Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has added to its engineering group with individuals who previously have worked with veteran Verizon IndyCar Series driver Graham Rahal.
Mike Talbott, who most recently was senior trackside engineer with Wirth Research in support of Honda Performance Development's Verizon IndyCar Series program, will lead the vehicle dynamics program. Martin Pare most recently was a structures engineer at Multimatic Engineering, where he applied his racing background to shaker rig testing services. He’ll oversee the team’s damper program.
Pare, who was Kenny Brack’s race engineer at Team Rahal in 2003, was race engineer for Rahal at Newman/Haas Lanigan Racing in 2009-10 and at Chip Ganassi Racing Teams in 2011-2012. Talbott, who was race engineer for Rahal’s Newman/Haas Lanigan Racing teammate Justin Wilson in 2008, also has worked with Ryan Briscoe, AJ Allmendinger, Oriol Servia, Bruno Junqueira and Cristiano da Matta in Champ Car and the Verizon IndyCar Series.
"Mike brings a lot of value to the team as does Martin," team co-owner Bobby Rahal said. “Overall, I think these are three great appointments that will help us to move to the front of the grid."
Eddie Jones, race engineer for the team’s No. 16 part-time entry this past season, will be Rahal’s engineer for the 17-race 2015 season that kicks off March 8 with the Brasilia Indy 300 in Brazil’s capital city. A test day for Rahal in the No. 15 car is scheduled for Nov. 10 at Barber Motorsports Park.
Harvey receives 'Sportsman of Year' award
Jack Harvey, championship runner-up in the 2014 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season, was named the recipient of The Lincolnshire Sportsman of the Year award during a Nov. 7 dinner in England.
Harvey, 21, of Bassingham in Lincolnshire, driving the No. 42 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian car, closed the season by winning four of the final five races.
Lincolnshire Sport is a public- and privately-funded organization whose objective is to increase participation in sports and physical activity across the country.
Of note
Gillian Zucker, who for nine years was president of Auto Club Speedway, has joined the Los Angeles Clippers are president of business operations. Early bird pricing for tickets to the MAVTV 500 on June 27 at the 2-mile oval in Fontana, Calif., starts Nov. 10 at autoclubspeedway.com or by calling 800-944-7223. … A $1 million Economic Growth Initiative grant by the state of Pennsylvania will assist in Pocono Raceway’s rebuilding of two tunnels that lead and construction of a pedestrian walkway. … Stop by the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach display (which includes a Verizon IndyCar Series show car) at the Los Angeles Auto Show (Nov. 21-30) and enter to win free tickets to the 2015 race weekend (April 17-19).