Bobby Rahal is American racing royalty. He’s won the Indy 500, been a multiple time champion as an open wheel racer, a champion as a car owner, a successful businessman with a string of car dealerships, and he’s driven everything from NASCAR to Formula One. While his active driving career as a pro racer may be over, his love of cars and racing has not abated so that’s how he found his way into the driver’s seat of a vintage Porsche RSR at the recent HSR Classic 24 at Daytona. This video puts us on Bobby’s right shoulder as he hammers the healthy Porsche up the bankings and through the road course at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.
Between this race which happened in November and the recent marriage of his son Graham and Coutney Force, it has been a busy few months for the native Ohioan that had a racing career pulled right out of the pages of a story book. He raced domestically and then picked up rides in Europe. He returned to the USA after that experience and ultimately found his way into the CART series where he racked up a couple dozen race wins and three championships. The Indy 500 eluded his grasp until the middle 1980s when he was able to will his way to victory with a ballsy pass around Kevin Cogan on a restart with two laps left.
His career accomplishments are one thing but we think it is cool to see the guy still out there and ripping it up. We’re thinking that he was not 100% familiar with this particular car as the gearbox seems to give him a little attitude here and there but we can tell you one thing. He’s a hell of a lot faster than we’d be out there!
