Rahal to drive for Team Lebanon
A reader adds, With all respect to the Rahal family, this is not in the spirit of A1GP!
I am quite sure Graham Rahal has not got a Lebanese passport , nor has he got a competition license issued by the Lebanese ASN! As far as I know you need to be a citizen (i.e. passport holder) of the country you represent. This is one of the main articles of the A1GP seatholders contract!
I feel very sorry for both Basil Shaaban and Khalil Beschir, as they have done a very good job so far and are now being sidelined by a 'so called' Lebanese driver! Its unacceptable ! I think you should mention this in one of your articles about this particular issue !
Especially for Basil Shaaban, who studied at the University of California in Berkeley from 1997 onwards and lived in California for more then 6 years, its very disappointing he can't race at his favorite circuit, Laguna Seca! (www.basilshaaban.com)
I trust to have informed you well and I hope you will be able to write something about this on www.autoracing1.com. Pieter Slinger
02/21/06 More than a few readers are probably baffled by this rumor, being totally unaware that Bobby Rahal is of Lebanese ancestry, so we point this out in case you did not know.
02/20/06 Graham Rahal is to race for Team Lebanon in the A1GP series. The 17-year-old American, son of Bobby Rahal, tested a Formula 3000 car at Misano last week and did well and is expected to be named as the driver for Team Lebanon for the rest of the year. The word from America is that Rahal will be moving into GP2 next year if all goes well this year in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship and it seems has the ambition to become an F1 driver. Bobby Rahal had similar ambitions in the 1970s and raced for the Wolf F1 team in Canada and the United States in 1978 but then went back to America to become one of the leading names in the sport. Rahal returned to Europe in September 2000 to become the chief executive of the Jaguar Racing F1 team but fell victim to Ford politics less than a year later. Grandprix.com