RLL reloads on engineering strength - MotorSportsTalk

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has more new engineers for its pair of programs in 2015 in the Verizon IndyCar Series and TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

While Bill Pappas, John Dick and Mitch Davis have moved on, taking on new roles or joining the squad are Uwe Wolf, Mike Talbott and Martin Pare.

Wolf will be starting his ninth season with the team over two employment terms and has been promoted to race engineer for the TUDOR program, of which further details should be announced later this offseason.

On the IndyCar side, Talbott and Pare have both worked with driver Graham Rahal before and are now reunited. Talbott was most recently senior trackside engineer with Wirth Research in support of Honda Performance Development’s IndyCar program and worked with Rahal at Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (NHLR) in 2008, while Pare was Rahal’s race engineer at NHLR from 2009-2010 and at Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011-2012.

Talbott will lead the vehicle dynamics program and Pare has joined the team as head of the vehicle ride control development program.

Rahal is widely regarded as having had his best success with Pare in the NHLR years.

“I’m very pleased to elevate Uwe to the role of race engineer” Bobby Rahal, co-owner of RLL with David Letterman and Mike Lanigan, said in a team release. “Uwe has been with the company for many years and has spearheaded our damper program on the sports car side and also the Indy car side so it’s great seeing him in this new position that he has certainly earned. We look forward to great things from him.”

“We’re really pleased to bring Mike and Martin into the Indy car team,” he added. “Mike has a long, successful history in motorsports at Newman/Haas Racing and others previous to his role at Wirth Research. He brings a lot of value to the team as does Martin, who engineered Graham for nearly four years at Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and Ganassi. Martin brings a wealth of experience and knowledge that can certainly help the performance of the team. Overall I think these are three great appointments that will help us to move to the front of the grid.”

Rahal slipped from 18th to 19th in the points standings this season, but the stats were a bit misleading as his season was better than the results indicated.

Follow @TonyDiZinno

With three multiple winners now vying for the championship, the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series heads to Round 11 at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington.

Chase Sexton earned his second victory of the season in Detroit when Aaron Plessinger fell on the final lap. Though he was penalized seven points for disobeying a flag, Sexton is third in the championship race. The Honda rider trails leader Cooper Webb (two victories) by 17 points, and defending series champion Eli Tomac (five wins) is three points behind Webb in second with seven races remaining.

Tomac won last year in Seattle on the way to his second season title.

Honda riders have a Supercross-leading 20 victories in the Seattle event but none at Lumen Field since Justin Barcia in 2013. Tomac and Barcia are the only past 450 Seattke winners entered in Saturday’s event.

Here are the pertinent details for watching Round 11 of the 2023 Supercross season in Seattle:

(All times are ET)

BROADCAST/STREAMING SCHEDULE: TV coverage of Round 11 will begin Saturday at 10 p.m. ET streaming on Peacock with a re-air Monday at 1 a.m. ET on CNBC. The Race Day Live show (including qualifying) will begin on Peacock at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

NBC Sports will have exclusive live coverage of races, qualifiers and heats for the record 31 events in SuperMotocross. The main events will be presented on Peacock, NBC, USA Network, CNBC, and NBC Sports digital platforms.

Peacock will become the home of the SuperMotocross World Championship series in 2023 with live coverage of all races, qualifying, and heats from January to October. There will be 23 races livestreamed exclusively on Peacock, including a SuperMotocross World Championship Playoff event. The platform also will provide on-demand replays of every race. Click here for the full schedule.

POINTS STANDINGS: 450 division l 250 division

ENTRY LISTS: 450 division l 250 division

EVENT SCHEDULE (all times ET):

Here are the start times for Saturday’s Supercross Round 11 in Seattle, according to the Monster Energy Supercross schedule from the AMA:

4:50 p.m.: 250SX Group B Qualifying 1
5:05 p.m.: 250SX Group A Qualifying 1
5:20 p.m.: 450SX Group A Qualifying 1
5:35 p.m.: 450SX Group B Qualifying 1
6:25 p.m.: 250SX Group B Qualifying 2
6:40 p.m.: 250SX Group A Qualifying 2
7:55 p.m.: 450SX Group A Qualifying 2
8:10 p.m.: 450SX Group B Qualifying 2
10:06 p.m.: 250SX Heat 1
10:20 p.m.: 250SX Heat 2
10:34 p.m.: 450SX Heat 1
10:48 p.m.: 450SX Heat 2
11:22 p.m.: 250SX Last Chance Qualifier
11:34 p.m.: 450SX Last Chance Qualifier
11:54 p.m.: 250SX Main Event
12:28 a.m.: 450SX Main Event