Rear View Window

“I know nothing stays the same,
But if you’re willing to play the game,
It’s coming around again….”
---Coming Around Again/Carly Simon

What a year. To paraphrase the seasonally acclaimed Charles Dickens (the Basil Rathbone version of “A Christmas Carol” is still the best of the old black and white takes on that classic story), 2009 was the best of times and the worst of times (and yes, I know that last phrase comes from the opening to A Tale of Two Cities, n’est pas).

In 2009, Risi Competizione, the little ole team from Texas did what is almost unthinkable for a private team to do in the 21st century factory team world: win every major endurance race that we were eligible for, with the Ferrari F430GT.

Let’s run that past one more time: Risi Competizione won every major endurance race in 2009. Even more amazing, it scored back to back victories in two of them (Le Mans and Petit Le Mans) and also won Sebring for the second time in three years. That is, by any standard, an amazing run for the team, the drivers, and the car. That was the “best of times”.

The not- best- of- times was haunted by the fact that we were not able to win the ALMS GT2 championship this year as the Flying Lizards brought it home for 2009, but we were second in the Championship race and had a chance to win the title right up until the final race of the season, although the odds were very stiff that we could do so (we had to finish first and the Lizards 10th or worse….not very likely).

Race by Race, here’s how 2009 played out for Risi Competizione:

57th ANNUAL MOBIL 1 12 HOURS OF SEBRING
Sebring International Raceway
Sebring, Florida
21 March 2009

The shadow of Ferrari is drama, and again this was true at Sebring where the questions of the 2009 race meeting were “Where is Risi Competizione ace Jaime Melo?” and “Will he be here in time to compete in the race?”. The answers were, in order, in transit and yes. After an interesting international credentials paper chase, Melo showed up at Sebring International Raceway none the worse for wear and ready to compete in the race which he had won (with Mika Salo and Johnnie Mowlem) in 2007 in the Risi Competizione 430GT. Because Melo was too late in arriving at the track to participate in mandatory night practice, the team was faced with a rules choice: either Melo forgoes participation in the nighttime period of the race or Risi Comp starts at the back of the pack.

Throw us in the briar patch; we will take starting from the back of the grid versus leaving Melo out of night racing. The correct choice it was. Within 40 minutes, Mika Salo had put the Risi Comp F430 GT into the top 3 in class. Twenty minutes later, Salo put the Ferrari into the top spot, where it remained—with the occasional variance—for the rest of the day.

The win was historic for a variety of reasons. One is that Risi Competizione has now taken the measure of Sebring in two of the last three years, having prevailed in 2007 in the closest finish in Sebring history. We have been on the podium in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. It was also historic as Risi Comp was facing intensely competitive factory teams from the Lizards and Rahal Letterman and their spiffy new BMWs, ( which had a very disappointing race). But Risi Competizione, a private team in a factory team world, distinct underdogs against everyone in the class, used superior preparation, intelligent driving, and the stunning stamina of the Ferrari 430 to win again at the world’s toughest endurance race.

2009 ACCURA SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE OF ST. PETERSBURG
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Street Course
4 April 2009

Melo takes the pole on this street circuit course with a 1.12.892 lap but the Risi Comp 430GT suffers an extremely rare DNF , going out after 27 laps with a suspension problem (broken left front axle). The Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Bergmeister and Long aboard won the race. This is a 100 minute race. These are endurance cars. We like longer races (even if we had a mechanical issue in this short one). I have been saying that for four or five years now; longer races are better for everyone—fans, cars, drivers, and teams. It costs the same to show up and run 100 minutes as it does to show up and run the ALMS standard 2 hours and 45 minutes (165 minutes) so run the longer distances; but when ALMS shares a weekend with another series (i.e. Indy/Champ cars), the ALMS race is usually the shorter one. And the ALMS teams suffer from less practice time to learn the circuit. There seems to be a promoter and media bias for single seat race series but in reality, the only single seat race that anyone in America cares about is the Indianapolis 500; the rest are placeholders. For example, name one Indy Car race other than the Indianapolis 500. Case closed.

Even Formula 1—the most technologically advanced form of single seat racing in the world—does not have a huge following in the U.S. Bottom line: let’s hope the powers that be promote and focus on sports car racing.

