Things will look familiar on an IndyCar Series weekend for the first time in Ryan Hunter-Reay's IRL career as he and the Rahal Letterman Racing squad head to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for this weekend's Honda Indy 200.
It was at the 2.258-mile road course that Hunter-Reay made his first IndyCar appearance last year, joining Rahal Letterman Racing as the team made a mid-season driver change from Jeff Simmons. Despite not having a minute of testing in an IRL car, Hunter-Reay qualified tenth and finished seventh, starting a six-race charge that would end up earning the Floridian the Bombardier Learjet Rookie-of-the-Year Award.
The performance also punched the former Champ Car racewinner's ticket for the Ethanol-sponsored car in 2008, which now returns him to Mid-Ohio.
“I guess this weekend's trip puts an end to any talk of me being a rookie anymore,” he grinned, “Frankly, it will be good to start getting to tracks where I have experience in the IRL cars, and especially at a place like Mid-Ohio, where I have always been comfortable, even back to my rookie year in Champ Cars.”
Hunter-Reay, who won the Chase Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Award this season, has been at his best on the road and street courses since joining the IndyCar Series, qualifying in the top ten in each of his five non-oval starts and earning a spot in the Firestone Fast Six qualifying format in each of the last three road- and street-course events.
His success at Mid-Ohio is not limited to his sparkling effort a year ago either, as he earned his first podium in the big cars there in 2003 when he started second and finished third with a first-year Champ Car team.
“I cannot wait to get to Mid-Ohio as it is one of my favourite tracks anywhere in racing,” the Watkins Glen race winner said, “You have to be smooth and flowing with your driving style. It has a great combination of fast corners, elevation changes and tight turns that takes it about as far away from a point-and-shoot street course as a track can be.
