If there ever were a poster boy for the old expression “What a difference a day makes,” it would be IndyCar driver Graham Rahal.
Rahal crashed on lap 5 and finished last in the 23-car field in Saturday’s 2015 Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit No. 1 at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park.
A little over 24 hours later, thanks in part to rain, an abrupt rules change cutting the race from a distance event to a timed event, and enough wrecks and mayhem to fill a junkyard, Rahal earned his third podium finish of the 2015 season with a third-place showing in the Dual at Detroit No. 2.
“It helps a lot,” Rahal said of Sunday’s bounce back. “I mean, (Saturday) was brutal. That’s the nice thing about this doubleheader.
“We reversed our roles from last year. Last year had a good first day, bad second. At least this time, you know, I’m leaving here … on a good note.
“I’m happy with how it all went. I wish (Saturday) was a little better, but this definitely eases the pain. I think this is our third podium in the last four weekends, third in the last five races. Feels really good.”
The son of former Indianapolis 500 winner and CART champion Bobby Rahal, Graham is off to the best season start of his IndyCar career.
In 2015’s first eight races, the younger Rahal has two runner-up finishes, Sunday’s third-place showing, and four other finishes between 5th and 11th.
The 26-year-old’s average finish in 2015 is a career-high 8.1 thus far.
His Saturday finish has been the lone aberration thus far this season.
“Like I said, I’m just proud of my guys because they’re making my life a lot easier this year,” Rahal said. “They’re doing a great job in the pits, keep fighting hard. We’re up there with the big boys now. Got to make sure we’re good at everything.”
He’s also up to fourth in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings, trailing points leader Juan Pablo Montoya – who has been No. 1 since winning the season-opening race at St. Petersburg – by 69 points.
But Rahal is just six points behind third-ranked Scott Dixon, one point ahead of fifth-ranked Helio Castroneves and leads Sunday’s winner, Sebastien Bourdais, by 17 points.
“We’re just going to keep fighting,” said Rahal, whose best single season in IndyCar racing has been seventh in 2009. “We can hang with these guys. We just got to keep working hard and we’ll be there.”
But Rahal could have finished second or maybe even won the race had it not been for a costly blocking penalty that set him back from third to fourth – behind eventual winner Sebastien Bourdais, Juan Pablo Montoya and eventual runner-up Takuma Sato – while under caution on Lap 59.
“On the penalty side of things, obviously it’s extremely frustrating,” Rahal said. “I look at the incident (Saturday), all the avoidable contact that happened there. I got penalized for the same thing in St. Pete, and here nobody gets anything.
“It’s just very frustrating. I think we need to keep reviewing that, obviously work on it. But there’s just nothing you can do. When you’re in the car, you have to fight as hard as you can. I knew it would be hard here to get back by (Sato). But I’m pleased to be here on the podium.”
And even though he’s had an excellent first half of the season, there are still eight more races remaining, including Saturday night’s Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. There’s no way Rahal is taking anything for granted or letting up now.
“We’re only halfway done, man,” said Rahal, who only has one IndyCar win to date (St. Petersburg, 2008), but is hoping that changes in the remaining eight races, starting Saturday night. “Got a lot of work to do.”
(Editor’s note: This story on the Heart of Racing sports cars shootout for women is one in an occasional Motorsports Talk series focusing on women in racing during March, which is Women’s History Month.)
Heart of Racing driver and team manager Ian James says his daughter, Gabby, isn’t so interested in auto racing. But she is interested (as a New York-based journalist) in writing about the sport’s efforts and growth in gender equality
It’s a topic that also was brought up by James’ wife, Kim.
“They’re always saying, ‘Hey, you manage all these guys, and you help them, so why not a woman?’ ” Ian James told NBC Sports. “And I feel like there are a lot of women that haven’t had a fair crack at it in sports car racing.
“Our whole DNA at Heart of Racing is we give people opportunities in all types of situations where there’s been crew personnel or drivers. And I felt like we hadn’t really addressed the female driver situation. I felt like there was a void to give somebody a chance to really prove themselves.”
During the offseason, the team took a major step toward remedying that.
Hannah Grisham at the Heart of Racing shootout (Mike Levitt/LAT)
Heart of Racing held its first female driver shootout last November at the APEX Motor Club in Phoenix, Arizona, to select two women who will co-drive an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in the SRO SprintX Championship.
The season will begin this weekend at Sonoma Raceway with Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt behind the wheel. The team also picked a third driver, 17-year-old Annie Rhule, for a 2023 testing program.
The Phoenix audition included 10 finalists who were selected from 130 applicants to the program, which has been fully underwritten by Heart of Racing’s sponsors.
“We didn’t want it to be someone who just comes from a socio-economic background that could afford to do it on their own course,” James said. “We can pick on pure talent. We’re committed to three years to do this and see if we can find the right person. I’m very hopeful.”
