Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced earlier this week that 2015 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires Champion Spencer Pigot will run at least three Verizon IndyCar Series events in 2016.
“t’s an exciting time for me in my career right now, coming off the Indy Lights championship,” Pigot commented. “Now another exciting bit of news to be joining Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Looking forward to getting started and getting back in an Indy car.”
Bobby Rahal recalled earlier this week when he met Pigot’s father many years ago and keeping in the loop with Pigot’s progress throughout the ranks.
“Then once he started racing on the same weekends (as the Verizon IndyCar Series), we’ve seen what he can do. Pretty impressive. I always thought he went about his craft in a great way,” Rahal commented. “After winning Pro Mazda, then this year in Indy Lights, pretty good crowd (of competitors) in Indy Lights. I saw some of the races and I thought he really used his head. I think that’s so important.”
RLL, co-owned by Bobby Rahal, David Letterman and Mike Lanigan, is coming off of a strong season that saw Graham Rahal finish a career-best fourth in the Veizon IndyCar championship standings.
Right now, the schedule includes Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Rahal noted that these are three events for now that he thought they could do very well, which he says was key as he didn’t want to “do them poorly, then Spencer ends up bearing the blunt of that”.
“I think the team is in real good shape after last year. These three events were easy for us to do with personnel, the fact that two of them are in Indianapolis, and it seemed like a good starting point for me,” Rahal added. “The goal still is now, of course, to see how many more races we can do, all depending on funding. But first things first. I’m just pleased we’re going to have more than one race with Spencer, we’ll have some time to get to know him, do some testing.
“Of course, you have rookie orientation. We had good cars on the racetrack last year. I think that will certainly be an advantage for Spencer coming into the “500” in particular. You’ve got a good teammate. I think technically seems to be in a good spot. These are races we thought he could do and do well.”
Rahal noted that they have already received interest from companies in sponsoring Pigot.
Last season, Pigot earned the series title with winning the final two races in the 16-race season to go along with six wins on the season. The championship for Pigot comes with a $1 million Mazda Road to Indy scholarship, which will be applied to Pigot’s partnership with RLL. For Dan Andersen, owner and CEO of Anderson Promotions, which oversees the Mazda Road to Indy, seeing Pigot progress through the ranks is showing exactly what the program is meant to do.
“Mazda Road to Indy is exactly what we’re talking about today, seeing a fine young prospect like Spencer develop and train and move up the ladder is really what the program is about. It is unlike anything else in the world,” Andersen said. “Thanks very much to Mazda and Cooper (Tires) for the part they play in that, for all of our partners. But today the story is about Spencer and Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Thank you, Bobby, for stepping up and providing a fantastic opportunity for Spencer. I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people, do very well in his rookie year.
“We have designed a program that tries to mix in the road courses, street circuits and ovals. With the new Indy Lights car it’s far closer to an Indy car in terms of feel than the prior edition. I think he’s going to turn a lot of heads, surprise a lot of people. Bottom line is this is what it’s all about. This is what we do and why we do it, to see young drivers advance, and it’s working.”
Andersen added that other teams proposed adding Pigot to their team, but felt “Bobby’s proposal and the résumé that is his team spoke volumes to me”. Andersen commented that accepting the proposal came from how well he knew Rahal’s organization from running his Indy Lights team out of the shop.
“Graham drove for my Star Mazda team back in the day. We go back a ways. I have a lot of respect for the Rahal organization. The performance they showed last year was strong. The package he put together was attractive,” he continued. “We wanted the right thing for Spencer. There are a lot of options out there, but this is a package that we think Spencer can really shine in his debut performances. It was very important to us not to simply put him in a car, but to put him in the right car.”
