18 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Houston, Texas
aftermath
BACK AT THE RACE SHOP
“Don't look back
To the days of yester-year
You cannot live on in the past
Don't look back….�.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh *&%^$*%!!
That’s the feeling this morning at Risi Competizione, located inside the Ferrari of Houston complex at 6100 Southwest Freeway. The big red transporters (Volvo Tractors pulling custom built High-Tech Trailers) have returned, carrying cars No. 61 (3rd place in the 12 Hours of Sebring with Krohn, Jonsson and van de Poele at the wheel ) and No 62 (DNF with Salo, Melo, Bruni) to the race shop.
From the last race in October of 2007 to the first race of 2008—The 12—we had pointed to March to kick off the season in strong form. In winter tests, No. 62 was quickest in 7 out of 8 sessions. In each session leading up to the start of The 12, No. 62 was No. 1. Salo and Melo had a very finely tuned machined and they knew how to play it, as did Jimmy Bruni, who turned the duo into a trio for the endurance run that is The 12 Hours of Sebring.
We did not take it well, losing at Sebring. We never take it well. We’re lousy at it and hate it and don’t want it in our lives. It’s a pain, a disappointment, a dream collapsed. That doesn’t mean we’re classless when we get beat—to the contrary, I’d like to think we’re very gracious when our competition gets the better of a race meeting. We know it’s impossible to win every race. We know the competition is brutal and professional and stacked against us. But we still don’t like loosing.
We ride to win.
We race Ferraris.
We’re a part of a long heritage in racing and proud of it.
We have no excuses. We’re a private team and the factory team beat us? Not acceptable.
We’re small; they’re large. Not worth talking about.
Congratulations to Flying Lizard for putting a pair of Porsches in front of our No. 61 430GT Ferrari (Krohn, Jonsson and van de Poele did a great job of race management and on-course speed).
But we liked it better last year when we beat them…even if was only by .202 of a second after 12 hours.
Now, the aftermath.
It’s regroup time and Risi Competizione shifts gears again, as we have to prep for the next race, at St. Petersburg.
Giuseppe Risi wastes no time. The No. 62 is sent directly to the Ferrari of Houston Body Shop(short endorsement: one of the very few Factory Authorized Body Shops in North America) and into the loving hands of Steve Egyed, our Body Shop Manager, who is expected to correct the damage from the on-course incident that ended No. 62’s run. Egyed cuts away fender, replaces a structural piece of aluminum here and there, sands and seals and paints and tidies it up and then sends it back to the race shop.
Meanwhile, No. 61 is being stripped and checked for wear, damage, Down to the frame (and then, of course, back up again).
Risi has one meeting after another: Dave Sims and Rick Mayer and Mark Shomann and Don Shaver and Jaime Melo and Richard Taylor are quizzed about the car, the race, the prep, the track and the next race, the next track, the next prep. It is—to be blunt—quite intense.
But this is Ferrari. The shadow of Ferrari is drama and no one likes the drama we created at Sebring.
Post-race analysis done and logged, it’s time to move forward.
“Stop dreaming
And live on in the future
But darlin', a-don't look back
Whoa, no-no
Don't look back�
--Don’t Look Back, Van Morrison
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
the 43,200
RACE TIME: HOUR ELEVEN
“Wait a minute baby,
Don’t leave just yet.
I can explain darling.
But it looks like the more I talk, the madder you get.
It’s not what you think it is. Trust me, I wouldn’t do you no harm…..
…I was wrong and I forget it. My explanations, they don’t seem to get it.�
--I was wrong. Keb ‘Mo.
A decade ago I had my clock radio set on KPFT in Houston, Texas—a Pacifica station. Because it’s a Pacifica station, and because this was pre-satellite radio—the station played music that didn’t quite make it onto the Top 40 Charts that ruined modern American FM radio (and in the process made Satellite Radio possible and economically viable). The station clicked on one morning with I Was Wrong by Keb ‘Mo. It’s a beautiful rhythm and blues number, just the right tempo, instrumentation, and bass line. I practically leaped out of bed it was so good. Get a copy—you’ll love it.
But it’s here, today, for another reason. It sets the right mood for a less than optimum situation. The retirement of No. 62 at The 12. After digging around for the right framework to explain how bad things happen to good teams, I think I found it.
Sometimes it helps to put the sport of endurance racing into perspective, especially when you’re trying to understand how a program that was going so well (Risi Competizione No. 62 Ferrari 430GT driven by Salo/Melo/Bruni) and then all of a sudden isn’t going at all.
The answer is in a short quantitative analysis of the problems and challenges of mathematics.
We have dealt in this blog, in the past, with the qualitative issues of developing a world class team: drivers, preparation, technicians, planning, facilities, testing, assets, steady management, supportive sponsors and backers.
Now, let’s do the quantitative side, just so you know the odds of winning a race like Sebring and why, as Ted Turner said in his massively truthful autobiography, “it ain’t as easy as it looks�.
In a 12 hour race like the 12 Hours of Sebring, there are 43,200 seconds (60 seconds x 60 minutes per hour x 12 hours).
Those 43, 200 seconds must each be handled correctly to finish the race; they must each be managed to perfection to win.
Think about a team winning 43,200 games in a row, or a pitcher throwing 43,200 consecutive strikes, or a basketball player making 43,200 shots consecutively.
To compound the difficulty, each of those seconds has mini-opportunities for failure or success—1/10th of a second here, 1/100th of a second there. Throughout those 43, 200 seconds, situations must be sized up instantly and correctly and there is no room for error.
Last year, a 12 Hour Race came down to a .202 winning margin, so you can easily see that parsing the seconds is not just a philosophical position, it’s a reality that drivers and team managers must face. Make the right decision—in the 1/100th of a second you have to evaluate the situation and your options and make your move—and you win. Make the wrong one, and you crash or go off.
As noted earlier in this blog, Jaime Melo—faced with one of those 1/100th of a second decisions—took the wrong option. It ended his race and, regrettably, the race for the Farnbacher Loles Porsche.
But as long as men race cars, they will be faced with such decisions. The best teams and drivers make the majority of them correctly. But everyone, sooner or later, has to face the odds and the odds say that no one is perfect even though perfection is required to win a race like the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Think you’re Sebring material? No problem. Make 43,200 decisions—at speed, in a race car,without hitting or hurting anyone else—and we just might want to talk to you.
But be warned: it ain’t as easy as it looks. And we’ve got the first hand experience to prove our point.
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
a massive collision with fate
RACE TIME: HOUR 5:32 (3:37 PM)
“Ease it over, son
I'll show you how she runs
Screamin' like a demon
When the quarter mile comes
Crankcase cookin', that's her manifold destiny
Now she might run cold for you
She runs hot for me.
She runs hot for me
She runs hot for me
She runs hot for me
Now she might run cold for you
She runs hot for me�
--She Runs Hot For Me, Little Village
At 3:37PM on 15 March 2008, Risi Competizione’s No. 62 Ferrari had a massive intersection with fate at Sebring International Raceway. Jaime Melo was driving the car and came together with Dirk Werner’s No. 87 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in turn 7. The resulting collision put both cars out of the race.
Again: the resulting collision put both cars out of the race.
Based on a viewing of the TV tapes, Melo was trying to take an inside line, after quite long yellow flag delay, got caught out on the grass coming into the corner, couldn’t brake, tagged the Porsche and both cars were damaged enough to stop their efforts. Melo had the accident with a one lap lead.
It’s not a happy scene as Elvis has left the building. The air has been let out of the ball. It is a sudden, debilitating, crushing moment and I am stunned.
I was cranking away on the blog on another story when someone in the press box grabs my shoulder and points me to the instant replay—made all the more painful by the Michelin onboard camera. It’s obvious there’s a problem, as one sees the Ferrari 430GT plow through the turf.
