Interview With Graham Rahal Part-2
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Apr 16, 2008
IndyCar
Question: You’ve gone to a lot of tracks with your dad; did you ever come up to Vancouver?
GRAHAM RAHAL: Absolutely. I was there many times, actually. I think that’s certainly a place that I miss going to and you know, it’s one of those things that it would be great to have that event back, because you know, you look at the successful venues and certainly Vancouver was a great event. Any time you’re in Canada, you get a huge following, and I think that’s obviously exciting.
Yeah I think I was there a couple of times and the most recent was when Danica [Patrick] was driving for my dad and she was in the I don’t know if was Barber Dodge then yeah. It was a few years ago, the last year of the race.
Question: Your dad’s second ever pro race was at a track that no longer exists here in the Atlantics; does every talk about those days, with Gilles Villeneuve?
GRAHAM RAHAL: Oh, yeah, he tries to tell me how great he was, because he raced against Gilles Villeneuve and all that type of stuff. Oh, yeah, I’ve heard all the stories.
It seems the thing about my dad is it seems that everywhere we go, whether it’s Edmonton or these places that you can never believe that he’s been before, he had some, you know, some race or some memories in the past of racing at a place near there, and you know, of course he talks about it quite often. His Atlantic days I know were some of his favorite.
Question: There’s been a lot said about the merger, but now that you’ve had time to drive the IRL car, is there anything that you hope to see somehow transferred from Champ Car that could make its way into the IRL, such as standing starts or push to pass; is there anything that you would like to see from the IRL?
GRAHAM RAHAL: I must say that driving the IRL car was certainly a pleasant surprise. I really did enjoy driving it. You know, obviously they have taken a lot of time to develop that car and there are things that that car has that I think, you know, the Champ Car could have benefited from and vice versa.
Of course, as a driver, you know, you always want more power, and I think Honda certainly, if anybody has got the ability to do it, they do, and it would be great to have their old turbo charged engines from the Champ Car days back.
At the same time, the speeds that we are seeing on the ovals in these cars already are extremely high, so to make it quicker would certainly be even more dangerous. I think over time, of course, it’s going to evolve, and I think that, you know, the biggest thing that I hope happens is that they get a tub that’s big enough for Justin and me, because I can certainly tell you, it’s tight in there and that’s the biggest thing.
But like I said, it was a very nice car to drive, and when it’s handling well, it reminds me a lot of, like I say, where the car was just really good and it just felt so smooth. And of course with a car like that, you know, it’s no secret it’s got less horsepower, so it’s more of a momentum car. You don’t drive it into the corner nearly as tough or as fast. So I think it reminds me a lot of an Atlantic car which I really enjoyed.
