Young Rahal wins first IRL race

Graham Rahal held off Helio Castroneves to make Bobby Rahal a proud papa.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — As the laps wound down and his fuel ran low Sunday on the streets of St. Petersburg, teenager Graham Rahal said he had only one thought: “Please, please come to an end.”

The son of longtime racer Bobby Rahal had come close to winning his first major open-wheel race several times last year as a rookie in the Champ Car World Series only to be disappointed.

Now, in his first race in the IRL IndyCar Series, Rahal was out front but being chased by Helio Castroneves, the winner of the last two races here and a guy who has been around long enough that he raced against Graham’s father, who retired in 1998.

“At the end of the race, with Helio behind me, I knew he has won a lot of races and has a lot of experience, but I knew we had the pace to beat him,” Rahal said, grinning happily after enjoying a victory celebration that, of course, included no champagne for the underaged driver. “I kept telling myself that.”

Rahal came back from a spinout early in the race to become the youngest winner in major open-wheel history. At 19 years, 93 days, Rahal, who grew up in New Albany, Ohio, a Columbus suburb, broke the age record set two years ago in Sonoma, Calif., by another driver from a racing family, Marco Andretti, who was 19 years, 167 days old.

The win was also a crowning moment for the former Champ Car teams that only last month became part of a unified American open-wheel series under the IRL banner.

With his father, co-owner of the rival Rahal Letterman Racing team, watching from the top of his team’s pit box, the younger Rahal, the top rookie in Champ Car in 2007, took the lead by passing Ryan Hunter-Reay, his father’s driver, on a restart on the 65th of 83 laps.

“It was tough after getting hit by Will [Power] and with the rain,” the winner said. “But we were pulling away from Helio while I was saving fuel. It’s not like we just lucked into one.”

The race was slowed by periods of rain and cut short of its scheduled 100 laps by a 2-hour time limit.

“He drove beautifully and, when he had to go fast, he did,” the elder Rahal said.

“I’m so proud of him. To come back and not get depressed after he got turned around by Will [Power], that was a great job.”

Polewinner Tony Kanaan, a former IRL champion, finished third, followed by newcomers Ernesto Viso and Enrique Bernoldi.