Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Barber Motorsports Park – OPEN TEST
IZOD IndyCar Series
TEST NOTES/QUOTES – Wednesday, March 13, 2013
JAKES COMPLETED HIS FIRST INDYCAR TEST WITH RLL AND ENDED 11TH OVERALL; RAHAL’S DAY ENDED EARLY AFTER ONLY 16 LAPS
11) James Jakes 1:07.8912 / 121.960 mph (9th in P4; ran 71 laps on Wedn)
17) Mike Conway 1:08.1584 / 121.482 mph (ran 42 laps on Tues only)
24) Graham Rahal 1:09.0141 / 119.975 mph (best lap was in P2 of 4; 54 laps on Tues, 16 Wedn)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Obviously we are disappointed that we didn’t get to run more but we had a little fuel supply issue in the engine. The engine is going to be fine but we have to ship it back to HPD and it cut our day short. At the end of the day, the key is to learn and we still have James in the other car and he is going to learn as much as he can. We’ll be alright when we come back here; we’re not worried about it. Certainly the test has been a trying one but we’re now switching our focus to the season opener in St. Pete. We’re ready to get back there, I can promise you that.”
FAST FACTS: Rahal, 24, will compete in his seventh season in a major open wheel series and his first full one with RLL. His highest series start is pole at St. Pete (2009; street) and Kansas (2009; oval) and his highest finish is a win in St. Pete (2008) in his IndyCar Series debut to make him the youngest winner in series history at 19 years, 93 days old.
JAMES JAKES, No, 16 Acorn Stairlifts car today): “It was nice to get back in the car. I haven’t driven since September of last year so today was a case of dusting off the cobwebs and learning how everyone works at the team. Mike did a great job with the car on the first day. It was pretty easy to drive really and you can’t ask for much more. It was a positive day and we will just keep working and hopefully we can carry on the momentum to St. Pete. Obviously Graham had a bad day but we managed to get a lot of work done so hopefully he can look at that and we can get both cars to the sharp end of the grid in St. Petersburg.”
FAST FACTS: Jakes, 25, will compete in his third season in the series and first with RLL. He made 31 Indy car starts with Dale Coyne Racing with a best finish of eighth at Toronto and a series-best start of eighth at Motegi.
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING… Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing begins their 22nd consecutive season of competition in 2013. This season marks the first time the team has prepared more than one fulltime entry for the full IZOD IndyCar Series season since 2007 when Scott Sharp and Jeff Simmons drove for the team. Simmons was replaced by Ryan Hunter-Reay for the final six of 17 races. The team entered cars in the Indy 500 each year since then and will prepare the No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires entry for Graham Rahal and the No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts entry for James Jakes for the full 2013 season and will enter the No. 17 blu eCigs entry for Mike Conway in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Conway drove the No. 16 car on Tuesday at Barber Motorsports Park (BMP) and Jakes will take over on Wednesday.
NEXT UP: The 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season opens with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg March 22-24.
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