2009 TEQUILA PATRON AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES AT LONG BEACH
Long Beach, California
Street Course
18 April 2009

Another week, another street circuit, another 100 minute race. This one started off tough: the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT was sent to the back of the grid for a ride height violation, thus negating a 1:20.111 qualifying lap by Jaime Melo that would have been good enough for the pole. Winning the pole is always important, but even more so for 100 minute street courses like the one at Long Beach where passing opportunities run the gamut from slim to even- less- slim to none to zero, nada, nixso. Thus: double secret probation for the Risi Comp No. 62 Ferrari and back we went to the rear of the grid again (twice in the first three races? Must be a record of some type.) At the finish, it was the No. 45 Porsche of Flying Lizard in first and the No. 62 Ferrari of Risi Competizione (Driven by Melo and Kaffer) in second. Could the Ferrari have overtaken the Porsche if the race was longer? I wouldn’t bet against it. After all, Melo did have the fastest lap and was closing on the Porsche like a heat seeking missile when the checkered flag dropped. It reminds me of the old story about Napoleon and his thwarted invasion of Russia: “We didn’t lose the battle. We just ran out of troops”. (the word now is that Napoleon 'ran out of troops' because of lice. details here)

Same thing at Long Beach. We ran out of minutes and took a second.

LARRY H. MILLER DEALERSHIPS UTAH GRAND PRIX
Salt Lake City, Utah
Miller Motorsports Park
17 May 2009

A bit of sadness was in the air when we returned to the magnificent race track that Larry Miller built outside of Salt Lake City. Miller died on 20 February 2009 but he left behind a legacy of doing everything the right way, from running his automobile dealerships to managing his basketball team (the Utah Jazz), and that certainly includes building race tracks. The Miller Motorsports Park track is beloved by teams everywhere for its facilities and access. Drivers have to up their game a little here because the track does not have a lot of visual cues to aid in setting braking points, etc because there are no elevation changes and it’s laid out on the desert floor before the Wasatch range in Utah. The Utah Grand Prix is traditionally the last ALMS race before the Le Mans break, and so it’s important to do well here; it’s also important to not bend the car by having an on or off course incident (as we did last year, and then had to hustle the 430GT back to the race shop in Houston and put it all back into order before shipping it to France). Melo qualified the Ferrari in second place (the No. 45 Porsche was in first) and combined with co-driver Pierre Kaffer, took third place in the final race results. Four races into the 2009 ALMS season, Risi Competizione was in second position in the race standings, but had picked off the biggest race of the year thus far: the 1    2 Hours of Sebring. Next stop: the mother of them all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

24 HOURS OF LE MANS
Le Mans, France
Le Mans Circuit (Permanent/Street)
14 June 2009

Risi Competizione entered the 2009 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans as the defending GT2 champions. No where do you feel more like a private team in a factory team world than at Le Mans, where the big factory teams back up transporters full of cars, spares, and money. The place is incredibly expensive and the race is a budget buster: you won’t get much change out of $1.5 million if you bring a two car non-prototype team to Le Mans.
C’est la vie! We’re here for the sport of it and money can’t buy happiness but it can finance a place in history if your team, your drivers, and your destiny are all focused on the right things.

We were not the favorites to win our class at Le Mans this year because…well…we had won it last year. GT teams don’t repeat at Le Mans, unless they’re running in a class that only has two different brands competing (that would be GT1 ). We spent the warm up to the race tending to business, prepping the car correctly, not overdoing the practice sessions and staying intent on the job to be done. In the driver’s seat for Le Mans, we re-united the famous duo of Melo and Salo plus new kid on the team Pierre Kaffer who was also in the house. These three had just knocked off Sebring a few months before and all of them were eager to get it on with the rest of the GT2 competitors. Adding to the atmosphere was the fact that 2009 was the 60th Anniversary of Ferrari at Le Mans. If you read the Blog during race week, you got quite a bit of Ferrari’s history at Le Mans. Luca di Montezemolo, the Chairman of Ferrari, was the honorary starter for the race, so you can only imagine the stress that all the Ferrari teams were under (24 Hour race, have to run at the front, make the right pit presentation, all in front of the head of Ferrari, etc. etc.). Six hours into the race, the Risi Competizione F430GT was running in first place, with drivers double-stinting and even triple stinting. The No. 82 Risi Comp lead Ferrari won the race, eight laps and change ahead of the next closest car (also a Ferrari). And, in an unprecedented triumph, the No. 81 Ferrari 430GT entered by Risi Competizione and driven by Tracy Krohn, Eric Van de Poele, and Nic Jonsson finished third, giving Risi Comp cars two of the top three spots at the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans—a dominant performance from a private Team. Ferrari owned GT2 this year at Le Mans , as 10 of the top 11 places at Le Mans were Ferrari 430GTs. Well done and destiny is now history, as Risi Competizione has moved into the legendary status enjoyed by such great Ferrari teams as Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (NART). Next up: Lime Rock.

