It Really Happened: Bobby Rahal

Bobby Rahal is one of the most successful drivers and team owners in IndyCar history, having repeatedly won the Indianapolis 500. I was enrolled in a High Speed Performance School sponsored by Rahal Racing in 1995 at the Mid-Ohio Race Course. As I prepared to start racing in some kind of high-powered Honda, anticipating the ferocious hairpin at Turn #1, Bobby jumped into the passenger seat and said, "Let's go!" So, I found myself navigating hairpins and S-curves at fairly high speeds while Bobby chatted amiably. I was doing a white-knuckled 110 MPH on that back straightway when Bobby said he typically did 200 MPH there. It must have seemed to him that we were standing still.