Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in the No.15 Fifth Third Bank Honda goes into this weekend’s Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America looking to bounce back from a disappointing Detroit Grand Prix after he retired from the race and looking ahead to the event this weekend he said:
“I think for my family, Road America is just a place we connect to. With my grandfather racing there for so many years, then my father, and now me, it’s a special place overall for us. It’s one of the main events that I highlight every year and look forward to. I can’t wait to go; it’s been a good place for us. Last year was a little bit of a struggle, but in years prior as a team we’ve always done a great job there. I believe that it’s a place that we can get our footing back underneath us. I do think our road course package is probably our highlight right now so we are going to try to work on that and do even better, try to go faster and try to go further forward. That’s of course always the objective, but I think right now we could use a good, solid weekend as a team and I think Road America is a place we can do that.
This race is one that Christian Lundgaard in the No.30 Fleet Coast Care Honda is looking forward to this weekend saying:
I’m very much looking forward to going to Road America and seeing where we stand. I do believe that Road America will be one of our better races. It will be nice to see the Fleet Cost & Care car in action again, for once on my car rather than Graham’s car and I do believe we can deliver a good result for them as well.
“Road America is one of the ones I look forward to. I hear its very similar to the European tracks, it’s the one that the European drivers look the most forward to because they know their way around. I just want to have fun; I want to get a good result. We all want one, we are due for sure. We’ve just got to put everything together and we will be there for sure.
Jack Harvey in the No.45 Hy Vee Honda returns to a track where he has been competitive for a number of years and speaking ahead of the race this weekend he said:
“I’m really excited for Road America. It’s a track that recently we’ve been very strong at. I just love being there, it’s probably one of my favorite places to be in North America. I absolutely love everything about the track, love the area and am just really excited to be back.
“I feel like the team have traditionally been quite strong there and I’ve been quite strong there. So honestly, I’m quite optimistic for what we can achieve together this weekend. Obviously, I would like to see the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda be as far up the field as possible, but I really do believe that we can go there, have a successful weekend and start getting it in the direction we want, start getting the results that we all know and believe we can get together. I think the road course cars have a bunch of potential which we showed in Barber, and, showed the progression into the Indy road course. Obviously, we had a really fast car then so there is no reason why we can’t do that this coming weekend.”
Heading into Round 8 at the Sonsio Grand Prix, Rahal has a total of 135 points and is ranked 15th overall. Lundgaard is the highest ranked rookie in 17th with 119 points and Harvey is 20th with 88.