Melo manages to move the car to a safe location, but he gets orders from Chris Riggs, the head tech, to shut the car off, turn off all circuits, so as not to sustain anymore damage.
At 3:44, five hours and 37 minutes into the race, the race is over for the Risi Competizione No. 62 Ferrari 430GT. The car did not make the half-way point and went out while leading by one lap.
Melo’s comment on the incident was typically direct: “I went into the hairpin and it was a big mess with lots of cars. To avoid it, I went on the inside and could not stop because I was on the grass. I hit the No. 87 Porsche. I could say it was my fault and I am very, very sorry for everyone involved.�
We could say it was a racing accident and these things happen and everyone who takes the track—including the Farnbarcher Loles Porsche that was involved—has to take those risks. This is not the first time for such an incident and it won’t be the last. But it came an unfortunate time for everyone in a very major race. But that’s racing.
The accident is, however, a reminder of the reality of racing—that anything can happen at anytime to any car. That is why you run the race. Hap Sharp, one of the great minds behind the Chaparral race car, was once quoted as saying that “the race goes sometimes to the fastest but always to the one who finishes.�
Today, our car was the fastest. But it will not be the one that wins.
By hour six, however, the other Risi Competizione entered car, the No. 61 driven by Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and Eric van de Poele has moved into 4th position in GT2. Could we be seeing a reprise of their performance at the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, where they took second?
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
consolidation
RACE TIME: HOUR FIVE
“Are you lookin' at the moon tonight
You even brave enough to try
To find your strength inside
Change your mind, decide
Cause I fell from the sky
I tried to catch your eye
In a velvet sky
Did you wish upon a fallin' star
Do you know where you are in your life
Are you walkin' in between the lines�
---Velvet Sky, Los Lonely Boys
n Houston, Texas, we have a very wide variety of live music. One of my pals—who requests that I keep his name out of the public limelight—is one of the people who discovered a very hot Tex-Mex band named Los Lonely Boys.
There are a lot of great musicians in Texas(Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, ZZ Top) and the music scene on Austin’s Sixth Street is the equal of any other city with a great music heritage (New Orleans, Nashville) and a lot more convenient (cause we live in Texas).
Los Lonely Boys broke big and fast with their first major release, and their song, “Heaven� is a great modern anthem of love gained. One of their best tunes is Velvet Sky, a song which describes the mood here at Sebring International Raceway.
We’re five hours into the race. No dramas, no excitement for your boys from Risi Competizione. Just relentless pressure on the competition. Salo, Melo, and Bruni have carved out a one lap lead on the rest of the field, with Jaime Melo in the saddle as the Ferrari 430GT pushes into Hour 5. He’s followed by Wolf Henzler (Flying Lizard, No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR); Dirk Werner (Farnbacher Loles, No. 87, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR); Alex Davison in the No. 5 VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR( a surprisingly great run for VICI, who are new to Sebring) and Allen Simonsen in the Tafel Racing Ferrari 430GT (No. 73).
We have been down this road before (Le Mans, 2007) and the mantra is always the same: an exciting race means that things are not going according to plan. Thus far, the race has been run by Risi Competizione with a beautiful level of precision. Every stint, every pit stop, every strategy carefully composed and flawlessly executed.
But this is racing, with live bullets, and our luck is about to change.
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
no surprises
RACE TIME: HOUR FOUR
First position: Gianmaria Bruni, No. 62 Ferrari 430GTC.
Second position: Marc Lieb, No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
Third Position: Bryce Miller, No. 87 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
Fourth Position: Darren Law, No. 44 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
Fifth Position: Craig Staton, No. 5 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
around & around & around
RACE TIME: HOUR THREE
At the end of Hour 3, the race has settled into a period of drive and let drive. The Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT, now piloted by Gianmaria Bruni remains first in class. Second is the ever-more-surprising VICI Racing Porsche with Nathan Swartzbaugh behind the wheel. Third is Bryce Miller in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. In 4th, Marc Lieb from Flying Lizard, No. 45 Porsche 911 RSR GT3; fifth is Jim Tafel in a Tafel Racing 430GTC, No. 73.
It’s uneventful and that’s the way professionals like it. Uneventful, predictable, according to plan.
Next up: Hour 4.
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
our gang
RACE TIME: 120 MINUTES
“You’ve got to have an ace in a hole.
A little secret that nobody knows.
Life is a gamble, a game we all play.
But you need to save something for a rainy day…�
--Ace In The Hole, George Strait
There are times when nothing but a pickup truck and some hard driving country music by George Strait will do. You’ve had a bad day; your dog ate your hunting boots; your wife ran off with your just-about-paid-for Suburban and her personal trainer. Those kinds of days demand C&W and country roads.
We are not having one of those days at Sebring—at least not yet—but George Strait’s Ace in the Hole seems appropriate as the lead in to discuss the team that is covering the 56th Annual 12 Hours of Sebring, brought to you by Mobil 1 and Fresh From Florida. Risi Competizione is a team and it takes a lot of people working behind the scenes to create the action you see on the track, the words and design and photos on the website and in the press releases and (soon) the reality TV show we’ve been working on for quite some time.
2008 at at Sebring is a very special event for some of us who work for/with Risi Competizione because for the first time, we will all be together, in one space, at one time. It will not surprise you to learn that the group that handles communications for Risi Competizione is very international: Fiona Miller, who is very well respected in motorsports media, is handling Press Relations at Sebring; she’s from the UK.
Also in from the UK is Edd Ellison, who runs the definitive site on Italian automobiles, www.italiaspeed.comand assists with our website and media contacts. Edd is at Sebring handling press for VICI Racing’s No. 5 Porsche, which is currently in 5th place as this is being written, a nice showing for a team new to Sebring. Regis Lefebure is, I believe, the best photographer working in sports car racing today and he is the Official Photographer for Risi Competizione. Regis is from the Washington D.C. area.
Anne Ellen Geiger handles the website design for Risi Competizione (and Ferrari of Houston and Maserati of Houston) and she flew in from Dallas complete with a boatload of computers, hardware and software and hero cards for the drivers, to be here and put stuff up on the site during the race. Your humble correspondent handles the writing and creative chores and came in from Houston, where my position is General Manager of Ferrari and Maserati of Houston.
There is not a single person on this media SWAT team that is not world class.
Fiona Miller has covered more races than most of us have even heard about and she has a reputation for precision and professionalism that is daunting—even to those who work with her everyday. Plus, she’s got a wonderful attitude and always a smile, even when things are tough. Fiona handles the media schedule at these major events, choreographing drivers, team members, team managers, and the press so that everyone and everything is at the right place at the right time.
Edd Ellison can work anyone but an android into the ground and I still wouldn’t bet on the android if a deadline were involved. The man does not sleep—how he gets by continuously on mere hours of sleep a night is beyond me. My suspicion is that he sleeps upside down, hanging from a bar but no one can prove it because there are no reported sightings of Edd asleep. His work at Italiaspeed is tight, professional, well-sourced and authoritative. He has built that site into the expert’s reference for the Italian car business. Edd provides a wonderful perspective from his offices in the UK on media work and our development and his sharp sense of humor can draw blood from the unwary.
Regis Lefebure fits my ideal of a great photographer: the journalistic ability to capture the story and the creative ability to capture the art. He lives at the very precise intersection of journalism and art, which is located in a seriously exclusive neighborhood. H
ere’s a great Regis story: at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year, one of the practice sessions was inundated with rain.While most other photographers were looking for shelter, I saw Regis—who was our photographer last year as well—grabbing his gear and heading out the door. When I asked where he was going, Regis said “I love shooting in the rain� and off into the deluge he went.As before, not a lot of people live in the creative neighborhood that Regis inhabits.
