working for one of the teams.

[SurfaceUnits]

Both - dedder than open wheel racing at Nazareth. They are leaving the website up for a while so both gomers who care can download all the photoshopped pics they need to prove some nascent point on some obscure web forum

there goes bob's chance to run one of them VW engines

[mueber]

I have to admit that in spite of trying to adopt a WGAF attitude toward the IRL, I snickered a bit when I heard this.

[SurfaceUnits]

doesn't Bob know there are a half dozen engine manufacturers soon to join the League?

[eiregosod]

3 time CART champion and Indy 500 winner.

most famous for discovering Danica Patrick.

[Methanolandbrats]

Never mind I"ll save the mods some work.

[TravelGal]

Never mind I"ll save the mods some work.

I wonder if you're thinking what I'm thinking about Indy's F----ing comment. If I could just rearrange a few words.....

Yah, that's probably what he meant in the first place.

[Hesketh]

While I appreciate the Schadenfreude, this is not some Carmello team folding. This is a multi times series champ and I500 winner with a long history of handling the business end of racing successfully and he is calling it quits.

This is sad and an embarrassment for the league and shows just how screwed up things are.

But at this point that pretty much what knowledgeable fans who feel they've been screwed by the PTB want.

But it is still sad.



Mixed feelings. I was there in the glory days of Truesports and guess I always consider Rahal's team the inheritor of that history. But I was also there when Bobby sold us out at Texas (among other deals).

Above all, I suppose it just underscores the end of an era, the changing tide of American open wheel racing. And that, above all, makes me sad.

[SurfaceUnits]

the only thing that would bring any popularity to open wheel racing would be a Vagina Monocoques all grrls league. :(