11 August 2007 | Race Day | Road America
get back to where you once belonged
“Stand by me….� ('“When the night has come and the land is so dark, and the moon is the only light we’ll see. I won’t be afraid, no I won’t be afraid, just as long as you stand by me…�)
There are two really great version of Stand By Me…..one by Ben E. King, who made it a signature song, but the very best one is by David and Jimmy Ruffin from “Live at the Appollo�, loaded with counterpoint vocals and a lead that builds tension beautifully.
Coming into Saturday’s Generac 500 at Road America, Risi Competizione is recalibrating after some on track racing incidents. During practice, the team has brought its speed back to the front, but will the faithful hang on, will they stand by the team, as it drives to return to the top of the ALMS GT2 standings in every category.
Warmup is uneventful. Salo sets the fastest lap but he’s on orders to not push it. Helary takes a detour into the gravel trap at Turn 5 with no lasting consequence and Melo closes the session by book-ending Salo’s fastest lap with one of his own. The cars are pulled from the track, move back to the transporter for a tidy-up pre-race and all that’s left now is to run the honest mile.
At 4:10PM, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the Generac 500 at Road America is green flagged and the faithful and the competitive get what they came for: a race.
Mueller in the No. 31 Ferrari 430GT is first in class at the end of the first lap in GT2, when suddenly the pits open up under a yellow and the GT2 Porsches dive in for fuel and tires.
At 4:33PM (23 minutes into the race) van Overbeek in the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR picks up the lead followed, ominously, by Mika Salo in No. 62. Closer examination reveals that the big Maser (No. 27) had nicked the No. 31 Ferrari driven by Mueller, thus allowing van Overbeek to squeeze by into first.
Thirty-five minutes in, van Overbeek’s lead is a mere .338 over Salo, but van Overbeek has seen this movie before and he knows how it ends.
At 4:49PM, 39 minutes into the race, Salo exercises the theory of evolution on the track, and passes van Overbeek. Van Overbeek complains of “contact� but later recants and admits it was just a “racing incident�. Not two minutes later Van Overbeek in the No. 45 Porsche gets into the side of Salo’s Ferrari, spinning the Ferrari and allowing Mueller, who was avoiding those two like the plague, through and into first. Van Overbeek subsequently suffers a wide off at turn 5 for his ding of Salo and hits the pits with a low tire.
4:43PM and the drama continues as van Overbeek gets a black flag (for hitting Salo) and is brought into the pits for a stop and go.
The show goes on, with less drama now as the players realize it’s a four hour race and that maybe finishing should be part of the script. Bruni (No. 61 Ferrari 430GT) dives into the pits at 1 hour and 5 minutes into the race for fuel, new tires, and to let Eric Helary have a go. He’s followed two minutes later by Salo, who hands the wheel over to Melo while the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT is refueled and re-tired with new Michelins.
At 5:38PM, one hour and 19 minutes into the race, Tom Milner, in the No. 18 Porsche, who had been leading GT2 hits the pits for the trinity (tires, fuel, driver) and Melo blows past and into the lead in class.
At about this time, rain appears over parts of the circuit, Road America being one of those tracks that’s big enough to have rain on one part of the circuit and no rain on others. Melo dives in the pits to change to rain tires and pick up some fuel and blasts out to race; Helary follows Melo’s lead in the No. 61 a minute later and puts on some rain spec Michelins and adds fuel.
The official running order at 1 hour and forty-one minutes into the race in GT2 is:
Ralf Kelleners, No. 18 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in 1st
Jaime Melo, No. 62 Ferrari 430GT in 2nd
Peter Dumbreck, No. 18 Ferrari 430GT in 3rd.
At 6:36PM, two hours and twenty-seven minutes into the race, Melo, who had taken over first when Kelleners went into the pits for tires and fuel, goes in for a pit stop himself. Melo’s stop puts Kelleners, driving for late night king Dave Letterman and Indy Legend Bobby Rahal, back into first. But can it stick?
The deciding moment of the race occurs at approximately 7:00PM, two hours and fifty three minutes into the race.
Ralf Kelleners, then leading the race In his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, goes into the pits for 4 tires and fuel; he will remain in the car. Melo goes in at the same time, for 4 tires and fuel; he will remain in the car. But the difference maker, off the track, is the Risi Competizione team’s pit work: Melo is out faster than Kelleners and takes the lead. He will not give it back for the remainder of the race.
Melo is a man who loves to run at the front and his on-track work shows it. At 7:33PM, three hours and twenty-three minutes into the four race, Melo has stretched out a 9.823 second lead over Kelleners; in third place is Dirk Mueller in the No. 31 Ferrari 430GT.
And that is how they finished, although the lead at the end was down to a mere 1:1.56 seconds as Melo had to conserve fuel and Kelleners had gas to spare. Mueller put another Ferrari on the podium by capturing third. The No. 61 Ferrari 430GT finished sixth in class, another steady performance by Bruni and Helary. Coming into Road America, Risi Competizione was looking for answers.
When they left the circuit after the race, it was the competition asking the questions. Meanwhile, the band played on…….
“Get Back, Get Back, Get Back to where you once belonged….�
And so we did. Back to the top of the podium, back to first in the GT2 Championship Standings for Team and Driver and Manufacturer. In taking Road America, Risi Competizione won it’s fifth race of the eight races contested so far in ALMS this year. And don’t forget that second place at Le Mans in June. And that First Place at Sebring.