Anne Ellen Geiger was doing work for Risi Competizione before I came on board with the team. She is a technical wizard, always driving us forward with new stuff and helped us create the “near real time� operating standards we like to apply to the website. This meant sorting out how to transfer photos during a race; real time editing of releases; real time editing of photo captions; constant updating of text during a race; building photo galleries on the fly, etc. etc. etc. Anne Ellen handles all the printing, media CDs, and design work for the team and, regrettably, it’s done at very high speeds with little room for error, which is fine with her, because she does not make any. It’s a good fit.
Any team would be blessed to have these professionals working on their media and communications projects; to have all of them is a gift, one we deeply appreciate and respect. Our commitment to each one of them is to provide them with the freedom and support that allows them to do the very best work of their professional life.
And, in typical Risi Competizione fashion, why go for just an ace in the whole, when you can have all four. Enjoy their work this weekend—like a great racing team, it may be a while before you see this much talent in one place again.
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
let's see action
RACE TIME: 60 MINUTES
“Let's see action. Let's see people
Let's see freedom. In the air
Let's see action. Let's see people
Let's be free. Let's see who cares…
---Let’s See Action, Pete Townshend.
Hidden in the great body of work by The Who are some solo efforts by Pete Townshend that leave little doubt as to who drives the creative magic bus for one of rock’s megagroups. One of these efforts is an early Townshend solo album named “Who Came First�; among the many really great songs on the album is Let’s See Action, a rocking combination of melody and Who-style pounding rhythms. Seems like the perfect music to highlight the first hour of The 12.
One hour into the 12 Hours of Sebring and already this most difficult of dancing partners is exacting a toll on the racers. In GT2, Jaime Melo is running in front of the pack, with a one minute and 33 second lead over the second place No. 87 Porsche of Werner/Bassenh/Miller (Farnbachler Loles); the very excellent Wolf Henzler in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche was maintaining third position. New kids on the block, VICI Racing worked their way from 8th on the pole up to 4th overall in their new Porsche, with Craig Staton doing the honors behind the wheel. Racing Partner Krohn Racing was steady in 5th position in the No. 61 Krohn Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT(Krohn/Jonsson/van de Poele).
Others in the class were less fortunate. A mere thirty-six minutes into the race, Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 46 Flying Porsche went into the pits with heavy rear suspension damage, the result of a collision with Rinaldo Capello’s No. 1 Audi R10 in turn 3. All van Overbeek had to say was “it’s a shame the careless act of one affects so many others�. He was not just talking about the spectators but about his team, who put long and arduous hours into the prepping the car for the race. One of the great fears of all team managers is on-course incidents.
These incidents come in two types: driver errors and those caused by other drivers. Racing team owners want their drivers to be as error free as possible, as incidents are expensive and cost money. The incidents caused by others—those are the real nightmares. You can prepare for them (spare body parts, etc.) but you can’t plan for them (knowing which part of the car will be damaged). In ALMS racing, where the speed differential between the top class (P1) and the GT2 class is so great, there is the additional hazard of having a P1 car knick a GT2 in a corner. This is what happened to Risi Competizione’s Kevin McGarrity several years ago at Sebring; those watching TV at the time saw the Risi Competizione 360GTC get punted straight into the tire barriers by a prototype that shall remain nameless. A major fire erupted and it seemed like forever before McGarrity was retrieved from the burning car, with severe injuries to his leg.
On-course incidents of that type of are a team’s nightmare and it’s unfortunate that van Overbeek is sidelined so early in the race.
Elsewhere, there were other difficulties. Dirk Mueller, running in the Tafel Racing No. 71 Ferrari 430GT was into the pits to sort out a leaking water cooler; the stop pushed him into 12 position. Nic Jonsson showed the crowd some car control precision when he took a spin at turn 17 and carried on, but then had to pit for new tires for safety reasons. Fifty-nine minutes into the race, the No. 6 P2 Porsche RS Spyder from Penske Racing went behind the wall to check out an oil leak somewhere in the airbox. Not good. He managed to sort it and by the end of Hour 1 was back on track but had dropped to 8th place.
The first hour is now in the history books and the action is just starting.
More to come, as Risi Competizione takes on the world, live, from the 56th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring.
15 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
velocity time
RACE TIME: 30 MINUTES (10:24 AM)
“I'm comin' up
So you better you better
Get this party started
I'm comin' up
So you better you better
Get this party started
Get this party started
……….I can go for miles
If you know what I mean..�
--Get This Party Started, Pink.
Sebring International Raceway is 3.7 miles of rough asphalt, difficult turns, and shocks to the automotive mechanical system. Once a year, the world’s best—and those who hope to be—in sports car racing convene for a little one day racing convention known as the 12 Hours of Sebring. Last year, Risi Competizione took home the GT2 prize, in the closest finish in Sebring history. This year the competition has increased (more Porsches from top competitor Flying Lizard and more Ferraris from a variety of sources) as everyone is gunning for the Rosso Corso Ferrari 430GT No. 62, driven by Risi Competizione aces Mika Salo, Jaime Melo, and “Jimmy� Bruni.
At 10:00 the cars rolled off the grid, creating a huge sonic wall of sound and precisely at 10:05AM the green flag was waived and the field went work. Peugeot, who has something to prove at Sebring this year—their pole qualifying position was wiped out because the qualifying session did not meet IMSA standards for a ten minute minimum, thus placing the cars according to their fastest practice laps, a decision that resulted in an Audi taking the pole that Peugeot felt was rightfully theirs. As the field of 34 cars crossed the Peugeot and a pair of R10 Audis dragged raced into the first corner. At the end of the first lap, the Peugeot was leading and making a statement at the same time.
Back in GT2, Jaime Melo made a clean start in the No. 62 Ferrari and immediately put some working distance between himself and the No. 71 Tafel Racing Ferrari 430GT and Wolf Henzler in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Thirty-seven minutes into the race, with a yellow slowing action on the course, Melo had created a one lap gap over the Tafel 430GT.
The 12 Hours of Sebring is off and running. The party has started.
More to come, live from the track at Sebring.
14 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
rearview mirror
RACE WEEK: LOOKING BACK AT SEBRING 2007
One year ago, in Sebring, Florida, Risi Competizione won the closest race in the entire history of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Could there be a better way to set the table for this year’s event than to reprise last years? Probably not….and so below please find the final report from last year’s race, written in an empty press box long after the race was concluded.
RISI COMPETIZIONE FERRARI 430GT WINS THE 12 HOURS OF
SEBRING. LEGENDARY LAST LAP BY MELO RESULTS IN CLOSEST MARGIN OF VICTORY IN SEBRING’S 55 YEAR HISTORY.
The blink of an eye. That was the margin of victory on Saturday night, March 17th, when Jaime Melo, the driver of the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT delivered the greatest last lap in the history of the 12 Hours of Sebring and took Risi Competizione home to a .202 second victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The win came in the closest race ever run in 55 years at the fabled 12 Hours of Sebring; the two-tenths of a second margin—the blink of an eye—was all that separated the winning Ferrari, driven at Sebring by Mika Salo, Jaime Melo, and Johnny Mowlem, and the second place Porsche 911 GT3 RSR after 1220 miles and 12 hours, three minutes, and fourteen seconds of racing. The Flying Lizard Motorsports No. 45 was second on the podium (Bergmeister/Leib/van Overbeek) and third was the No 71 Tafel Racing 911 GT3 RSR (Henzler/Liddell/Long).
It was Risi Competizione’s first win at the 12 Hours of Sebring; in 2006, the team took third after some pit stop problems stalled them just enough to cost them first place; it was their first outing with the Ferrari 430GT.
The win continued a Ferrari win streak that includes five wins in the last seven ALMS races. The team has now won back to back ALMS endurance races (winning the last race of the season at Laguna Seca in 2006 and the first race of the year at Sebring in 2007). It was also Risi Competizione’s third “last-to-first� win in a year. It was the closet margin of victory in the 55 year history of the race.
