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‘FOCUS FORWARD’: RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING.
‘FOCUS FORWARD’: RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING.
Together, BMW Motorsport and BMW Team RLL have celebrated a total of five titles and 21 wins in North America since 2009. That was when the collaboration between BMW, one of the most successful manufacturers in the history of racing, and Bobby Rahal, one of the most experienced racing drivers in North America began.
Over the years Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing expanded its motorsport footprint by adding sportscar racing to the team’s resume, chief among them the BMW Team RLL programme that began in 2009. Versatility was also a key component of Rahal’s driving career with victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1981 and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1987.
The foundation of what is now known as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was laid in 1992 when Indy car driver and 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal partnered Carl Hogan to form Rahal Hogan Racing. That same year Rahal secured his third IndyCar Series championship, becoming the first and only owner/driver to win the Indy car title. After going their separate ways in 1996, Rahal found a new partner in comedian David Letterman, a life-long Indy 500 fan. Businessman Mike Lanigan added his name to the team in 2010.
It is interesting to note that Rahal’s association with BMW actually began many years before 2009. As a college student in the early 1970s he could be found behind the wheel a 1972 Inka Orange BMW 2002 tearing up the roads of central Ohio. Although a different car to the one he owned back then you will still find a 1972 Inka Orange BMW 2002 in Bobby’s garage.
BOBBY RAHAL.
As a team owner, Rahal has overseen the growth of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing from a one-car programme to a multi-disciplined organisation. As a driver, Bobby Rahal won three CART championships (1986, 1987 and 1992) and the 1986 Indianapolis 500. A study in consistency, Rahal missed a top-ten championship finish only once in his 17-year Indy car racing career. Twice named Driver of the Year (1986, 1992), Rahal is the only owner/driver to win a CART championship (1992). A versatile driver who raced in Formula One, NASCAR, Can-Am and IROC, Rahal won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1981 and was a winner at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1987. He operates Bobby Rahal Automotive Group, a string of car dealerships in Pennsylvania, is president of the Road Racing Drivers Club, chairman of the International Motor Racing Research Center Governing Council at Watkins Glen and is very active in the community through the Bobby Rahal Foundation. He was chairman of the USA Bobsled & Skeleton Foundation from August 2012 until autumn 2016.
DAVID LETTERMAN.
David Letterman, an icon of late-night talk show television, had casual discussions with Bobby Rahal after they met in 1986 about his interest in becoming involved in Indy car racing. In early 1996, the talk was transformed into action as the Indianapolis native became part owner in Team Rahal.
Letterman, who recently returned to television with Netflix’s ‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,’ can be found at several race weekends in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing pits. He retired in May 2015 from hosting the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ on CBS after more than 6,800 episodes, surpassing his mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history.
MIKE LANIGAN.
Mike Lanigan began his career with Mi-Jack Products in 1973, when he was sent to Indianapolis to establish a new Mi-Jack construction equipment division. After a successful eight years building the division into the Midwest’s leading aerial lift equipment distributor with facilities throughout middle America, he returned to Chicago as executive vice president. In 1989, Lanigan accepted the position of president of Mi-Jack. During his tenure, Mike and brothers Jack, Bill and Dan have solidified their core business by entrenching Mi-Jack as America’s premier mobile gantry crane manufacturer and the nation’s leading supplier of intermodal lift equipment.
THE SUCCESS STORY.
As of 2020, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has amassed 32 Indy Car poles and 28 victories, including the 2004 Indy 500 with driver Buddy Rice, among 102 podiums. With a victory at the 2020 Rolex 24 At Daytona, BMW Team RLL has now scored 79 total podiums that include 21 victories. The number of victories scored is certainly the metric by which a racing team’s success is measured, but at its foundation race wins are a function of the team members. Most of today’s BMW Team RLL team are the same people that started the programme eleven years ago, never missing a beat as the programme cycled from BMW M3 to BMW Z4 to BMW M6 and now the BMW M8.
THE TEAM.
With skills honed in years of Indy car racing BMW Team RLL team members came to race with BMW as consummate professionals. With precise car set-ups and speedy pit stop performance IMSA competitors were quickly put on notice that this team was to be taken very, very seriously.
