Rahal moves across the pond
21 September 2000
USGP No.2 • Rahal Goes To Jaguar By now it comes as no surprise that BOBBY RAHAL has been tapped to join Jaguar Racing in Formula One. NEIL RESSLER, Chairman of Jaguar Racing, made the announcement Wednesday afternoon in a long Jaguar Racing media conference in Indianapolis, held in conjunction with the inaugural SAP United States Grand Prix. The news was further spread an hour later during a lengthy CART teleconference, which featured Rahal. Basically, the highlights are: Ressler said he would remain as Chairman of Jaguar Racing. Effective 1 December 2000, Rahal will become Jaguar Chief Executive Officer and Team Principal, with a three-year contract. Rahal will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Jaguar Racing. Ressler said he had promised at the Monza F1 race that there would be changes at Jaguar Racing, and the hiring of Rahal was but one of the the changes. More are to come, he promised. Until December, Rahal will remain in his temporary role as interim CART CEO and President, a position he's held since June. Rahal has always said he was only temporarily acting as CART CEO, and he never considered accepting the position on a full-time basis. Rahal and his family will be moving to England. He was briefly in Formula One, 35 years ago, and returning to F1 is fulfilling his dream. Rahal said he is not relinquishing any interest in his two-car CART team and he will be returning for some CART races. Rahal had discussed the Jaguar job with his family, his two drivers and Team Rahal before accepting the offer, which was first proffered in May. SCOTT REMKE is the Manager for Team Rahal and will continue in that role. Rahal said that the strong organization in his CART team will allow him to accept this new F1 role. Rahal said his plan at Jaguar will be to start out by observing and talking with Formula One and Jaguar folks. He plans to attend the remaining F1 races. In July, Rahal visited the Jaguar's facilities, which he characterized as crowded but capable. He said there is a 'disconnect' somewhere. Rahal said he sees himself as the glue which will hold it together. Where is the discipline in the organization, Rahal asked? He will "rely on the good people, of whom there are far more than bad people, who will be replaced with good ones." JIM HARDYMON, Chairman of the CART Board of Directors continues to head up the executive search for a replacement for the departed ANDREW CRAIG. Rahal said that there is more interest shown in the CART CEO/President position this time, than when the CART BoD previously went through the process. RON RICHARDS, CART VP of Communication and STEVE SCHUNCK, in charge of CART's TV aspects, were both on hand for the Jaguar Press Conference. Richards said that an executive search firm is assisting CART with the replacement process. He said there are no established time frames, but of course CART would like the process to be concluded as soon as possible. Regarding the CART TV package, Richards said there is no time frame regarding that process either. The ESPN contract runs until the end of the year, and negotiations are ongoing, it is up to ESPN at this point. Many many points were covered in both conferences, to be the subject of another column. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Initially posted to http://www.racingpr.com/snoop on Wed Sep 20 15:26:42 2000 PST. Copyright 1999, Lynne Huntting. You can reach Lynne at snoop@racingpr.com. For press releases and other racing coverage visit the RacingPR home page