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Rahal eyes victory at Long Beach

Graham Rahal is hoping to follow up his IndyCar victory at St Petersburg with his first Champ Car victory in the series' last ever race at Long Beach this weekend

The 19-year-old lies fourth in the IndyCar standings after a surprise win in changeable conditions two weeks ago and is keen to repeat the feat with the points scored at Long Beach counting towards the IndyCar standings.

"Obviously the team is on a bit of a high right now and we don't want to be overconfident but we felt that we were going to have the opportunity to win the championship in Champ Cars this year. Long Beach is a place where we feel we need to capitalise on our strengths.

"We're already fourth in the points after winning at St Petersburg and we need to keep going forward. It's great to cap such a fantastic history by ending it at Long Beach, there's huge fan support there and it would be nice to say I've won a Champ Car race."

But Rahal is wary of the fact that more than half the drivers at Long Beach are entering the race as a one off won't be concerned about their IndyCar points tally.

"I think they're saying there'll be 20 cars and I don't know how many of those are going to be IndyCar drivers that are going for points, and how many are just coming here for glory. We all know that can end up in crashes and incidents."

"There is a chance we could win this championship, as strange as that seemed initially. But there are a lot of road courses and we need to keep going forward getting as many points as we can."

He also played down the difficulty in adapting between the Dallara IndyCar and the Panoz Champ Car.

"Every car has got its own little features that are different from another. It's no secret that it's got less horsepower and is more of a momentum car. You don't drive it into the corner nearly as tough or fast.

"But a good car is a good car and I think we found that at St Petersburg. When I was going quick the car felt a lot like my good Champ Car would have in the past."

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