Melo, doing double time and a half (two and one-half stints ) in his Ferrari 430GT at the end of the race held off a relentless, hard charging Joerg Bergmeister for the win in the GT2 class at Sebring.
The win was Ferrari’s first in twelve years at the brutal, demanding, bumpy, Sebring International Raceway, a track where legends are made and reputations destroyed. Sebring is the most unforgiving of racetracks, a speed obsessed mistress with a nasty streak and bad skin, that delights in breaking apart big name programs and small privateers alike. This old patchwork circuit of concrete and asphalt has seen it all, from the early days when Ferrari ruled, with drivers so famous (Hill, Gendebian, Collins, Scarfiotti, Andretti, )they need no first name up through the modern era of racing.
But on Saturday night, Sebring saw something it had never seen before and likely never will again, a once in a half-century race for glory and display of guts that has people in the racing world all over the planet nodding their heads in amazement.
The finish was not a surprise to the followers of the Rosso Corsa No. 62 Ferrari. Risi Competizione had come tantalizingly close to winning in 2006 with the 430GT, and for 2007, Managing Director Giuseppe Risi made all the right moves, bringing back former Ferrari F1 driver Mika Salo and Ferrari factory driver Jaime Melol, the 2006 FIA-GT champion, for the race (and season) and teaming them with veteran Johnny Mowlem, one of the most consistent drivers in ALMS history, who felt that a win at Sebring was the one thing missing in his racing portfolio.
The Ferrari was quickest in practice all week, and so when Brazilian Jaime Melo, with the team for the full season in 2007, took the pole, no one was surprised. Nor was anyone stunned when ALMS/IMSA rules sent the 430GT to the back of the grid after the team elected to start on tires different from the ones it qualified on.
The decision, made just before race time, was necessitated by an on-course incident at the close of qualifying on Thursday. “We have checked the race car over,� noted Rick Mayer, Team Engineer, “it’s in great shape and suffered no damage and the Michelin tires are fine. But we just do not want to take any chances at the start of the race. The car is fast enough for it not to be a worry. Actually, since our record when starting from the back of the pack is so good, it could be more of a worry for our competitors.�
“This is not a new situation for us,� said Team Manager Dave Sims. “We’re actually quite comfortable starting from the back, as last year, we won two races in a row when various circumstances forced us to either start at the back of the grid (Utah Grand Prix) or come from the very last position due to an on-course incident (Portland Grand Prix).� Smiling, Sims continued, “We have more experience going from last to first than anyone in the field so we’re not worried at all. Sebring is a 12 Hour race and we believe we have plenty of time to work our way to the front. We are totally comfortable with the decision.�
Risi Competizione is a Ferrari team and drama is always a part of the Ferrari experience. At Sebring it would be no different.
The race rolled off at 10:05AM, and Melo wasted little time re-establishing himself as the dominant driver in GT2 and the Ferrari 430GT as the car to beat.
Working with the intensity of a Naval aviator landing on a carrier in a storm and the skill of a neurosurgeon, Melo gave the field an on-track lesson in how to come from behind. After 4 laps, the No. 62 car was 8th in class; after 6 laps, it was 6th. Fifteen minutes into the race, Melo grabbed 4th with brutal efficiency. Sixteen minutes later (10:31AM) the No. 62 Ferrari was in third, as the metronome-like countdown of positions seen and captured continued. The Rosso Corsa Ferrari 430GT, running easily and screaming around the course, was in second position after just 42 minutes of racing. Those who had seen the Ferrari run at Utah or Portland last year knew this scenario well.
One hour and one minute into the race, Melo ripped into first. So much for the disadvantages of a last place start.
Melo pitted at 11:08 AM(1 Hour, 3 minutes into the race) for fuel and continued on, with no tire change (“The Michelin tires are going great for us,� said Team Manager Dave Sims. “we are running double stints on the tires they’re so good.�) and no driver change, doing his first double stint of the race. The Ferrari continued to snarl its’ away around the course, holding the lead through the second hour.
If Melo was the type of guy to look over his shoulder—and he is not—he would have seen the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in second place, but he could not know the role these two very worthy adversaries would play in history until eleven hours later.
Mika Salo, slid into the driver’s compartment of the 43OGT during a pit stop for fresh tires, fuel, and a driver change (Melo out/Salo in). Marc Lieb, now in the No. 45 Porsche, temporarily grabbed first place, but Salo has having none of it and at 2 hours and 54 minutes into the race the Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT screamed into first place to maintain the lead going into the third Hour of the Twelve Hour race.
Salo, double stinted as well, kept the Risi Competizione Ferrari in first place for the fourth hour, with a lead of one minute and thirty-two seconds ahead of the second place Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Joerg Bergmeister for Flying Lizard Racing(van Overbeek/Bergmeister/Lieb). A pattern was developing.
English driver Johnny Mowlem, selected by Giuseppe Risi to join the team of Salo and Melo for Sebring, next stepped to the plate. Mowlem, who had been fastest in one of the week’s practice sessions, delivered another lead into the fifth hour of the race. With five hours gone, the Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT had been in the lead for four. In second place: the No. 45 Porsche, with Johannes van Overbeek doing the trackwork for Flying Lizard Racing.
At five hours and 35 minutes gone, Mowlem turned the on-track podium over to maestro Melo, while leading. Melo restocked the Ferrari with four new tires and a tank full of fuel, and screamed off into the sixth hour of the race holding the lead.
A deadpan Rick Mayer, Team Engineer, said simply “the car is going quickly and smoothly. We have no issues. But the competition here today is the equal of any field in the world and we have to stick to our business. Any car in our class can win and the Porsches are going very well. We must just keep our heads down and run without incident.�
Even Sebring must have been rattled by the battle that was taking place on track, because the ALMS computer timing system went down, without any official sixth hour results for second position in class. But here’s the safe bet: the No. 45 Porsche.
Jaime Melo’s trackwork kept the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT in first place in going into the seventh hour of the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race, in Sebring, Florida. Second place: Joerg Bergmeister in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche. After seven hours of racing, the two cars were just 12:255 seconds apart. Equal competition indeed.
Risi Competizione’s No. 62 Ferrari, driven by Mika Salo, entered the eighth hour of the 12 Hours of Sebring in first place. Salo was 22.448 seconds ahead of the second place No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, driven by Johannes van Overbeek for Flying Lizard Motorsports. Third in class was Wolf Henzler in another 911 GT3 RSR, No. 71, entered by Tafel Racing. Salo had taken over for teammate Jaime Melo at seven hours and twenty-two minutes (7:22) into the 12 hour endurance classic in a pit stop for fresh tires, a fresh driver, and fresh fuel.
“It’s running smoothly�, is all Team Managing Director Giuseppe Risi would say about leading after 8 hours of the race. At this point, Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 430GT had lead for seven of eight hours. As any racing fan knows—however—the only lead that counts is the one at the finish line.
Hour Nine: Porsche takes the lead as Marc Lieb blasts into the ninth hour with an 8. 193 second lead. It was the first time the Ferrari had not been in the hour increment lead position since the one hour and one minute mark of the race.
With Ferrari there is always drama. At eight hours and 20 minutes into the race, Salo, leading, hit the pits for fuel and tires but stayed in the car to double stint. Twenty-eight minutes later—after a few laps in which the Ferrari 430GT was being blocked, Salo had an epic and rather picturesque spin at Turn 17, the toughest corner on a very tough course and one in which radio reports warned had a thin coating of sand. In a masterful, almost magical piece of driving, Salo keep the wheels spinning while the 430GT did a high speed salute to the stations of the cross. By hitting the throttle and spinning the tires, Salo avoided “flat spotting� the tires and also kept the car under enough control to prevent a collision with one of the turn’s safety barriers, an incident that in a race this tight would have certainly doomed the No. 62’s chances of winning. To the list of things not to do in life (tug on Superman’s cape, tap dance on nitroglycerine, jump out of an airplane without a valid reason to do so or a very good parachute, please add: do not make the Finnish Driver Salo mad).
