Not just happy being here - Ryan Hunter-Reay ready for more
Ryan Hunter-Reay doesn’t have time to waste.
No time for praise, no time for learning curves. Not for the 27-year-old driver in IndyCar racing who has been dreaming of this moment since terrorizing his Boca Raton neighborhood in the red go-kart that got him voted off the streets when he was 8.
The Indianapolis 500’s Rookie of the Year last month? Sorry, that was a sixth-place finish. He’s coming up on one year since he first stepped into an IndyCar, and he’s looking for that first career win. Some drivers take years to get it.
But Hunter-Reay doesn’t have time for that. He’s looking at No. 1. And he’s looking for it right now.
“We’re definitely opening people’s eyes,” Hunter-Reay said. “We’re showing people we’re a force to be reckoned with.”
Rush, rush, rush. Shift, race, go! Hunter-Reay spent three years locked into contracts with dead-end race teams, and his new ride, Rahal Letterman Racing, seems like the cool drink for which he’s been thirsting.
Bobby Rahal doesn’t have any time to waste, either. Not with the bad luck and tragedy that has befallen his team.
The team discovered and then lost Danica Patrick because of a personality conflict. It grieved promising young driver Paul Dana, who was killed in a wreck at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2006.
There was a revolving door of drivers and a new chassis imposed on their race car in mid-season.
The former champion’s team is ready to win now, too. Right now.
Leave it to the fleet feet of good fortune that the two found each other when they did.
In July, Hunter-Reay was stopped, wasting time and energy.
For three years, he had been bound to a Champ Car team that wasn’t putting forward good cars and couldn’t maintain consistent engineers and mechanics. The car was in the garage when it should have been on the track.
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