Quite year, quite a team. Thanks for your support.
Next up: Mosport. Stay tuned.
10 August 2007 | Qualifying | Road America
the Beatles: the band, and Ferrari: the car
“Get Back, Get Back, Get Back to Where you once belonged….� ('Get Back' by the Beatles)...
Get Back is one of the purest Rock & Roll songs ever recorded by The Beatles. It was performed only three times,and live only once in the famous “rooftop concert� , which took placed atop the Abbey Road studios a performance captured in the amazingly brilliant film “Let it Be� by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. (catch this one…it’s superb).
There are some very interesting parallels between The Beatles, the band, and Ferrari, the car—most notably incessant, relentless change and innovation and excellence in all things attempted. At Road America, Risi Competizone got back to where it once belonged, the top of the podium and life as we know it in the Ferrari universe is now restored to balance.
To be blunt, the Lime Rock and Mid-Ohio ALMS GT2 races were not optimum for Risi Competizione, because of on-course incidents that knocked both cars out of high scoring positions on the podium.
Let me be straight about this: Risi Competizione has no problem lining up with anyone, anytime, for a race. We showed up when Porsche ruled ALMS with twenty-plus straight wins and we were the only Ferrari on the grid. We didn’t quit. We didn’t wimp out. We fear no one and we love to compete. We ask one thing: let’s race on fair terms. We will take our chances under those conditions, n’est pas?
How order was restored is the story of Road America, a seemingly bucolic race track in the hinterlands of Wisconsin.
Road America is a long, high speed track, a classic in American road racing, with a rich history and great fans. It's not without danger, as it has three spots where a 430GT will hit 160MPH. About a year ago, August 6th Cristiano Da Matta has a serious accident at turn 6, when he hit a deer that had managed to leap the 9 foot wildlife fence that encircles the circuit. Racing is serious business everywhere and especially serious at a place like Road America.
For this event, we expected Porsche to have an advantage, as well as the Panoz. Both of these makes have huge horsepower and torque advantages and the track suits them quite well. Rumors abounded that Porsche was bringing a super-trick engine to the track, to continue to take it to Ferrari.
Strategically, this was the right move of course, Porsche winning the last two races (Lime Rock and Mid-Oh) which put them into the lead for the championship, a fact which made life at Risi Competizione not so pleasant.
In the first practice session, Risi Competizione sorted out tires and shocks. To get a good idea of what setting up a car up for Road America is like, from the Team Engineer’s perspective, I highly recommend you read Team Engineer Rick Mayer’s column on Road America, which you can find right here.
Before we go deeper, here's some background: The Risi Competizione Driver Lineup for Road America has, In No. 62, Mika Salo and Jaime Melo doing the piloting chores for Mr. Risi. In No., 61, the very formidable duo of Gianmarie Bruni and Eric Helary, a tandem loaded with experience and looking to make a name at Porsche and Panoz’s expense.
For the Friday, August 10th, morning practice session, the cars went off with an air temperature of 82 degrees and a track temp of 86 degrees F. Young Peter Drumbeck, the new kid on the block at Petersen White Lightening, turned the fastest GT2 time at 2:08.978 in the Petersen White Lightening 430GT. Drama and a modest form of light relief was provided by the No. 27 Maserati GT1 driven by Freddy Lienhard Sr. who put the car in the gravel trap, in the second of twin spins in the same lap. Eric Helary, took third in this session in the No. 61 Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT. Helary, a consummate professional who guided the Peugeot Diesel Program as a test pilot (Peugeot was second behind the big Audis at Le Mans) is a terrific addition to Risi Competizione.
Second Practice: At 1:20PM the green flag drops and the engines roar and it’s the start of practice session Number 2. Jaime Melo opens by setting the fastest lap at 2:09.675 a mere six minutes into the gig. A mere 7 minutes in, Melo pops another GT2 fastest lap at 2:08.224. At 1:30PM, he does it again, dropping his time to 2:08.019. And again at 1:34, with a 2:07.895. Again, at 1.50, at 2:07.556. Gianmaria Bruni, who pairs with Eric Helary in No. 61, cozies up to post second fastest time in GT2 at 2:07.894.
Next up: Qualifying.
Qualifying is a mere 20 minute session (for a four hour race) and the flag drops at 2:30PM on Friday.
Tom Milner, in the No. 18 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR goes out and sets the fast lap in class with a 2:09.305 but the Risi Comp faithful know what is coming: a red blur in the form of Jaime Melo.
At 2:36, a mere six minutes into the session, Melo rips the heart of the Porsche faithful with a 2:07.703. Then, at 2:38, he does it again, posting a 2.07.281 (a new class qualifying record), and just to make certain that no one misses the point about how seriously Risi Competizione and Mr. Risi are taking this race, he nails one last one at 2:07.191 for another new class record. It was Melo’s sixth pole (in two years) of ALMS GT racing and his third this year. Bruni puts the No. 61 Ferrari into Third on the Grid, with a 2:07:858. In second place, the PWL Ferrari 430GT driven by Dirk Mueller. Ferraris in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, on the grid.
Tomorrow, we race. It’s a four hour event and we’re quite comfortable at long distances (we’re also quite comfortable at short ones) so the red Ferrari F430GTs go back to the transporters for some pre-race prep and everyone else in GT2 scratches their heads and tries to figure out how to cope with that type of speed.