Salo collected the 430GT, sped off in a very furious huff, and rejoined the fray, determined to take back what he believed to be rightfully his: the lead.
The writer Ken W. Purdey, considered the Shakespeare of automobile writing by those who know the difference between a simile and a metaphor, once said that “there is nothing in the world more ferocious than a Ferrari driven in anger.� And what one had, in hour nine, was a 430GT Ferrari (No. 62, courtesy of Risi Competizione) and an angry man (Mika Salo) who knew what to do with it.
Salo immediately turned the Ferrari from race car into furious angry blur, as he cut the gap back to a respectable 10 seconds and change. At nine Hours, 24 minutes into the race, the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR class leader, driven by Marc Lieb for Flying Lizard Motorsports, went into the pits for fresh tires, fuel, and a driver change, and Salo screamed past and into the lead. Again.
Mission accomplished, Salo consolidated the Ferrari lead on 1st in class and, at nine hours, 29 minutes into the race, and with the sun setting low on the horizon, giving retina burns to the drivers coming down the back straight, Salo took the right turn into the pits for a new set of Michelins, a tank full of fuel, and a driver change. Salo out. Melo in.
Melo exited the pits, with approximately two hours and thirty minutes left to the checkered flag, not knowing that he was now on a countdown to destiny (the No. 45 Porsche had pitted at 9:25 in the race for fuel, tires, and driver change: Lieb out. Bergmeister in) and that he would not be out of the car again until the race was over. All day, Risi Competizione had asked the drivers to double stint. But it had one more request: could Melo do the unthinkable? Two and one-half stints?
The answer was to be found on the track.
Into Hour 10 the Rosso Corsa 430GT roared. The Risi Competizione pits were filling up with supporters, reporters, and fans from across borders. The scene had the feeling of a heavy-weight match. The two superpowers of automobile racing, Ferrari and Porsche, were going toe-to-toe at speed. It was thermonuclear racing.
It does not get any better.
At ten minutes, 10 seconds into the race, Melo was 5.029 Seconds ahead of Bergmeister in the Porsche.
Into the night the Ferrari/Porsche tandem roared, grinding away at history and reputations with equal disdain. Jaime Melo was in the lead going into the 11th Hour, a mere 5.729 seconds ahead of Marc Lieb, who had stepped in for Bergmeister (and one last turn at the wheel).
At eleven hours, twenty-three minutes into the race, Porsche countered strong.
Lieb blew into the Porsche pits for fuel, tires, and a driver change: Joerg Bergmeister, the best Porsche GT driver in the world would be sent out to do battle with Jaime Melo, the best Ferrari GT driver in the world. Mano a mano. Our guy vs. your guy. Our car vs. your car. Teutonic perfectionism vs. Latin Passion. Winner take all.
Two minutes later, the Risi Competizione team had another drama. Melo, who had come to the pits for a splash and dash (fuel only), was held in the pits for twenty agonizing seconds by an unrepentant ALMS/IMSA official who penalized the team for “visor up during fuel refueling�.
Twenty very hard earned seconds were thus handed back to the relentless Porsche of Flying Lizard. Tension mounted as Melo lit the tires up leaving the pits and roared off into the darkness of an unforgiving racecourse and his inauguration into the very rarified atmosphere of racing legends. As Melo took the final stage, Team Engineer Rick Mayer knew what awaited him: Melo was going to have to do the last thirty minutes with fading brakes; the pads were going fast and there was a chance the pads were not going to last until the end of the race. The decision had been made to press on because the margin was too close. A brake pad change would doom the team to second or worse.
So Ferrari and Risi, true to tradition, go all in, and roll for the win.
The final thirty minutes of the 55th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring are legend now, a two-car highlight film of what happens when worlds, legends, will, tradition, cultures, and destiny collide at night on a racecourse.
Bergmeister, fresh and eager to carve a Ferrari notch into his Porsche gun, starts cutting into Melo’s very slim lead. Pit lane speculation is that the Porsche factory engineers have pushed the 911 GT3 RSR’s engine mapping into extreme territory, boosting power, and the car is now moving faster than it has all day. Bergmeister trims and cuts, a half-second here, a tenth there, now maybe a second off, of Melo’s lead. And while Bergmeister is moving up, time is moving on as the Twelve Hours of Sebring reaches for the final moments. In the pits, the mathematically inclined are doing the calculations in their head: x laps times y seconds cut off the lead per lap = z number of minutes required for the Porsche to take the lead from the Ferrari. Did Bergmeister have enough time to overtake Melo in the Ferrari?
But Ferrari vs. Porsche races aren’t won on the sidelines; they’re taken on the track. With just two minutes left, Bergmeister has the Ferrari within sight of his onboard camera and starts flashing his lights at the 430GT, like a banker late to a PTA meeting, hopping to rattle Melo.
Because Melo never looks back, the lights go unseen; his entire focus is on the course in front of him and this one little problem that he knew was coming. The brakes? There are none. He’s down to zero, nada, zilch, stopping power.
“My cars are meant to go, not stop,� Ettore Bugatti once told a client who complained about his car’s brakes. This is the type of ages old advice a guy like Jaime Melo can wrap his hands around. And so he did.
With one last drama—this being Ferrari—of course.
The overall winning Audi is behind the Ferrari of Melo and the Porsche of Bergmeister and so when it crosses the finish line to win overall, Melo and Bergmeister have one more round on their Sebring dance card. Down the front straight they scream, Bergmeister closing in on Melo as they approach the turn, but losing him as they both exit because Melo—who has no brakes—is doing a very dangerous dance with momentum as he enters and exits corners at speeds that make engineers wince and grown men cheer.
Up comes the Porsche. Away goes the Ferrari. The Ferrari is on the very edge of traction as it holds the smallest of leads. Watching the television, viewers see the 430GT cross over the line of control —and then come back—again and again as Melo does the asphalt dance of racetrack traction.
Down the back straight, last lap, the Porsche pulls up alongside the Ferrari and Melo, with no place to go but fast, edges his nose back in front.
Into the start of turn 17 the cars fly, side by side, they touch, bounce off each other, upsetting the delicate balance of the 430GT, but Melo grabs it back in a microsecond and then does the one thing he does better perhaps than anyone else in GT racing in the world: position the car for the exit on Turn 17 and bury the throttle. No Give. No Take. No Mercy.
He will not blink.
Melo holds his line as the cars brush one more time exiting Turn 17, but now it’s the Porsche that looses stride, stunned, shaken, at the one final counterpunch. Bergmeister hits the Porsche’s brakes to settle the car, and then Melo is away, gone, in front, over the finish line, winning the 12 Hours of Sebring with a two-tenths of a second margin. The closest in history. The crowd screams. The cameras roll. The replays begin. The Ferrari pits scream with joy; the Porsche pits curse fate and Melo and Ferrari and Risi with equal enthusiasm. What fun.
A worldwide TV audience takes a deep breath and realizes they’ve just seen one for the ages. Maybe, at this track, THE ONE for the ages.
For Risi Competizione, this was destiny fulfilled. This is a race the team felt it should have won last year. To do it this year, in this way, that’s epic and it feels so much sweeter. Giuseppe Risi now has a win at the 12 Hours of Sebring to go with his win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he will, again, the take the show this year.
For Salo, Melo, and Johnny Mowlem— their names are rightfully engraved on trophies that proclaim them as the Winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring.
