Road America: Risi Competizione preview

RISI READY FOR ANOTHER EPIC GT BATTLE AT ROAD AMERICA

Houston, TX, August 17, 2010. Fresh from its third ALMS victory of the year, in one of the most thrilling and closely-fought GT races of the year so far at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, the Pennzoil Ultra-supported Risi Competizione team now heads for Road America in Wisconsin. The Houston-based, privately-owned Ferrari team is in a buoyant mood as it approaches the seventh round of the American Le Mans Series, and the first of a back-to-back sequence of races, with Mosport in Canada swiftly following this weekend.

With a clashing round of the European-based Le Mans Series taking place in Hungary this same weekend, Risi will be without the talents of Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander but are delighted to welcome back Mika Salo and Pierre Kaffer. Neither driver is a stranger to the scenic Wisconsin track, and both are very much looking forward to returning to both the team and the venue.

Road America's 4.05 mile, European-style layout is popular with almost everyone in the field, and features a series of single corners without tricky or technical combinations, including the notorious "Kink", with useable curbs which can help to reduce lap time. This is the highest speed (States side) track visited by the teams and speeds of around 160mph (260kph) are reached three times a lap.

With an expected GT lap time of around 2m06s, track time will be at a premium in the practice sessions leading up to the race so the team will be working hard to optimize their set up as quickly as possible. Mika Salo can't wait to return to Road America and says, "It's the best track we visit in North America, in my opinion. The Ferrari F430 is obviously very competitive and it should be a tight race in the GT class...just like the last few have been."

After last year, when the Ferrari struggled with power equalization compared to its main rivals, Jaime Melo is also very positive about the forthcoming race. "It's quite a difficult track to set up a car for. It's long and you need to have a good set up for both slow and high speed corners, bumps and kerbs as well. It takes time to set up the car but we have a good base so I think that each time we go out we can just improve the car. We struggled last year as we lacked the power to be equal to our competitors but this year we know the car is good. We need another good result like at Mid Ohio to make our position in the championship more firm."

The next round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron will be the American Le Mans Series powered by e-Star at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Sunday, August 22. The race will start at 2:05 p.m. EST and will be shown live on SPEED, starting at 3:05 pm EST and internationally on MotorsTv - Tape Delayed on Sunday, August 29th beginning at 5:00 pm (UK)/6:00 pm CET (Central European Time. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche -- a production of Radio Show Limited -- as well as Sirius Channel 127 and XM Channel 242.

-source: risi