Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing moving Hilliard shop to Indiana
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, co-owned by Ohio native Bobby Rahal and the fielder of four teams in IndyCar and IMSA, announced Wednesday it will consolidate its Ohio- and Indiana-based operations into a new headquarters outside Indianapolis.
The new shop will move RLL’s IndyCar operations, based in the Indianapolis suburb of Brownsburg, and its IMSA operations, located at 4601 Lyman Drive in Hilliard, into a 100,000-square-foot, $20 million facility in Zionsville, Ind.
The 13-acre headquarters will have office and event space, plus research and development and manufacturing operations to support the different racing teams. RLL plans to break ground later this year and be fully operational in the facility by spring 2022.
“We feel that this building will make a statement about who we are at RLL and what our intentions are about the future,” Rahal said in a statement, adding that “it is certainly demanding having people in two places.”
RLL says the move will create up to 73 new Indiana jobs by the end of 2024, and the organization is eligible for $1.5 million in tax credits from the state.
NBC4 asked RLL how many Ohio jobs will be lost in the move, and we will update this story if we hear back.
“Indiana’s reputation as a leader in motorsports continues to pick up speed with companies like Rahal Letterman Lanigan choosing to invest in our state,” Indiana Gov. Eric J. Holcomb said in a statement.
Co-owner Mike Lanigan said that the move was five years in the making.
RLL fields two full-time teams in IndyCar with drivers Takuma Sato, this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, and Graham Rahal, Bobby’s son and a native of New Albany. The organization also fields two BMWs in the GT Le Mans class of IMSA, America’s top sports car racing series.
Another top Central Ohio racing team, Meyer Shank Racing, broke ground last month on a facility in Pataskala, which will replace its existing shop a couple of miles away in Etna Township.
MSR fields an IMSA GT Daytona team and an IndyCar team. The organization plans to expand with an IMSA DPi prototype team next year and a second IndyCar team soon.
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