So is Grisham, a Southern California native who has been racing since she was 6 in go-karts and since has won championships in Mazda and Miata ladder series. She has several victories in the World Racing League GP2 (an amateur sports car endurance series). The last two years, Grisham has worked as a test driver for the Pirelli tire company (she lives near Pirelli’s U.S. headquarters in Rome, Georgia, and tests about 30 times a year).
Starting with the Sonoma during SprintX event weekends (which feature races Saturday and Sunday), she will split the Heart of Racing car with O’Meara-Hunt (a New Zealand native she got to know at the shootout).
“It’s huge; the biggest opportunity I’ve had in this sport,” Grisham, 23, told NBC Sports. “Now it’s up to me to perform how I know I can. But I’m super lucky to be with such an amazing team and have a good teammate. The Heart of Racing has a family vibe and energy to it that’s really amazing. It’s super exciting. It’s hard to put into words.”
Grisham is hopeful that a strong performance eventually could lead to a full-time ride with Heart of Racing. The team has full-time entries in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and won the GTD category of the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona with the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 piloted by James, Darren Turner, Roman DeAngelis and Marco Sorensen.
James said “there’s no guarantee” of placement in an IMSA entry for Grisham and O’Meara-Hunt, but “if they prove themselves, we’ll continue to help them throughout their career and our team. The GT3 program is an obvious home for that. If they get the opportunity and don’t quite make it, we’ll be looking for the next two. The next three years, we’ll cycle through drivers until we find the right one.”
Grisham described the two-day shootout as a friendly but intense environment. After a day of getting acclimated to their cars, drivers qualified on new tires the second day and then did two 25-minute stints to simulate a race.
Hannah Grisham reviews data with Heart of Racing sports car driver Gray Newell during the team’s shootout last November (Mike Levitt/LAT).
“Everyone was super nice,” she said. “Once everyone gets in the car, it’s a different level. A different switch gets turned on. Everyone was super nice; everyone was quick. I feel we had an adequate amount of seat time, which is definitely helpful.
“It’s always cool to meet more women in the sport because there’s not too many of us, even though there’s more and more. It’s always cool to meet really talented women, especially there were so many from all over the world.”
IMSA has celebrated female champions and race winners, notably Katherine Legge (who is running GTD full time this season with Sheena Monk for Gradient Racing). The field at Sebring and Daytona also included the Iron Dames Lamborghini (a female-dominated team).
The Heart of Racing’s female driver shootout drew interested candidates from around the world (Mike Levitt/LAT).
James believes “a breakout female driver will be competing with the best of them” in the next five years as gender barriers slowly recede in motorsports.
“It’s been a male-dominated sport,” James said. “It’s still a very minute number of women drivers compared to the guys. I’m sure back in the day there were physical hurdles about it that were judged. But now the cars are not very physical to drive, and it’s more about technique and mental strength and stuff like that, and there’s no reason a girl shouldn’t do just as well as a guy. What we’re just trying to achieve is that there isn’t an obvious barrier to saying ‘Hey, I can’t hire a guy or a girl.’ We just want to put girls in front of people and our own program that are legitimate choices going forward for people.”
“There’s been some really good female drivers, but a lot of them just haven’t been able to sustain it, and a lot of that comes from sponsorship. I think (with the shootout), there’s no pressure of raising money and worrying about crash damage. We’ve taken care of all that so they can really focus on the job at hand.”
Funding always has been a hurdle for Grisham, who caught the racing bug from her father, Tom, an off-road driver who raced the Baja 1000 several times.
“I don’t come from a lot of money by any means,” she said. “So since a young age, I’ve always had to find sponsorships and get people to help me, whether it was buying tires, paying for entry fees, paying for the shipment of a car to an actual race. Literally knocking on the doors of people or businesses in my town.
“So yeah, it’s definitely something I’ve always struggled with and held me back because the sport revolves so much around money. So again to get this opportunity is insane.”
Rianna O’Meara-Hunt was one of two women selected by the Heart of Racing to drive in the SRO SprintX Championship this year (Mike Levitt/LAT).
Grisham credits racing pioneer Lyn St. James (an Indy 500 veteran and sports car champion) as a role model who has helped propel her career. She was hooked by the sights, smells and sounds of racing but also its competitive fire.
“There’s a zone you get in, that subconscious state of mind when you’re driving. It’s like addictive almost. I love it. Also I’m just a very competitive person as I think most race car drivers are.
“For sure I want to stay with the Heart of Racing. Obviously, I’m still getting to know everyone, but it’s a super family vibe. That’s how I grew up in the sport with just my dad and I wrenching on the cars. That’s what I love about this sport is all the amazing people you meet. And I think this is one of the most promising teams in this country. For sure, I want to learn as much as I can from them and hopefully continue. I feel so lucky and grateful to be one of those chosen.”
