AUGUST 1, 2002

Rahal looking at Le Mans?

Former Jaguar Racing team boss Bobby Rahal is rumored to be looking at the possibilities of running cars in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Rahal currently runs a two-car team in CART with drivers Jimmy Vasser and Michel Jourdain Jr. but has plans to expand operations next year with plans to run a Toyota Atlantic team for 20-year-old Danika Patrick, who took the British Formula Ford scene by surprise a couple of years ago when she finished second in the Formula Ford Festival.

Rahal is also believed to be planning to run an Audi team in the American Le Mans series and at the Le Mans 24 Hours next year. The team has recently begun work on a extension to its headquarters in Hilliard, a suburb of Colombus, Ohio, and the program, which will be based around the Audi sportscar design which won a dominant 1-2-3 victory at Le Mans this year can easily be housed at the facility where the 90-strong staff prepare and repair the CART machinery and where the team has it own composites and machine shops and testing rigs.