Win or Lose, It’s Been a Great Year : Auto racing: Rahal will celebrate his first season as a car owner regardless of the outcome today at Laguna Seca.

Bobby Rahal has won the Indianapolis 500 and two PPG Cup Indy car driving championships, but he says a victory today in the Toyota Monterey Grand Prix would be the biggest thrill of his 19-year racing career.

It’s not just a win at Laguna Seca Raceway--where he has won four times in the past--it’s that a win in the season’s final race would give him his third national championship--but his first as a car owner.

“Winning the championship this year would be my greatest achievement, no doubt about it,” Rahal said. “Winning your first one, like we did in 1986 with (team owner) Jim Trueman having passed away, was a story book year, but what makes this one more worthwhile is that I will be winning it for the people, especially Karl Hogan, who went to the mat for me when we were trying to get a new team organized.”

To win his third championship, Rahal needs to finish fourth or better in his black and gold Chevrolet-powered Lola even if his closest pursuer, Michael Andretti, wins the 186-mile race around Laguna Seca’s 11-turn, 2.214-mile hillside course. Rahal has 182 points, Andretti 170 and Al Unser Jr., with an outside chance of winning, has 165.

Twenty-two points are available, 20 for winning and one each for the fast qualifier and the most laps led.

There are many scenarios of how the championship and its $1 million bonus can be decided, but the most intriguing would be if Rahal dropped out and Andretti finished fourth. That would put them in a points tie, 182-182. The tie-breaker is the number of races with the highest finishes. Both have won four and both have been second three times. Rahal would be the champion because he has two third-place finishes and Andretti none.

“All that computing and figuring doesn’t mean a thing to me,” Rahal said. “I know the best way to guarantee a win is to keep Michael behind me, and that’s what I intend to do. I also know Michael can’t afford to just stay ahead of me, He has to win and hope other guys finish ahead of me.”

Just being in this position is a fairy-tale for Rahal, who at this time last year didn’t even know who he would be driving for this season. He had switched from the Galles-Kraco team, with which he had finished second in 1991, to Pat Patrick’s team, which had won the 1989 championship with Emerson Fittipaldi.

In December, Patrick decided he wanted to get out of racing and offered Rahal the opportunity to purchase his team’s assets. Rahal contacted Hogan, a close friend and former race car owner in the Formula 5000 and Can-Am series, and the two formed a partnership to buy out Patrick.

“The day we made the announcement that we had formed Rahal-Hogan Racing was as exciting as sitting in the winner’s circle five years ago at Indy,” the 39-year-old Dublin, Ohio, driver said. “I had always dreamed of being a car owner one day, and being the driver of my own team was extra special.”

Rahal won the second race of the season, at Phoenix, and except for a two-race lapse at Vancouver and Mid-Ohio--where he crashed both times--Rahal has been at the top of the points.

“Many people said I couldn’t handle being both an owner and a driver, but with more control, I thought it was easier,” Rahal said. “I have had more fun driving this year than I have for a long time. When the season started back in March in Australia, we didn’t know what to expect. We went into the series with the intention of winning some races, but we knew it was going to be a struggle.

“Roger Penske (with drivers Rick Mears, Paul Tracy and Fittipaldi) was the only guy with the new Chevy B engine, the Andrettis had the new Ford and we had the old tried and true Chevy A, but we went about testing with every hope of being super competitive.”

After the victory at Phoenix, Rahal went on to win at Detroit, New Hampshire and two weeks ago at Nazareth, Pa., the Andretti’s home town.

“There’s no question that beating him there had some impact, but anyone who thinks Michael will give up doesn’t know Michael. It was critical to come out ahead in his hometown, at such a critical point in the championship, but I can’t believe he has come here with any less determination. He’s a proud man, and I’m sure he’d like to leave Indy car racing with a win in his last race.”

Andretti will join the Formula One Grand Prix circuit next season as a member of the McLaren team.

“The same holds true for me. I am more determined than ever to win (today). I don’t accept the idea that I could be satisfied with finishing second or third. I want to cap this season with a win, the way I did here in 1987.

“More than anything else, I want to win for Karl Hogan. We worked very hard to put the pieces together to get into position to be where we are. I spent the last three months of last year to put together this dream, and Karl was the catalyst. I don’t know if we’d have even got past first base without Karl coming along, and here we are now about to touch home plate as champions.

“And let me say something else. If circumstances work against us (today), and we don’t win the championship, obviously I’d be disappointed at not fulfilling what we set out to do, but we’ll celebrate either way. The fact is that we have accomplished more in our first year than anybody would have thought. It’s been a wonderful year.”