IMSA: Rayhall swaps DeltaWing for winged sprints

DeltaWing driver Sean Rayhall was a busy man last week. He was in Wisconsin for his primary job, which entailed sharing the DWC13 prototype with Katherine Legge at IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in Road America, but that wasn't enough for the 21-year-old Georgian.

Following in the footsteps of other recent asphalt-to-dirt evangelists like Indy Lights driver Ed Jones and ALMS champion Chris Dyson, Rayhall visited Randy Sippel at nearby 141 Speedway prior to the start of opening practice at Road America to experience the violence and speed that comes with driving a winged sprint car.

"I was doing a radio show for IMSA before the Road America race and the hosts said I needed to go check it out," Rayhall told RACER. "They gave me Randy's number and I rang him and asked if I could test the car. I didn't want to damage anything if someone was going to race it last weekend, but he said he wanted me to give it a proper go."

A winner in open-wheel Indy Lights cars and in IMSA prototypes, Rayhall's expertise has been earned in the interaction between slick tires and a fixed surface. Trading those slicks for grooves and a track that refuses to grip those tires was an eye-opening sensation.

"It was a ton different," Rayhall said. "I went there Thursday and we were running some competitive times, and chasing the track was a big deal. You have to find where the sprint car works best for you because it's not as if the dirt is giving you a lot of traction to work with. It makes you really pay attention to the areas on the track that are better than the others to get the car hooked up.

"That's something you almost take for granted on a road course. There's grip pretty much everywhere, and even if it isn't, there's pretty much one racing line that's going to be the fastest way around every lap. On dirt, you're always looking for it and trying to stay with it if it moves high or low."

Rayhall also found his introduction to sprint cars had an immediate impact behind the wheel of his prototype.

"When I got into my DeltaWing the next day, dealing with oversteer on asphalt was just a new sensation," he added. "They say you feel the sensation of a car moving around beneath you through your butt, and after driving on dirt in the sprint car, the feelings in the DeltaWing were like my butt was on steroids. It's helped me in every way."

Butt jokes aside, Rayhall wanted more and returned to race with Sippel on Saturday night at the Plymouth Dirt Track.

"You get four hot laps and you're in the heat race," he said. "As a rookie they started me last, which I'm glad they did, and anyone can tell you what the track is going to feel like, but until you've done it and felt it yourself, you don't know how to drive it. That was my problem. I'd have a slow start, then I'd pick it up and my lap times would be in the top 10 or 15, then the race would be over. It's another thing to chase the track and get dialed in. I ran low while other guys were running hard up on the cushion, and lacked the confidence to do that my first time. But I can't be upset or disappointed with myself. It was so much fun for only my first time."

Rayhall was beaming Sunday morning at Road America as he shared tales of his sprint car debut with Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull and a few others that stopped by to inquire. Now that he's hooked on dirt racing, Rayhall intends to bring along more road racers to join in the adventure when IMSA returns to Wisconsin in 2017.

"The next time we go out, Randy has a school he puts on with six cars, and I want to bring more road racers with me," he said. "I am for sure going to do it again next year and might race two or three times that weekend if my team owner lets me. Being sideways like that was refreshing; we don't get to hang it out like that in our regular day jobs."