L to R: Bobby Rahal, Brian Redman, Sandy Hall, Jim Hall, Roger Penske, Gil de Ferran, Johnny Rutherford (photo credit: Dennis Ashlock)
Championship racer and innovator Jim Hall was honored on Thursday, April 12, 2012 at the Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC) Evening with Jim Hall presented by Firestone. This was the fourth annual RRDC West Coast banquet, held prior to the running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The dinner was also supported by Chevrolet and Honda.
Hall, whose accomplishments ranged from the 1960s, with the remarkable series of Chaparral race cars he built, to the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s as an IndyCar team owner, was interrogated in the style of the Late Show with David Letterman by RRDC president Bobby Rahal. Rahal coaxed many an interesting story from the usually reserved Hall, who retired from racing in 1996. From his initial encounter with Chevrolet engineers and executives who partnered with him to help create such advanced race cars as the “vacuum cleaner” Chaparral 2J, to his experiences as a team owner and co-driver with racing champions Roger Penske, Johnny Rutherford, Brian Redman and Gil de Ferran, Hall entertained the crowd with accounts never before chronicled.
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