View Bobby Rahal and Buddy Rice
Bobby Rahal and Buddy Rice
By Gregg Leary
Category:Auto Racing -> Indy Car
In 1996, Dave Letterman became a “minority owner” in Team Rahal,
Dave knew Bobby since the 1986 Indy 500 win
Rahal won the Indy 500 in 1986
Won CART titles in 1986, 1987, 1992
Rahal/Hogan Racing formed in 1992…Bobby won the CART title as a rookie owner/driver in 1992
1993:Honda enters CART with Team Rahal
1994: After finishing 10th in points…Rahal drops Honda
Retired in 1998 as driver with 24 wins and 18 poles
1. Congratulations…Buddy Rice pockets the largest driver payday in the history of the Indy 500…$1.7 million. How does that relate to your payday when you won in 1986?
2. Buddy EARNED about $9800 per lap. Seeing some of the gutsy passes he made and how he handled the rain…I’ll bet you think he was UNDERPAID.
3. All three of your Rahal-Letterman cars finished in the Top Ten at Indy…and probably on Dave’s TOP TEN LIST. How surprising was Vitor Meira’s 6th and Roger Yasukawa’s 10th?
4. How did the Rahal-Letterman thing begin. (I heard that Dave had you on his show after your 1986 Indy win…and once when you were in New York you took him out to dinner and the friendship and love of racing took over. Dave became a “minority owner” in Team Rahal in 1996. Now that it’s Rahal-Letterman does that mean he wrote you a bigger check?)
5. Is picking up Eddie Cheever’s former driver Buddy Rice, SWEET REVENGE for Cheever bumping you from the Indy 500 in 1993?
6. Talk about coming full-circle with Honda…you left them in 1994…and 10 years later win the Indy 500 for them. Give us a Cliff Notes version of your relationship with Honda.
7. What did you see in Buddy Rice that other high-profile owners didn’t?