Things haven’t come easily for Bobby Rahal and his team in recent years.
A sign that things are changing for the better came on Sunday when Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Watkins Glen to give Rahal Letterman Racing its first win in four years.
Once a nearly perennial contender in CART, the team co-owned by TV personality David Letterman has mostly struggled since moving to the IRL’s IndyCar Series in 2003.
PHOTO: AP
The best moments came in 2004 when Buddy Rice won three races, including the Indianapolis 500, and then-rookie Danica Patrick became a national sensation by qualifying and finishing fourth at Indy — both records for a woman at the Brickyard.
But Rice and Patrick are both driving for different teams now and it’s been mostly downhill for Rahal Letterman since.
What had been a promising three-car team has diminished to a one-car operation that most weeks has raced in the middle of the pack — or worse.
The lowest point came at the 2006 season-opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway when rookie Paul Dana, preparing to make his first start for the team, was killed in a crash during the morning warmup.
That devastated everyone on the team and the recovery has been slow and painful.
“For us, it has been a bit of a drought,” Rahal said.
With six races remaining last season, he hired Hunter-Reay to replace Jeff Simmons, who had been the replacement for Dana and never quite caught on.
“And this guy, since the day he came on to the team almost a year ago now, at Mid-Ohio, he elevated the performance of the team immediately,” Rahal said.
“Three road courses in a row we’ve been in the Firestone Fast 6 [in qualifying]. And it’s because Ryan has been able to take the car to a new level and work with our engineers and our guys to kind of keep it there and make it stronger and stronger,” he said.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was