Eriksen enjoyed a 30-year career at Honda, rising to vice president and chief operating officer at HPD, before spending the last two seasons in charge of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac IMSA DPi program. The team scored five wins over the final two years of DPi regulations.
“Having known Steve since the beginning of the Honda Indy car program, I’ve had the opportunity to have many sporting and business discussions with him over the years and have always respected his approach,” said Bobby Rahal, who co-owns the RLL team with David Letterman and Mike Lanigan. “Steve is highly respected amongst those within the sanctioning organizations as well as the competitors and I’m pleased that we are able to bring him into our organization as the COO.
“His extensive, high-level experience with both IndyCar and IMSA will be a tremendous benefit to the company.”
Eriksen himself added: “When Bobby and Mike approached me about a newly-created COO position within RLL, I felt it was an excellent match for my skill set and came at an exciting time in North American motorsports with the coming electrification of both IndyCar and IMSA LMDh sports cars. I’m passionate about both of these forms of motorsport and excited to continue to be a part of these series as competition unfolds in the coming years.
“I feel like I have come full circle as I worked with the Rahal team in my first year in motorsport and joining the organization in its exciting new phase is personally very gratifying.”
RLL recently moved into a purpose-built racing headquarters in Zionsville, IN., which enabled them to bring both racing programs under one roof for the first time since 2011. In 2022, the team expanded to three full-season entries in the IndyCar Series for Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey – all of whom remain onboard for 2023 – and also worked with BMW M Motorsport to develop the new BMW M Hybrid V8.
