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Filed under: IRL, Indianapolis 500

Reigning IZOD IndyCar Series championship owner Chip Ganassi will be doubling his efforts in the series in 2011, adding two additional cars to his trophy stable.

The team, which would not confirm or comment on the long-rumored news, has scheduled a press conference Thursday in Indianapolis where Ganassi will introduce the newest additions to a driver lineup that already features two-time defending series champ Dario Franchitti and former two-time champ Scott Dixon.

Second-generation driver Graham Rahal -- son of 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal -- and Charlie Kimball, 25, a young talent moving up from the feeder Indy Lights Series, will campaign for Ganassi next year, working out of a "satellite" team shop rented from drag racing legend Don Prudhomme.

Rahal, 21, is the youngest IndyCar Series winner in history, scoring his only victory in the 2008 season-opener at St. Petersburg, Fla. However, he did not race full time last season. Kimball will be making his debut in the series.

Thursday's announcement will also confirm full-time sponsorship for both Rahal and Kimball -- significant for the series, which had several high-profile teams struggling to find primary corporate backing in 2010. In a unusual twist, Rahal actually announced a two-year sponsorship deal with TBC Corporation -- which owns several automobile tire retailers -- at this season's finale in Homestead, Fla. before having a contract in place with a team.

 

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Filed under: IRL

Oil pressure reading? Water temperature gauge? RPM indicator? Check.

Blood glucose monitor? That's right.

Peer into the cockpit of Indy Lights championship contender Charlie Kimball's race car and located on the steering wheel -- alongside the conventional digital readouts that give feedback on the car's performance -- a gauge showing his blood glucose level is every bit as critical to his race day. And ultimately to that of his competitors.

The only driver with Type 1 Diabetes competing at such a high level of motorsports, Kimball drives an Andretti Autosport car outfitted with a high-tech monitoring system to make sure the 25-year-old's body is functioning properly and maintaining safe levels of blood sugar -- transmitting the information from a sensor implanted in Kimball's abdomen.

This one-of-a-kind combination of medical marvel and mechanical savvy is enough to impress the most accomplished of racing minds. And, in fact, it does.

Kimball's father, Gordon, a world-renowned Formula One design engineer and Indy 500-winning car designer during the 1980s, couldn't be more proud of how his son is managing this disease and thriving despite it.

"You're always glad when your children succeed and find something they love doing,'' Gordon Kimball said. "But in some ways, I'm more proud with how he's dealt with the diabetes.

"Racing was his choice. Diabetes wasn't. And he's never let it get him down.''

 

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