Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing – 21st Season
Pre-Race Notes
Round 8 of 16 in the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series
DATE: June 15-16, 2012
QUALIFYING BROADCAST: LIVE on www.indycar.com (timing & scoring with audio commentary)
RACE BROADCAST: Live on Saturday, June 16 at 1 p.m. ET on ABC
RADIO BROADCAST: The race will air on IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM (XM 94 & Sirius 212)
TRACK LAYOUT: 1-mile oval
RACE LENGTH: 225 laps / 225 miles
2011 WINNER: Dario Franchitti
2011 POLESITTER: Dario Franchitti (170.841 mph avg.)
SATO’S HIGHEST
OVAL START: Pole at
SATO’S HIGHEST
OVAL FINISH: Fifth at
SATO AT
RLL’S TOP START/
FINISH AT MILWAUKEE: 3 poles (Rahal ’99, Brack ’01, Meira ‘04) / 2 wins (Brack ’01, Jourdain Jr. ’03)
NEWS & NOTES:
2 WINS, 3 POLES, 4 PODIUMS & 4 FRONT ROW STARTS AT
The Milwaukee IndyFest will mark the 18th time for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) to compete at the legendary Milwaukee Mile oval. The team competed in CART/Champ Car races here from 1992-2003 and in IndyCar Series events from 2004-2008 but did not compete in the 2009 and 2011 events.
The team won here twice (Kenny Brack 2001 & Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003), started from pole three times (Bobby Rahal 1999, Kenny Brack 2001, Vitor Meira 2004), made four front row starts (2nd – Jourdain Jr. 2003) and earned four podiums (2nd: Rahal 2004, Rice 2004). Prior to the 2012 Milwaukee event, the team prepared a total of 33 entries for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1993-94), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Kenny Brack (2000-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03), Buddy Rice (2004-06), Vitor Meira (2004-05), Danica Patrick (2005-06), Jeff Simmons (2006-07), Scott Sharp (2007), and Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008). The team has earned 10 top-five finishes and 19 top-10s at the track. The No. 15 entry for
SATO ON GETTING BACK ON THE LEAD LAP TO FINISH EIGHTH IN HIS LONE START HERE
Takuma raced at the legendary Milwaukee Mile in 2011 where he started fifth and finished eighth. “It was a tough, long race but I enjoyed it a lot,” recalled Sato. “I was able to run a good pace at the beginning of the race but during the pit stop I got tangled up getting into the pit box so I got a drive through penalty, which put me at the back of the field and down a lap, but over the next two caution yellows I managed to get my lap back and I fought my way back into the top-10. There was a non-stop battle and racing the whole field all the time and that was an exciting weekend.”
SATO ON THE CHALLENGES OF THE
“It is a very challenging track simply because there is no banking to help the car so the driver has to work very hard to turn and really needs to drive the car. Overtaking is not easy but still it’s doable so it seems always nose to tail racing here. Also you cannot go through the corner flat (on the accelerator) so that makes it naturally very challenging. Qualifying could be just flat or very close to do it.”
SATO ON THE TYPE OF RACING HE EXPECTS AT THE THIRD OVAL OF THE SEASON
“Indianapolis was the fastest aero package and Texas we were close to the drag level but had reduced downforce and these tracks are very different types of ovals but both races had a lot of action so Milwaukee, where we will have significant increase of downforce as we use the road course wings, brings good expectations for exciting race as there is always very close racing here.”
RLL HOPES TO AGAIN CONTEND FOR THE WIN IN THE THIRD OVAL RACE OF THE SEASON
Sato has run well in the other two oval races run so far in the 2012 season. At the Indy 500 on May 27, Takuma led the third most laps at 31. He pulled alongside eventual winner Dario Franchitti in Turn 1 on the final lap to take the lead but lack of traction led to a crash and he finished 17th. He earned his best qualifying position of the season of 10th at Texas Motor Speedway but was assessed a 10-grid penalty for an unapproved engine change. He charged into sixth from 20th place but lost control of his race car on Lap 64 of 228 and retired in 22nd place.
SATO’S SEASON TO DATE
Sato has run competitively in all races to date this season although his 15th place rank in series standings with a total of 124 points does not reflect that performance. He is only 32 points from a top-10 rank (10th:
SATO ON PROS / CONS OF HIS SEASON AT THE HALFWAY POINT
“Already halfway?! I didn't think we have gone that much into the season! I think we showed really good performance at most of the races and improved a lot race by race. Those are the good parts and certainly getting very close to win the Indy 500 was the best. However there were a few races that we struggled with some failures and unfortunate situations and I put the car the wrong way too so we need to improve that one as well as need to improve the whole strength of the team. Obviously it's not a simple answer (on how to turn season around) because a lot of things are related but we need to finish the race. We will continue to push but we need to focus on finishing the race for sure.”
SATO ON 10-GRID PENALTIES IN
The team was assessed a 10-grid penalty for an “unapproved engine change” prior to the race at Texas Motor Speedway. Due to the spec of the engine that the team elected to change to, Sato will also be assessed a 10-grid penalty after qualifying at the Milwaukee Mile. Sato discusses the extra challenge this presents.
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HOME RACE OF SORTS
Bobby Rahal and Mike Lanigan both reside in the Greater Chicago area so the race can be considered a “home race” for each. Lanigan will also entertain many corporate clients of Mi-Jack Products. Lanigan started his career with Mi-Jack Products in 1973, and accepted the position of President of Mi-Jack in 1989. During his tenure as President, Mike along with his brothers, Jack, Bill and Dan have solidified their core business by entrenching Mi-Jack as
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