PAUL DANA'S RLR TEAMMATES RICE, PATRICK
GIVE THEIR STATEMENTS TUESDAY AT HOMESTEAD
Paul Dana Memorial Services, Memorial Fund
Announced Tuesday For Fallen RLR Driver
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (March 28, 2006) -- IRL
IndyCar® Series drivers Buddy Rice and Danica
Patrick were available today to the media for the
first time since their Rahal Letterman Racing
teammate Paul Dana was fatally injured last Sunday
at Homestead-Miami Speedway. They talked to a
group of media members at the track's press center
while testing on the road course.
In addition, the memorial service for the
30-year-old Dana and a memorial fund was
announced.
A memorial service - "celebrating the life of
Paul Dana" -- for the racing community will be
held this Thursday (March 30) at 5:15 p.m. in
Mahaffey Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida (400
1st St. S., inside the race course of the Honda
Grand Prix of St. Petersburg). IRL "hard card"
holders will be admitted to the service.
The Dana family has asked that all donations be
sent to the Paul Dana Memorial Fund For Renewable
Energy, c/o National Bank of Indianapolis, 107 N.
Pennsylvania St., Suite 100, Indianapolis, IN,
46204.
Meanwhile, the Rahal Letterman Racing team has
withdrawn the No. 17 Team Ethanol Honda Panoz
Firestone entry for this weekend's Honda Grand
Prix of St. Petersburg out of respect of Dana and
his family. Last Sunday, the team withdrew the No.
15 (Rice) and 16 (Patrick) Argent Honda cars from
the season-opening race at Homestead.
Team co-owner Bobby Rahal is out of the country
this week, watching his son Graham race in the
A1GP event in China. Rahal said his organization
hopes to name a replacement driver for the No. 17
car in the near future. Both Rice and Patrick will
compete in this weekend's St. Petersburg street
event.
Buddy Rice Quote on Tuesday: "It is never easy
when someone is lost in the racing community,
especially when it is someone on your team. My
thoughts are with the Dana family. Everybody
reacts to situations differently. It is very
difficult for a close-knit group like the IndyCar
Series. I got to know Paul through our testing and
he was a good guy. He did a great job in
developing the Team Ethanol program. He was
learning about our cars and team. Our team will
work through this loss and move on. We still have
a job to do and we will race this weekend in St.
Petersburg. The Indy Racing League is a leader in
safety and they continue to learn with each
accident. I'm sure we will learn from Paul's crash
on Sunday.
Danica Patrick Quote on Tuesday: "On Sunday, I
saw Ed (Carpenter) spin in Turn 2 and I drove my
car to the inside and gassed it to get by. When I
came by again on the yellow flag, I knew it (the
crash) didn't look good. I didn't know it was
Paul's car until the team told me. There are a lot
of elements that came into my feelings about
Paul's death. I feel for his family. We as drivers
do this (racing) and our family have to watch. I
felt bad for my family after Paul's accident
because they see what can happen out there. I
believe Paul is in a better place. But this is a
tragedy. We have the greatest safety equipment in
the world and still this sport can be dangerous.
We know that. We reflected on that with my family
on Sunday. I have a great support group with my
family. We had a meeting with our Rahal Letterman
Racing team yesterday to talk about Paul and his
accident. It is sad when tragedy has to bring
people close together. But I think we gained
something positive from that meeting. Now we must
move on and go to St. Petersburg this weekend."
-rlr-
