Rahal Letterman (isn’t) Racing.
David Letterman will have more to worry about than just what his top 10 jokes will be on his daily weeknight telecast. Rahal-Letterman racing is going to sit out the 2009 season due to the lack of a sponsor.
Rahal Letterman racing has come to a screeching halt despite having above average production in the last couple of years. The team celebrated an Indianapolis 500 victory in 2004 with Buddy Rice. They brought in Danica Patrick, possibly the league’s most well known driver commercially. Also upcoming driver Ryan Hunter-Reay won his first race last season and was a constant competitor both on the oval and road/street courses.
It comes with no surprise as financial troubles have struck the racing world in the last year with several teams having to cut back due to sponsorships being in real trouble due to poor economic situations in the United States.
With well known names in racing and show business it’s rather surprising, to me at least, that they are willing to sit this season out. I’m not a finance major but really sitting out…wow. It makes me think with the economy headed into no-mans-land and no way out in site will we see racing in two or three years? Will we see more teams drop out and do the same thing?
Will I have anything to write about?
I certainly hope not, but unfortunately it looks that way.
UPDATE:
Bobby Rahal recently issued a press release stating the following.
As I said in the quote from the story, as of this time we do not have any sponsorship that will allow us to compete in the IRL in 2009, but by no means does that mean that we are giving up. We are continuing to search for sponsorship to run the 2009 season and to run in the Indianapolis 500 and we feel that there is still time for us to put something together that will allow that to happen.
Here’s to the hope that they can sort out some sponsorships and get back in the race.
January 30th, 2009 at 01:23
Hopefully they won’t drop all the way out…a limited schedule is better than nothing. They would have a much better chance for sponsorship in 2010 if they maintain a presence in the series…
January 31st, 2009 at 04:48
Oh, yeah; I’m sure that Bobby Rahal, and Letterman, an Indiana native, want to race in the Indy 500. But ICS doesn’t need a declining car count at all the other races. And RLR’s employees don’t want to be out of work every month but May. hard to believe that those two owners can’t pull sponsors.
I don’t know what went wrong between RLR and Scott Sharp. Rahal could use Sharp wasn’t the best racer, but he always had sponsors…
January 31st, 2009 at 23:30
Does this include their ALMS team?
February 1st, 2009 at 12:40
This does not include the ALMS team. They are just dropping out of the IndyCar Series this season. I do see them running Indy in May. They will also continue to manage the American Formula BMW Series.
February 2nd, 2009 at 18:51
Interesting. As long as they aren’t pulling out of all forms of racing im o.k. with that. As long as they are still involved and have employees I know where their mindset will be. Of course I rather see a full season run, but the Indy500 is good enough for me as some teams manage to sign sponsors for the rest of the season (ABC, Lilly, Symantec)
February 5th, 2009 at 22:15
Yes Ryley. It would be a huge disappointment to see them not even make the 500. I highly doubt that would happen.