CART takes new direction with Rahal

Mike Harris

Thursday, June 29, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

Two years ago, Bobby Rahal was driving a race car. Now, he's driving CART.

The three-time series champion who won the 1985 Indianapolis 500 became interim president and CEO after Andrew Craig resigned under fire June 16. Rahal immediately began a whirlwind tour.

"I've been on airplanes more than I've been on the ground," said Rahal, who quit racing after the 1998 season to concentrate on running his two-car team.

Since replacing Craig, the CART chief since 1994, Rahal has been meeting with key operatives. Included was Howard Katz, president of ABC Sports, whom Rahal deems of major importance to CART's future.

CART is suffering from declining TV ratings, poor attendance at some venues, a 4-year-old war with the IRL and the staggering growth of NASCAR in the last decade.

"Now I have a more precise idea of the amount of work a CEO has to do ... promoter issues, team issues, sporting issues, commercial issues," Rahal said. "I knew it was out there before I came on board, but I just didn't know the full volume of it."

Rahal was one of Craig's strongest critics, often questioning the direction CART was taking. Some of Rahal's fellow team owners are confident he will attack the problems.

"I think Bobby is going to contribute massively, because he has such a core understanding of the business," said Cal Wells III.

Derrick Walker also thinks Rahal is the right man for the job.

"I'd expect to see a very positive effect, getting everybody back on track, not only internally, but also the motor groups, the manufacturers, sponsors and the community of racing that has become somewhat fragmented over the last few years," Walker said.

CART, which went public two years ago, also has brought in marketing specialist Pat Leahy from Target and former vice president of operations for Mercedes Hal Whiteford as its president of racing.

After Craig's resignation, the board also selected Jim Hardymon, former chairman of Textron, Inc., as its chairman.

Bruce McCaw, another team owner and board member, says personnel changes have moved CART in the right direction.

"I think there's an opportunity now to pull people together," McCaw said. "This is a business where everybody becomes an instant expert on everything from marketing to rules, and I think that Bobby perhaps can provide some real strong leadership."

One of the first moves by the balding, mustachioed, 47-year old Rahal was a phone call to Tony George, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and founder of the IRL.

Rahal called it "purely a social call," but one that let George know that CART remains open to some sort of accommodation that would bring the two sides together, at least for the Indy 500.

"I was just volunteering," Rahal said. "I always have, no matter what my position, a willingness to communicate and try to solve an issue that's on everybody's mind all the time."

He said CART will keep an open period in its 2001 schedule to allow its teams to race at Indy in what now is an IRL event.

Chip Ganassi's team went last month, with defending CART champion Juan Montoya winning the race and teammate Jimmy Vasser finishing seventh. Now, other CART teams are expected to follow Ganassi's lead - but without risking the future of their own series.

"By keeping our schedule open, we can at least participate at Indy, and that truly is the race that is important to our teams and increasingly important to our sponsors," Rahal said. "But that issue is not ours to solve in a lot of respects.

"Our biggest issue is building open-wheel racing, making investments in our merchandising, activating our sponsors to do more on behalf of their involvement in the sport."

He thinks that will help attendance and TV numbers.

"I think that's job one," he said.

As committed as Rahal is to his new job, he's not ready to remove the interim tag.

"It's kind of like I have an action sheet where I've written down all these projects or things I have to do," he said. "I'm ticking them off slowly as we go through them all.

"But thinking about making this permanent, that's not even on the action sheet yet."