Rahal staying focused on GTP present with BMW

Racing legend Bobby Rahal will be the Grand Marshal of next week’s IMSA Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, a fitting honor for the man who’s won at the circuit five times as a driver and six times as the part-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

There’s been a bit of change at RLL recently with the appointment of Jay Frye as its new president overseeing the team’s operations in the IndyCar Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. But as RACER has reported, there’s also some uncertainty over RLL’s future in IMSA after 2025. The team’s current agreement to service BMW’s factory M Hybrid V8 prototypes runs out at the end of the year.

Asked about the negotiations to continue as BMW’s factory team in IMSA, Rahal was understandably tight-lipped but did express a desire to continue a relationship between team and manufacturer that goes back to the days of the American Le Mans Series. “We’re obviously hoping to continue this long relationship that we’ve had with BMW that’s dated back to 2008,” Rahal said during a media conference on Wednesday. “And you know, you see some of these articles — a lot of guessing, and a lot of speculation.

“There’s three-quarters of the season left over. And for us — and I can tell you with BMW Motorsport — everybody’s just really focused on this coming race at Laguna Seca, and then the race after that, and after that, and after that… there’s a lot of racing left. And so I think it’s premature to get too far into that.”

The speculation over whether BMW and RLL will remain together emerged after Dries Vanthoor took the M Hybrid V8’s third straight GTP pole position of the year at Long Beach. But while both cars have finished on the podium this year, the pace of the M Hybrid V8 through these opening races suggests that there have been opportunities for wins that have been left unfulfilled.

Rahal is focused on the positives of what has, despite the disappointments, been the strongest start to a season that BMW and RLL have had since beginning their top-tier prototype program in 2023. “I’m very pleased for the GTP program this year,” he said. “Yes, we’ve had three poles, that’s exciting — all credit to Dries and the team. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to quite put it all together come race day.

“We’ve had on-track issues with lapped traffic at Daytona and Sebring which hurt our chances at the end of the race, and of course at Long Beach, we got held up in the pits a little bit and that’s all it took, I’m afraid. So we’ve got to complete the job this time around. We were pretty quick (at Laguna Seca) last year, so I feel that we have a reasonable chance.

“Regardless of how disappointing it was to be on the front row and then lose out during a pit stop, having a podium’s a nice start. That’s a good little bump for the team, especially after the disappointments of Sebring and Daytona. So we go win some races, and that solves a lot of problems — and so that’s what we’re intending to do.”

Long Beach was Frye’s first race as RLL president, replacing Steve Eriksen in the position. With his successful business and leadership background in NASCAR and IndyCar, Rahal has been thrilled to have the former IndyCar Series president on board to bring a fresh perspective to the team’s main racing programs.

“We’re really pleased to have him,” Rahal said of Frye. “You know, right now, he’s kind of drinking from a fire hose, all things RLL-related but I’m really pleased we were able to get Jay to join the group, and I feel very confident that he’s going to lead us to good things.

“I do want to say that Steve Eriksen did a good job for us — I think that needs to be said. However, I think that Jay brings a different perspective, a different level of experience, in various categories, and various positions. Obviously with IndyCar, he has a lot of experience dealing with manufacturers.

“When we made the announcement, everybody was very complimentary of his skills and what he would bring – and I think we’re just in the beginnings of that, of those benefits that he can bring to us.

“I think he brings a great sense of building teamwork — and I think that’s something that you can never have enough of, frankly, in motor racing, or any sport for that matter.”

Frye’s appointment has mostly been positioned as a hire to benefit the IndyCar Series side which has struggled for consistent results in recent seasons. RLL last won the Indianapolis 500 with Takuma Sato in 2020 and hasn’t contended for a championship in nearly a decade. But Rahal feels strongly that even as somewhat of a newcomer to sports car racing, Frye’s deep relationships with manufacturers and vendors fostered during his time with NASCAR and IndyCar, and his team-building strengths will benefit the GTP side for the rest of this season — and potentially beyond, if BMW decides to renew its 17-year partnership with RLL.

“IMSA’s maybe a little bit newer for him, but he’s dealt with many of the people within the IMSA organization — (IMSA President) John Doonan, they worked side-by-side on a lot of things with ACCUS-FIA,” Rahal noted. “When you’re in that position, you’re always talking to other people, whether it’s NASCAR, IMSA, you name it, right? And of course, I’ve tried to feed him as much of the history of our relationship with BMW and with IMSA for that matter.

“There’s only so many hours in a day, so consequently, it makes for busy days. Maybe this will be his second IMSA race, at least with us, after Long Beach, but he’s learning quickly. And I expect that the relationships he’s built with people like Dallara, who of course builds the chassis for BMW — that’s a positive, a lot of experience there — XTrac, all the vendors. And so I really do believe that it’ll be a short learning curve for Jay.”