Rahal makes the cut at Indy

For Graham Rahal, driving in the Indianapolis 500 has been an near-lifelong ambition.

The son of 1986 Indy winner and IRL IndyCar Series team owner Bobby Rahal has been coming to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since he was a small child, and he has visualized himself in a car on the famed 2 1/2 -mile oval many, many times.

If finally happened this year, thanks to the unification of the two American open-wheel series, and the 19-year-old Rahal has taken full advantage.

He was among 22 drivers who qualified Saturday, filling the 33-car field for the May 25 race.

“I really wanted to race here last year,” said Rahal, who drove in the now-defunct Champ Car World Series in 2007 for eight-time champion Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. “Last year, I was here with Carl [Haas] and Mike [Lanigan], up in Mike’s suite. I was trying to convince them to run a car with my dad this year.

“It would be a joint venture. We would use my [crew] guys and my dad’s cars.”

Fortunately for Rahal, pursuing that deal became unnecessary when the unification was announced in January, putting all the top American open-wheel teams and drivers in one series.

The first 11 drivers, including most of the big names, made it into the field a week ago on the opening day of qualifications.

The second scheduled day of time trials, last Sunday, was rained out, leaving most of the lineup to fill this weekend.

Townsend Bell was the fastest of the day’s early qualifiers with a four-lap, 10-mile average of 222.539, barely bumping Rahal’s 222.531 out of the 11th spot.

Darren Manning was next at 222.430, followed by Bruno Junqueira at 222.330; Rahal’s teammate and fellow rookie Justin Wilson at 222.267; 2004 Indy winner Buddy Rice, Bell’s Dreyer & Reinbold teammate, at 222.101, and Davey Hamilton at 222.017.

Rookie Alex Lloyd and Ryan Hunter-Reay both came back from crashes earlier this month to qualify at 221.788 and 221.579.

Sarah Fisher, making her first drive as an owner-driver, qualified 22nd, while Milka Duno was 27th. With Danica Patrick a first-day qualifier, that means there will be three women in the Indy lineup for the second year in a row.

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Defending AMA Superbike champion Ben Spies won the first of two weekend races at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, leading every lap on the 12-turn, 2.2-mile road course.

Starting from the pole position, Spies, a 24-year-old Texan, rode a flawless race on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki to beat teammate Mat Mladin by 6.168 seconds.

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Nick Joanides took the lead on the fifth lap but had to hold off Travis Thirkettle’s repeated challenges to win the NASCAR ACDelco Super Late 50-lap feature race at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale.

Joanides edged Thirkettle at the finish line by 0.334 of a second for his fifth consecutive win of the season.