AMERICAN LE MANS NORTHEAST GRAND PRIX
Lakeville, CT.
Lime Rock Race Park
18 July 2009

The full race report for Lime Rock is to be found in “String Theory”….the missing race report which just recently surfaced. “String Theory” will be published in this blog within the next few days. This particular report was “lost” but a few copies leaked and thus it has received some interesting comments from regular readers of the Blog, due to the lead, which deals with theoretical physics. If don’t want to read the whole treatise, that’s fine: Risi Comp finished 2nd and the Flying Lizard Porsche took first. If you do want to read it, you will be so much closer to solving that time/space equation that keeps puzzling scientists all around the world. When you pick up your Nobel for Physics for doing so, please mention this blog and how we started you on the quest…..

ACCURA SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE
Lexington, Ohio
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
8 August 2009

Mid-Oh was a historic date for ALMS as the shift in emphasis that had been coming for three years finally arrived: BMW and Corvette arrived in the paddock with their new GT2 cars, joining the factory team(s) from Porsche. In the middle of this influx of new talent, money, and machinery: the private team of Risi Competizione. Qualifying saw the Flying Lizard Porsche in 1st and the Risi Comp Ferrari 430GT in second; a GT2 Corvette took third. The race was less than optimum from our point of view: the No. 62 Ferrari took fifth, missing the podium. On the podium, however, the factory guys were having a blast: Porsche in first, BMW in second, Corvette in third (and fourth). One of my contacts at the race said he thought the Corvettes were “sandbagging” because they seemed to be lifting off on the straights. Hmmmm.

TIME WARNER CABLE ROAD RACE SHOWCASE
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
Road America
16 August 2009

Road A has lots of straights and so it puts a premium on power. On this circuit, it was painfully obvious that the small restrictor on the Risi Competizione 430GT (the smallest restrictor in the class) was going to be a problem. It was. BMW went 1-2 on the pole, followed by a Porsche, followed by a pair of C6R Corvettes, followed by another Porsche and then the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT. One team member commented that the Ferrari was 11MPH off the pace on the straight at Road America, as measured by a radar gun. The finishing results echoed the reality of the race meeting: BMWs in 1st and 2nd, followed by a Corvette (still lifting on the straight…) and then Bergmeister/Long in the Porsche. The Risi Comp Ferrari captured 5th.

MOBIL 1 PRESENTS THE GRAND PRIX OF MOSPORT
Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
Mosport International Raceway
30 August 2009

The race meeting at Mosport—a track where Risi Comp has had some sensational successes in the past—did not start as promising as it finished. In the second practice session the normally flawless Jaime Melo, who loves this track and knows it very well, had an off that resulted in damages to the No. 62 Ferrari sufficient to keep it from making the call for qualifying. As a result, Risi Comp started 9th. BMW, still feeling it after their Mid-Ohio win, took the first two spots on the grid and Corvette took the next two. The new kids on the block had moved into prominence and were shoving everyone around, including the Porsche factory team. While the factory teams bumped around the track, the Risi Competizione team set about rebuilding the No. 62 Ferrari in the way they do everything: efficiently, quietly, without a lot of drama. On raceday, the artistry of their handiwork was obvious, as the Red Ferrari slashed through the field and took it to the leading Corvette. Mosport quickly went from race to high drama….here’s how it was reported on this blog:

“Meanwhile, Melo had been working his way through the field like a cowboy zeroing in on a barbeque pit. With just 20 minutes passed, Melo was running third in class—a statement of both his determination and the work by the Risi Comp team to make the car absolutely battle ready. One minute later, Melo gave Johnny O’Connell, driving the No. 3 Corvette C6R a bit of a shock by blowing past him, to take second in class. Olivier Gavin, in the No. 4 Corvette was in first and next on Melo’s hit list.

The two ran nose to tail for the most part of the rest of the first hour, when at 58 minutes into the race, Gavin dove into the pits for 4 tires, fuel, and a driver change: Gavin out/Beretta in.

Melo did the same, at the same time, received the same supplies, and exited the cockpit to allow Pierre Kaffer to take over the driving duties. Excellent crew work from the Risi Comp team sent Kaffer out in front of the Corvette and, in doing so, completed the climb from last to first place for the Rosso Corsa Ferraria 430GT.

