Listing of the Week: Indy 500 winner's crash pad
The 8-bedroom Ohio estate of 1986 race winner Bobby Rahal is on the market for $3.5 million.
Arguably the only car race that nonrace fans may acknowledge, Sunday's Indianapolis 500 has been one of Memorial Day weekend's staples since its first running in 1911.
If you can't make it out to the track, what better place to enjoy it than the eight-bedroom, 11-bath mansion of a former race winner?
That could be the bounty for the buyer of 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal's 13,192-square-foot mansion in New Albany, Ohio, outside Columbus. Built in 1995 on an eight-acre lot, it's listed for $3.5 million. According to the Chicago Tribune, it has been up for grabs since at least late 2010, when it was listed for $4.75 million.
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The Tribune says Rahal has divided his time between the Columbus and Chicago areas since the 1980s. He bought a 6,600-square-foot mansion in Chicago's prestigious Lincoln Park neighborhood for $3.295 million in 2010.
Rahal was the first driver to complete the Indy 500 in less than three hours when he passed the checkered flag in 1986. In all, Rahal drove in 13 Indy 500s from 1982 to 1995, finishing third his final two years. His Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, which he co-owns with talk-show host David Letterman, also won the Indy 500 in 2004, behind driver Buddy Rice. It has one driver, Takuma Sato, in this year's race.
Rahal's son Graham, born and raised in the New Albany area, starts in the No. 12 position in this year's race after finishing third last year.
As for his New Albany home: Well, there's no crazy checkered-flag flooring or milk fountain — though certainly a creative buyer could fashion such Indy-centric accoutrements in the home. The agent's listing, however, does describe a "car barn" and room to park five vehicles.
There also is a wood-walled, well-appointed trophy room, should the home's next owner have enough hardware to rival Rahal's winnings on the Indy Car and Formula 1 circuits.
Other amenities include an in-ground pool, irrigation system, security system and gated community entrance.
For those of you thinking, "Nice house, but I don't dig the racing vibe," consider it a good thing that the Rahals didn't lend their family name to streets surrounding the property. That's exactly what four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt did near his land in Hockley, Texas. There's also a Foyt Road, which connects to streets named after fellow Indy 500 winners Al Unser, Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti, in Blakeslee, Pa., just outside NASCAR's Pocono Raceway.
'Listed' returns on May 29. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
— Tony Stasiek is a producer/editor at MSN Real Estate.
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
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