But for Jaime Melo and his teammates, one other honor awaits: they have crossed the threshold to Sebring Legend, joining a club that includes Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez, Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebian, Jim Hall, Peter Collins, Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, Steve McQueen, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Juan Manuel Fangio. Hurley Haywood and others. As the door opens to allow entry to the most exclusive sports car racing club in America, Salo, Melo, and Mowlem, pause for a second, to look back at the Sebring track where it all began, look at each other and start laughing as they enter, and then the door closes behind them, and the stories that only legends can tell begin to flow.
For those not in that room, being present when a new legend was created will be more than enough.
The 2007 GT2 Finish of the 12 Hours of Sebring was the closest in the history of the race. It was judged, by fans, to be the “Greatest Moment in the history of the American Le Mans Series�.
All of which means one thing: you’ve got a lot to look forward to in 2008.
13 March 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
walking after you
RACE WEEK: HANDICAPPING THE FIELD
“Tonight I'm tangled in my blanket of clouds...dreaming aloud.
Things just won't do without you, matter of fact.
I'm on your back, I'm on your back, I'm on your back.�
--Walking After You. Foo Fighters.…
One of the coolest names in Rock belongs to the Foo Fighters. Their music is terrific, but their name is just brilliant. And their lyrics…well…they don’t just speak for themselves, they sing for all of us. And, not coincidently, set the tone for sizing up the race to come.
As we move closer to the 56th Annual 12 Hours of Sebring, it’s time for an assessment of what our boys in red, Risi Competizione, face as they attempt to repeat the greatest finish in Sebring history (2007).
The greatest rivalry in motor sport is Porsche vs. Ferrari. Period. When these giants tangle on the race track, legends erupt. Expect 2008 to be no different. In this year’s running of the 12, we will see the Porsche factory step it up intensely through Flying Lizard Motorsports, a team that hung closer to Risi Competizione than a shadow for all of 2007.
Porsche’s strategy to reclaim the ALMS GT2 title is two fold: numbers and development.
First, the numbers. In 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 when Porsche was crushing the opposition in GT2, Porsche was putting a vast number of cars on the starting Grid. Flying Lizard, Petersen/White Lightening, and Alex Job Racing were all running multi-car Porsche 911 GT3 RSR teams. But now, the grid has changed. Petersen/White Lightening left the Porsche fold in 2007, switching to Ferrari. In 2008, they left ALMS and are now running an off-road program. Alex Job has also left GT2. Tafel racing, which ran a pair of Porsches in 2007 switched to Ferrari 430GTs in 2008.
Porsche made the smart move this year, and equipped Flying Lizard with three of it’s latest spec 911 GT3 RSRs. This move gives Porsche (and Flying Lizard) more chances to land a podium, just on sheer numbers. And the drivers signed for Sebring are absolutely top-rate. Joerg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler, and Marc Lieb in one car; Darren Law, Seith Newman, and Alex Davison in another; and Johannes van Overbeek, Patrick Pilet, and Richard Leitz in the third Lizard Porsche. No rookies in this group, great competitors all and they will bring it, especially Bergmeister, Henzler, Lieb, and van Overbeek.
Porsche did not test their latest spec 911 GT3 RSR at the Sebring Winter Tests; instead, Porsche opted for a private test session at Sebring, preferring not to reveal the new bits and pieces of this latest incarnation of the most iconic of Porsche race cars.
Word gets around, however, about secret sessions and test times and new bits and pieces and this is what we heard—from usually reliable sources—about the new 911 GT3 RSR. Times were said to be in the 2:01 and change range which puts it in Ferrari 430GT timing. Why so quick? First, a new aerodynamic package (that will help on the back straight at Sebring). A new gearbox, borrowed from and/or adapted from the one used in the Porsche RS Spyder. Why a new gearbox? Different profile—it sits lower in the chassis reducing the center of gravity and thus (theoretically) increasing cornering speeds. The engine now sits lower as well, which has the net result of improved handling while reducing the angle of the drive shafts to the rear wheels (a more favorable mechanical setup we’re told). And, because they’re Porsche, there’s more power and, presumably, better mileage in the 2008 engine. All told—a serious package and one that can bend times in Porsche’s favor.
Taking advantage of Porsche’s new gear—and doing development work for Kumho tires as well—is new kid on the ALMS block VICI Racing. Our great, good friend Edd Ellison handles the media for VICI, and Edd tells us that drivers Uwe Alzen, Craig Staton, and Nathan Swartzbaugh along with VICI’s brain trust have a very solid strategy for Sebring: stay out of trouble early, contend for the podium late. VICI is working long term to develop Kumho tires for the ALMS and the team is tight, focused, and ready to compete. Welcome to the show, Edd and VICI; we’ll see you on the track (and good luck in your first Sebring effort!)
Two other Porsche teams will line up at Sebring: Farnbarcher Loles (Dirk Werner, Mark Basseng, Bryce Miller) is an experienced group and could contend for a podium. Autoracing Club Bratislava will put Miroslav Knonopka and Mauro Casedei, along with a third driver whose name, regrettably, has not been listed on the most recent Entry List, on the grid. The race should be a bit of an adventure for this group but anything can happen in 12 Hours and often does, so don’t count them out.
But Porsche isn’t the only competition that RC faces at Sebring this year. Primetime Race Group has entered a Dodge Viper Competition Coupe; last year, a Viper ran as a test in selected races and was off the top times but you never know.
Also new: the Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6, entered by LG Motorsports (Lou Giotti, of Dallas, Texas is the LG). Who knows about this one, but it may not prove to be the world beater that the GT1 Corvette produced by Pratt & Miller for Corvette Racing has become.
Panoz Team PTG, with drivers Joey Hand, Tommy Milner, and Tom Sutherland will steering the front-engined Panoz around the course. Two years ago, a Panoz won Sebring but this year, Panoz might be short some development time to Porsche and Ferrari. Hap Sharp, of Chapparal fame, once said that “the race is sometimes to the fastest and always to the one who finishes�, so Panoz is not out of this one by a long shot.
Robertson Racing is taking a trip down memory lane with a Doran Ford GT-R, an Ford GT40 looker. Times have been modest thus far, but it’s great to have Ford back in sports car racing with ALMS. Whether or not modern engineering can overcome 1970s aerodynamics is another story, but expect this one to gather a lot of media enthusiast attention. And don’t forget that it was the Ford GT40 Mark II, not the GT40 that was the world-beater at Le Mans, when it was driven by a couple of legends named Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt, neither of whom are behind the wheel here.
Steve Pruitt’s Corsa Racing out of Salt Lake City will contest the event with another Ferrari F430GT. Former Risi Competizione drivers Ralf Kelleners and Johnny Mowlem (who teamed for the with with Salo and Melo last year for Risi Competizione) will be behind the wheel with ex-Panoz ace Gunnar Jeannette.
This is a new team without much competition history; last year, Corsa teamed with Petersen/White Lightening but had an unfortunate outing as their 430GT burned up on the track. At the time of this communication, there were problems that might result in the entry being pulled. We’ll update their status at grid time tomorrow.
Also new this year, an Aston Martin DBRS9, entered by Drayson-Barwell, working with some type of Aston Martin factory support (Aston’s program is in a bit of disarray after the acquisition by a private investor group). This car will be driven by Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker and Tim Sugden; it has no history in GT2 and so there is no way to handicap it.
A pair of new Ferrari 430GTCs are entered by Tafel Racing, who switched this year from Porsches to Ferraris, after a so-so 2007 season. Tafel, managed by long-time motorsports guru Tony Dow, will put Dominik Farnbacher, Dirk Mueller, and Robert Bell in their lead car, with Allan Simonson, Jim Tafel, and Pierre Ehret in the second car. Farnbacher, Mueller, and Bell are all excellent pilots and if they get the hang of the 430GTC in time could turn some very serious times.