The shadow of Ferrari is drama, and the 2009 Mosport ALMS race was becoming more dramatic with each passing minute.

Kaffer held onto first until an hour and 25 minutes into the race, when both of the Corvettes (No. 4/Beretta and No. 3/ Magnussen) passed him to push the Ferrari back to third. Beretta held 1st and Magnussen 2nd after the exchange.

Eleven minutes later, Kaffer dug in deep and took Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette for second place, passing him on the front straight. Kaffer’s pass on the straight was unexpected as the Corvettes have held since their entry into the GT2 class a distinct straight line speed advantage over the Ferrari 430GT. Is it a restrictor issue? Is the Corvette being allowed a more generous restrictor versus the Ferrari? Is Porsche? The answer to both questions is yes, since the Ferrari is racing with the smallest restrictor in the class. The bigger question is…..why? Why make one of your top competitors race in the mechanical equivalent of oxygen debt?

Makes no difference at this point because the race is on the track and not in the rule books. Ferrari will have to deal with the situation on the straights just as Porsche, BMW, and Corvette will have to learn to cope with the Ferrari’s braking and cornering ability.

Back to the action: At 4:52PM, an hour and 47 minutes into the race, Mueller pulled his No. 92 BMW 392 M3 into the pits and then, after a rear-end check, it was taken behind the wall. The run of one BMW was over.

Timeline: 5:05PM, 2 hours running time. Kaffer pulls the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT into the lead in class when Beretta in the No. 4 Corvette experiences a racing moment and goes wide at Turn 3 after a close brush with Jon Field in the No. 37 Lola BO6/10 AER. Magnussen in the No.3 Corvette pulled up alongside Kaffer but PK held him off. The race is now on between Magnussen in the Corvette and Kaffer in the Ferrari.

At 2 hours, 7 minutes into the race, Kaffer is still in front, holding off a hard charging Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette C6R, by .871 seconds. The battle between the Corvette and the Ferrari is now fully joined; unlike Road America, where the Corvette’s clear top speed advantage gave them a definitive edge over the Ferrari 430GT, Mosport’s mixture of high speed corners and modest straights leveled the playing field—to some extent—between these two world class cars and teams: Risi Comp running the Ferrari, the Pratt & Miller team running the two Corvettes.

Six minutes later, Kaffer goes into the pits for four tires and fuel. He remains in the car to double stint and take it all the way home. Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette then takes the lead in class. There are 32 minutes left in the race.

Magnussen is forced to pit at 5:22PM, with just 28 minutes left in the race. He goes for new tires and fuel, but also does not give up the driver’s seat. Deft pit work by the Corvette Crew gets Magnussen out just ahead of Kaffer, pushing the big yellow Corvette out of the pits in front of Kaffer’s Ferrari.

Kaffer continues to attack, pulling close to Magnussen in the corners and twisty spots, only to see the big Corvette pull away on corner exits and straights. They go nose to tail for the rest of the race, with Magnussen pulling out the win with a .331 second lead over Kaffer and the Risi Comp Rosso Corsa 430GT. The Corvette team took its’ first win in GT2 and Risi Competizione added to their legend by taking another last place start and turning it into a podium finish and a near win.”

Corvette won its’ first ALMS race in GT2 and the Ferrari came second. Bergmeister/Hand in the Porsche took fifth.

Even Giuseppe Risi, who does not believe in moral victories, loved the result in this one—it was that great a race and so rewarding for everyone on the team.

PETIT LE MANS AT ROAD ATLANTA
Braselton, Georgia
Road Atlanta
26 September 2009

Last year, Risi Competizione won this race, adding it to their historic win at the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans. This year, with all the factory teams present, the talk in the Paddock was not about Risi Comp defending their title but which one of the new teams would win. Uh…not so fast guys. We’re here. Let’s race.

Qualifying was another set of surprises. The pole was taken by the Doran Fort GT-R (No. 40; D. Murry/D.Robertson/A.Robertson), not the fastest thing on the track in the corners but an absolute rocket when it’s going straight. Second on the grid was a Corvette, but not the Pratt & Miller one, a Chevrolet Riley Corvette driven by Sutherland, with Drissi and Bell as co-drivers. Well done to both the Ford and the Vette.   A C6R from Pratt & Miller was third (Beretta/Gavin/Faesller), the two BMWs 4th and 5th, and Bergmeister and Long in sixth in the Porsche. Our guys, Melo/Kaffer/Salo were 10th on the grid after Melo picked up some debris from the track that ruined one of his racing tires and with the team out of “marked” tires for qualifying, the strategic decision was made to keep the 10th spot on the grid and run from there. After all—it is a long race.

