Friday, May 22, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Oriol Servia and Bobby Rahal came agonizingly close to missing the Indianapolis 500.
The driver and team owner came together just in time to qualify for Sunday’s race. Servia, who made his first Indy start last May, spent the winter looking for work after a lack of sponsorship cost him his ride with KV Racing Technology, and Rahal had struggled to find a sponsor for open-wheel racing’s biggest race.
Rahal, whose Rahal Letterman Racing team won Indy with Buddy Rice in 2004 and introduced fan favorite Danica Patrick here in 2005, got DAFCA, a company that provides security against cyber terrorism and counterfeiting, on board just in time. And just two days before the final weekend of time trials, Servia finally got in the team’s No. 17 Dallara.
“It’s not ideal to do only the reduced program, especially when you’re not a team or a driver participating all season,” Servia said. “It had been six months I had not been in the car, and this is not an easy place.
“It’s a fast, fast place, and the car has to be right. Although I was excited and thought, ‘It’s going to be fine,’ there was a little bit of doubt inside of you how good it was going to be. But I promise you, on my second lap on the track I felt so relieved to finally be in a car after all these months and all the stress of trying to put a deal together, and the car felt just so great. I was the happiest man on earth.”
And he only got happier after qualifying the car for the 25th spot in the 33-car field.
With 20-year-old son Graham in the lineup for the second year, Rahal would have been at the race regardless. Still, he’d rather have more than a rooting interest.
“It’s nice having the car,” said Rahal, who won the 500 in 1986. “We’ve been here a long time now, and it would have been very strange to not be competing here.”
Having Servia, who made the transition to IndyCars last year when the Champ Car series was absorbed into the Indy Racing League, in the cockpit is a bonus.
“I didn’t want to just come here with a heartbeat in the car,” Rahal said. “I wanted to come here with someone I knew could be competitive, and there’s no question in my mind that Oriol can be competitive.”
Servia, who started 25th here last year and finished 11th, and Rahal believe they have a shot at a top-10 finish, and, with the right circumstances, a victory.
“I’m not going to say we’re as fast in pure speed as Graham or the front row or the second row or other teams,” Rahal said. “But the race is a different animal than qualifying. I know Oriol is pleased, and we’re pleased with the car in race configuration.
“Last year, Ryan [Hunter-Reay] started 20th and finished sixth [for RLR], and a couple of times I finished third and I was back where Oriol is. So it’s just a matter of having a good race car, a good balance to the car, having the right strategy and not making any mistakes. Sure, I think there is a possibility [of winning]. We’ll just have to stay on our toes.”
Servia likes his chances, too, especially with a veteran team such as RLR.
“You don’t understand how many times I dreamed of that final shootout after the last pit stop, being in the top five, top six, and just having in your head what you’re going to do the last 10 laps of the race to win this thing,” Servia said. “I hope we get ourselves in that position. Then it’s going to be up to me to make those last 10 laps the best of my life.”