Risi Competizione will face this onslaught of competition with the usual suspects: Mika Salo and Jaime Melo and Gianmarie (“Jimmy�) Bruni in the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT; Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson will be in the No. 61 430GTC, joined by long distance ace Eric van de Poele (a long-time Risi Competizione endurance specialist).
The field is more varied than in years past but if you were a betting man, the odds are that the race will probably come down to two teams: Risi Competizione and Flying Lizard. These two teams are the “specialists�—Risi Races Ferraris exclusively and the Lizards race Porsches exclusively. They have the most experience with their race cars and their drivers have the most seat time in type. Place your bets, take your seat, and enjoy the show.
Sebring 2008 could bring us another legend.
30 January 2008 | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring, Florida
jump into the fire
SEBRING WINTER TEST
“I know my life would look alright if I could just see it on the silver screen�
--James Dean, Eagles…
The race track at Sebring, Florida in winter is a desolate place. There is none of the pageantry of the 12 Hour race that gives the place its’ fame; the sun sets early and low and days can be grey. Race tracks without fans are out-of-sync with their DNA and this one—an old airfield repurposed into the most physically demanding track in the world—is no exception.
Once a year, the top teams make the pilgrimage to Sebring for the Winter Tests, a three day run of track testing for the team and PR sessions for the team management. This year, the tests started on the 28th of January and ended on the 30th ; quite conveniently this schedule nudged up against the schedule for Cavallino, which ended on Sunday, the 27th of January.
The Sebring Winter Tests are modern American racing’s on-track version of Show-And-Tell. The teams come to the tests to shake down their cars for the big race in March. Some bring new cars and new engines and new dreams; others, like Risi Competizione, unload the tried and true from their transporter and work on tweaking it to perfection.
For the last two seasons in ALMS, the Ferrari 430GT has proven to be the fastest car on the track. It has won the last two ALMS GT2 Championships running in the Risi Competizione Program; it has been equally proficient in Europe, putting away the FIA GT titles in Europe.
In 2008, rumors are bouncing around the ALMS insider circuit that Porsche has had enough with Ferrari winning on two continents in a class it once owned. Until Risi Competizione broke through in 2004, Porsche 911 race cars won 28 straight races in ALMS GT2 races. Porsche, very formidable competitors always, has something to prove in 2008 and perhaps the Winter Tests would give a hint of what was to come in 2008.
But Porsche were too cagy to reveal to Risi (and Ferrari) what they had in hand for 2008, so the only Porsches on test this past January, were the RS Spyders, which have built quite a reputation for themselves by bloodying the previous all-conquering Audi R10s.
Risi had no problem with showing a few cards at the Winter Tests, and brought in their championship winning No.62 Car to the party, with ALMS Driving Champion Jaime Melo and Irish pilot Kevin McGarrity handling lap work. Melo wasted no time in setting the record straight regarding Risi Comp’s expectations for 2008: in the first session, he was fastest in GT2 with a 2:02.834. Second session, more of the same: 2:02.847. Third Session, 201.192 (which would stand as the fastest GT2 time of the Winter Tests by approximately a half-second). Fourth Session: a 201.288. Fifth Session was a 202.857 and, sensing a trend, in the 6th session, the Risi Competizione F430GTC put up a 201.493. In the 7th Session, a 201.647 (the second fastest time of the session) and finally, rounding it out with a 201.690.
Net result: 8 sessions; 7 fastest times/session plus the fastest lap of the Winter Tests for the GT2 category.
Test complete, point proved, the team packed up the 430GTC, and accessories and returned to Houston.
Asked about the results, a taciturn Giuseppe Risi said only “we have a few things to work on�.
So does everyone else, but their list just might be longer.
26 January 2008 | The lead-up to Sebring | Palm Beach, Florida
the field of dreams
CAVALLINO EVENT DAY 2
“It used to seem to me’
That my life ran on too fast
That I’d have to take it slowly
Just to make the good spots last
But when you’re born to run
It’s so hard to slow down
So don’t be surprised to see me
back in the bright part of town�
I’ll be back in the high life again
All the doors I closed one time will open up again
I’ll be back in the high life again
All the eyes that watched me once will smile and take me in..�
--“Back in The High Life Again� by Steve Winwood…
Early Saturday morning, they stage the cars for the Concours at Cavallino at The Breakers, one of the great old hotel/resorts in North America. While the very careful positioning of Ferraris is going on, I walk into the main shopping area of Palm Beach and stroll down Worth Avenue, the retail definition of Palm Beach and one of the world’s greatest shopping streets.
Here’s what awaits your Black American Express Card (which will be black and blue by the time these merchants finish with it) on Worth Avenue:
Pucci
Neiman-Marcus
Tiffany
Brooks Brothers
Ralph Lauren
Gucci
Lilly Pulitzer
Juicy Couture
Salvatore Ferragamo
Escada
Jimmy Choo
Chanel
MacKinzie Childs
Lacoste
Bottega Venetta
Hermes
Giorgio Armani
Cartier
Valentino
Emanuel Ungaro
Louis Vuitton
Max Mara
Christophle
Loro Piano
St. John
SGB M500
Trillion
Barry Bricken
Hugo Boss
Malo
Pratesi
Kiselstein-Cord
Eres
Van Cleef & Arpels
 Â
All these stores are within three blocks of one another.
I stand to the side and watch the very polished and expensively dressed inhabitants and visitors to Palm Beach stroll by. Like the city, they are relaxed, casual affluence emanating as they walk. But there is something in the air here I have never seen before—a bit of uncertainty, a walk not quite so confident, a slight hint of darkness. A look into the financial pages will reveal the source: subprime financing. It is this simple: a lot of wealthy people become even more wealthy lending money to people who couldn’t afford to borrow money. And now, as interest rates have risen to stratospheric rates on all those adjustable rate mortgages and corporate junk bonds, those who could barely afford it in the beginning see the end and start to walk way; it is the affluent—the money lenders and investors—who are taking the hit. It’s going to be a worldwide case of financial acne and before it’s all over, some very new fortunes are going to be missing in action.
Palm Beach has lived through these type of scenarios in the past and will deal with this one, but it’s still a very sober cloud of reality in a city that does not like reality shows.
One of my great and very best friends, Howard Weathers, a real estate developer in Houston, had once been the largest dealer in Rolls Royce and Bentleys automobiles in America, working out of upstate New York. A decade ago, Howard predicted that in 2010 there will be only three places in America where someone can drive a Rolls Royce—Palm Beach, Palm Springs, and Beverly Hills. I am reminded of Howard—who regrettably died several years ago in an automobile accident—when I spot one of the new Rolls Royce convertibles, complete with suicide doors and wooden toneau, roll elegantly past. A beautiful car in Palm Beach, it would be, as Howard predicted, a target anyplace else in America but within the wealthy enclaves of Palm Beach, Palm Springs and Beverly Hills.
Time is passing and so I head back to The Breakers to see the show, the cars now being staged. There is always at Cavallino an air of excitement not just about the cars on display but where they are displayed.
The field of dreams at Cavallino is the “upper terrace�, a pristine green lawn right next to the The Breakers hotel itself. The upper terrace is where one finds GTOs and 250SWBs and Long Wheel Base California competiziones. Not that the rest of field is isn’t perfection because it is….I saw, for example, the very famous 365GTB/4 Daytona(SN# 16559) owned by Phil and Martha Bachman of Greenville, TN, that is a few miles from new. The Bachman’s have a unique appreciation for this particular Daytona, which is as original as the day it left the factory. They are the guardians of authenticity and they take it seriously, by maintaining the gold standard in Daytonas. This is what Ferraris do to people—arouse a passion that can be transcendent.
