Rahal Hails Indy Win as “Greatest Victory” Yet for Team RLL

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

BMW M Team RLL team principal Bobby Rahal said Sunday’s historic win in the Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway may go down as the “most important” win the team has ever achieved.

Philipp Eng and Connor De Phillippi led home a 1-2 finish for the factory GTP squad, marking the first on-the-road victory for the BMW M Hybrid V8 in global sports car racing competition.

It came in a tumultuous week for the Indianapolis-based organization, which was raided by the FBI on Wednesday over an undisclosed ongoing investigation, yet did not have an effect on the team’s effort this weekend at The Brickyard.

“Given all the craziness of this week, this may rank as our greatest victory as a team,” said Rahal.

“I’m so pleased for these guys, who have done a great job, not just this year, but last year and the previous year.

“Our relationship with BMW Motorsport. These people work night and day, just as we do, as a team, to try and get us to this position we achieved today.

“I’m just so thrilled for everyone on our team and at BMW M Motorsport because it’s been a tough year in a lot of respects.

“Last year we had a number of podiums and maybe we thought it was a little easier than it is. But this year has been more difficult.

“Yet to do it today… None of our competitors really had any problems and yet we were able to succeed.

“This is huge. This is what you really work for.”

The 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner, who has also won the race as a team owner, said victory at The Brickyard in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition holds a significant level of importance.

“Today, this may be, outside of my Indy 500 win personally, this may be the most important win we’ve had because it’s just so timely and it just represents all of the effort that all of us has put in,” said Rahal.

“For our team, and I think everybody in Munich and for everybody in Zionsville who works day-in and day-out on this program, this is huge for us.

“Because this is — I don’t want to say retribution, but this is reward for all of the effort that everybody has put in.

“And so I’m so happy. I’m so happy for these guys, for our team, for the people in Munich who bust their butts for this program. I’m really, you know, I couldn’t be happier.

“Yes, I’m happy for us. I’m happy for me. Happy for us. But I’m really happy for the whole group. Because I, frankly, think we’ve worked hard and we earned it, and today was a great day for us.”

Rahal said he “won’t go into” the events that happened earlier this week at his shop.

Eng Brought No. 24 BMW to Victory in “Energy-Limited” Run

The Austrian, who shared the victory with fellow BMW factory driver Jesse Krohn, admitted that the closing laps were intense given the amount of energy he had to save.

Eng pitted for the last time with just over one hour remaining, prior to his move around De Phillippi and the then-race leader Louis Deletraz moments after the final restart.

“[There were] so many ups and downs early in the race,” said Eng. “Much more downs than ups, actually.

“But then we ended up in this amazing position to be leading the race. We knew that it was energy limited. So we had to, or I had to save a lot of energy to make it to the end.

“I knew that the cars around were in a similar position, but the team guided me very well through the whole stint. So I always knew what I had to do and how much I needed to save.

“And it reminded me that it’s quite an emotional win, actually, because it reminded me back to the days where life was a bit tough and buying fuel for my car wasn’t so easy.

“It reminded me quite a lot to those times because that’s what I had to do to make it to the end of the race and eventually get us the win.”

Krohn added: “I was listening to [the radio], and I had to take off the headphones because it was stressful. I was like, I’ve done my job. Let it play out.

“There was a lot of talk about the fuel, what the competitors are doing and how much fuel we have to save if we are going to make it at some point.

“It sounded like there’s no chance, but Philipp just drove on fumes.

“And I don’t know how he had the pace with the fuel numbers he was achieving, but this was really a great, great drive by Philipp and shows what a driver he is.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John