Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda Indy 200 – Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
IZOD IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, August 2, 2013
RAHAL AND JAKES CONTINUED TO WORK ON RACE SETUPS IN PREPARATION FOR THE HONDA INDY 200
FASTEST: Will Power 1:05.4332 / 124.231 mph
19th: Graham Rahal 1:06.2438 / 122.710 mph
21st: James Jakes 1:06.5809 / 122.089 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We got through a lot of work today. People have to remember that today is our test day because we didn’t get to run on Wednesday so we’re really a day behind everybody here. Obviously the track is pretty similar because the times are very similar to what they were on the test day. Unfortunately we’re just trying to come from behind a little bit here. It’s extremely competitive. With three minutes to go in the session I was ninth fastest and I ended up 18th. Obviously we have a bit of time to find to close the gap but we’re going to keep working on it here.”
JAMES JAKES, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “This morning was quite difficult. We were just trying to dial the car in really. We were slightly competitive in the test on Wednesday but we weren’t quite where we wanted to be so we were trying to make improvements and I think we have made some today. It doesn’t look well on the time sheets but we know what we’ve got underneath us. We still can make a few improvements but I’m pretty confident of getting in the top-10 and work from there. The session doesn’t really correlate to where we are competitive-wise. You’ve just got to be patient and work on it tomorrow.”
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT MID-OHIO… The Honda Indy 200 will mark the 16th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) here. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series race in 2003 with Danica Patrick and has competed in ALMS races here in 2007 and from 2009-2012. The highest IndyCar finish for the team here is two third place finishes (Rahal 1997, 1998) and the highest start is pole (Herta 1997). Another front row start came in 1999 (Herta; 2nd). Prior to the 2013 event, the team prepared a total of 24 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007-2008) and Takuma Sato (2012). The team has earned TWO podiums (3rd – Rahal 1997, 1998), 9 top-five’s and 13 top-10 finishes at the track. The No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires entry for Graham Rahal and No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts entry for James Jakes will bring the Indy car total to 26 entries in 2013.
NEXT UP: The final practice will take place from 10:30-11:15 a.m. ET tomorrow and qualifying will be 2:00-3:10 p.m. NBC Sports Network will air a qualifying recap at 5 p.m. ET Saturday, August 3. The 90-lap Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will take the Green Flag at 3:40 p.m. ET on Sunday and will be televised live on NBC Sports Network at 3:00. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com.
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