Race day was dark and cloudy and rainy and terrible and then it got worse. As the deluge continued, the circuit became more and more treacherous and resulting in a suspension of racing after 4 hours and 49 minutes due to unsafe track conditions.   At the time the red flag was shown, Mika Salo’s Ferrari F430 GT was leading the GT2 class with a lap in hand thanks to an inspired early strategic call for the Michelin “wet” tires. Salo who had asked to switch to rain tires early in his stint during increasingly heavy rain was thus able to pass all his competitors, first on the track, and then additionally as they all had to pit for their own wet tires.

The race remained suspended for a further 3 hours and 56 minutes before the checkered flag was shown and the race was called as the rain showed no sign of letting up and darkness was approaching. To proceed under those conditions would be to invite disaster.

When the race was called, Risi Comp had done the unthinkable in unbelievable conditions: won the Petit Le Mans for 2009. The win placed Risi Competizione in the position of being the top GT racing team in the world for its performance in the major, classic races. It had won the “Triple Crown” of GT Endurance Racing. In two years, Risi Competizione had won Le Mans twice (2008, 2009), Petit Le Mans Twice (2008, 2009), and Sebring once (2009). In 2009 alone, the team had won all three majors: Sebring, Le Mans, Petit Le Mans. And, looking back one year, the team had won Sebring two of the last three years (2007, 2009). Going into the last race of the year at Laguna Seca the team maintained a very slight possibility of winning the GT2 ALMS Championship, despite not having won any of the small ALMS races.

MONTEREY SPORTS CAR CHAMPIONSHIPS PRESENTED BY PATRON
Monterey, California
Laguna Seca Raceway
10 October 2009

Once again in 2009, it came down to one last run for the glory at Laguna Seca. Melo put the Ferrari 430 GT into second sport on the grid, behind the Corvette driven by Magnussen (one of the Pratt & Miller entries) and ahead of another Corvette steered by Gavin.

The Risi Competizione Ferrari had to finish the race in first and the Flying Lizard Porsche had to take 10th (or worse) in order for Risi to take the team title. But it was not to be. Pierre Kaffer, perhaps driving his most inspired race of the year, had the Ferrari in 1st place an hour and 14 minutes into the race. Eight minutes later, Magnussen, in the No. 3 Corvette C6R set the fastest lap of the race trying to run down Kaffer, but Pierre held on. Two minutes later, the Ferrari’s day was over, as Kaffer had an on-course incident with the No. 33 Jaguar XKR (in its first official outing) when the Jaguar cut in front of the Ferrari and contact was made. The damage was barely visible, but enough to require a new radiator for the Ferrari, and the time required to do so would drop No. 62 so far down the standings as to make it impossible to win the race. With a “win or no-go” situation facing the team, the car was retired at 1 hour and 34 minutes into the race. Thus, the end to the chase for the 2009 ALMS Team Championship for Risi Competizione.

The Flying Lizard team, in true competition spirit, went on to contest the race all the way to the rather spectacular end, choosing not to “back into the championship” but to take it by winning the race, which they did. Good for them.

There was a rather serious bump and grind incident at the very end of the race and the net result was the destruction of one of the Corvettes and the hospitalization of driver Jan Magnussen. Whether or not it was a “racing incident”, I will not debate but luckily, no one was seriously injured and, given the severity of the crash, that in itself was a miracle.

And that was 2009. We won the Triple Crown. We did not win the ALMS Championship. Importantly, however, with the 2009 season, Risi Competizione has entered the history books as one of the dominant GT teams in the modern era with a record that will be tough for its competitors to match in the major endurance races.

The upcoming season, 2010, will be a bit of an interim year for everyone. Ferrari is developing a racing version of the new 458GT but it won’t be ready until 2011; new rules also come into play in 2011 in both ALMS and for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And as the prototype ranks thin, more and more factory teams will move into GT racing.

It never gets any easier in world class racing but there would be no point in racing if it did.

The first race of the 2010 season is the 12 Hours of Sebring, to be contested on March 20th, 2010, where Risi Competizione will attempt to defend the GT2 title won in 2009. We will, again, enter the race as underdogs, a position we are totally comfortable with.

More to come, as the blog goes into “Pre-Season” mode and the range of topics expands. Thanks for your support in 2009.

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Don Pierce 20 January 2010 |

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Don Pierce

20 January 2010 |