I was here to represent Risi Competizione in its second year of sponsorship of a major award at Cavallino, the Risi Competizione Cup, which went to the Outstanding Competition Car. This year, the winner was Martin Gruss’ achingly beautiful 1959 250 GT LWB Spyder California (S/N 1451). Only a true enthusiast would ever race such a beautiful car but then….aren’t all Ferrari race cars beautiful?
Other winners included a gorgeous 1949 166MM Touring Berlinetta (S/N 0026 M) owned by Jack Croul, which took home the Scuderia Ferrari Cup; Best of Show GT Ferrari and winner of the Gran Turismo Ferrari Cup was picked up by Peter Kalikow’s 250GT PF Cabriolet Series I (S/N 0813). Peter is a serious enthusiast, perhaps best known to non-vintage Ferrari enthusiasts as the owner/enthusiast behind the P4/P5 Ferrari which he commissioned from Pininfarina, a model which echoes the beauty of some of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL Ferrari race cars ever produced, the stunningly shapped P2 and P3 models. Among the other awards was one to Ferrari enthusiasts Chris and Ann Cox of Chapel Hill, NC: the Ferrari Spirit Cup, awarded to the Ferrari representing the spirit of track and concours. Chris wheeled out his 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO (S/N 3445 GT). A GTO is always
25 January 2008 | The lead-up to Sebring | Palm Beach, Florida
Bob Dylan, Rybovitch & Ferraris
CAVALLINO EVENT DAY 1
“A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There's a woman on my lap and she's drinking champagne,
Got white skin, got assassin's eyes
I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies
I'm well dressed, waiting on the last train…..
….Lot of water under the bridge, Lot of other stuff too
Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through�
--“Things have Changed� Bob Dylan.
Once a year, Palm Beach, Florida hosts a gathering of Ferraris, old, classic, and new, that is without equal in America. The event is called “Cavallino� and it is hosted by the magazine of the same name. Cavallino stretches over a four day period in mid-January and is packed with parties and high life displays of the hedge fund life well-lived. On Thursday night, for example, there’s a showing of private jets at the West Palm Beach airport—your chance to see how that G5 you’ve been thinking about lines up next to a triple-engine Falcon. Friday night, the gang meets at the Rybovitch Boatyard, for the “Yacht Hop�, where Fedships and Lurssens and Hinckleys are moored stern to stern for your inspection (hint: start with the pilot house and work your way down to the engine room; if those two are in proper order, the rest of the ship is merely personal preference and decorating style).
My plane landed at West Palm Beach airport at about 5:30PM on Friday evening (private jet shopping was put off until a later date), so I had barely an hour or so to disembark, gather up the rental car, and sprint over to the Rybovitch yard.
It had been almost a decade since I was last inside Rybovitch, one of America’s great boatyards if you are the type that likes such things and I am that type.
When I was last here, it was for the 1D48 Palm Beach Invitational—a pre-Christmas regatta gathering of 8 of the top yacht racing teams in the world for a week’s worth of on-the-water racing in One Design 48 sailboats and off-the-water partying in Palm Beach during the “Season�. The highlight of the week was to ride onboard an observation boat with Tom Whidden, formerly Dennis Conner’s America’s Cup Tactician and one of the best minds in the history of American sailing and John Bertrand, who had organized and was managing the 1D48 circuit. Riding with Whidden was like going to a magic show with the head shaman—Whidden could call a wind shift with the ease with which most of us dial a cell phone. While the rest of the crew were looking (in vain) for signs of the shift that Whidden had just called, Whidden had moved on, to the proper angle and tactics to optimize his guidance. Whidden and Bertrand had a dialogue for the entire race that was worthy of the very best commentary you’ve ever heard on television about sailing—sharp, captivating, and loaded with insight. It was brilliant to watch Whidden and Bertrand work and strategize and the whole experience was yet another reminder of the massive gap in competency that separates the legendary world-class competitors from the rest of us. Note to those considering taking up big boat sailing: recruit Whidden or JB first—things will go much smoother for your team.
Rybovitch is a storied name in the boating world because of their history with a specific type of boat, called a “sport fisherman� that is used for serious deep sea fishing. These are streamlined, highly powerful very manueverable motor boats, with enclosed cabin, high aluminum fish-spotting tower and outside pilot station (some have inside pilot stations as well) with a flat back deck off the main cabin. The deck is equipped with a single “fighting chair�, which is where an angler sits as he seeks to bring the big game fish that was hooked by one of the boat’s outrigger rods, up to and then into the boat. In sporting ritual known as i.e. “fighting the fish�. From a purist point of view, the entire boat is designed around the activities that take place on the back deck and in the fighting chair. The luxury in such a boat is its’ performance under pressure, in heavy seas, with a record-breaking marlin on the line.
To understand Rybovitch’s place in the development of the modern sport fishing boat, you have to know that it was Rybovitch that developed the schematic design for this type of vessel along with most of the iconic elements of a sport fishing boat.
The spotting tower—a Rybovitch innovation. The fighting chair—a Rybovitch innovation. Streaming outriggers—a Rybovitch innovation.
The sports fishing boat—designed specifically for one purpose (get out to the fishing grounds quickly, be highly efficient in tracking and bringing in fish, and then get back to the dock as fast as possible ) was mostly a Rybovitch creation. There are many manufacturers of sport fishing boats today, but the a classic Rybovitch is still the standard, as sought after as a classic Ferrari: a 37 foot Rybovitch,produced in 1965, for example, is offered for sale today at approximately $500,000. That’s unheard for a 40 year old wooden fishing boat.
Before the activists chime in, please note that when the first Rybovitch sport fishing boats hit the seas, there was no “catch and release�; it was catch and weigh on the dock and take a picture of the angler standing beside his prize, the man right side up, the fish upside down.
Since it was and is still not uncommon for some of these battles between fish and man to last for hours (excruciating hours at that—spent reeling the fish in only to see the fish leap and then run, spooling off hundreds of feet of line at a time and thus starting all over again the slow, tortuous process of reeling the fish into the boat again, all the time hoping the line doesn’t break or the fish doesn’t jerk the hook loose on a jump-and-sound ) ; during this time, the angler is literally strapped into the fighting chair (a Rybovitch invention) and must use all of his muscles—arms, legs, and back—to win the struggle and bring the catch in. By now, you have discerned that the fish caught with such gear are not 15 pounders but 200 and 300 and 1000 pound monsters that can only be defeated by an angler who can outlast them and a captain who knows how to handle a very big boat with a very big fish hooked on.
One reason Rybovitchs have always been so highly prized can be found in their unique design, which combines a long bow, sleek, streamlined cabin, and uncluttered fishing deck with a totally unique sound underwater that “raised� fish. When deep sea game fish like tuna and sailfish and marlin heard the big Rybos motoring overhead, that trademark sound of the boats caused the fish to rise to the surface to see what all the noise was about and where, of course, the idea was to snag the big ones and let the little ones go. No other boat had made that type of sound and so the Rybovitchs were always the first choice of serous anglers.
In 1996, we staged the 1D48 Palm Beach Invitational out of the Rybovitch Yard, and that gave us, everyday, the opportunity to walk past legendary motoryachts, sailing yachts, and sport fishing boats. Most of these boats were in for “refits� or complete, bow to stern re-dos, but some were in for maintenance or electronics upgrades. I met a few members of the crew of a very famous boat named Octopussy (in for refit) and we traded gear (hats, polo shirts, t-shirts with our boat names on them) and tours of our hardware. We had 48 Foot one design sailboats, from the famous Raichle-Pugh naval architecture firm on the west coast. The Octopussy crew had the serious hardware, however: Octopussy had just had some length added to her stern and the boat, powered by triple jet turbines, was already famous as one of the fastest big motoryachts ever produced. I was given a tour of this beautiful creature, and when we walked into the pilot house it was like walking onto the flight deck of Hans Solo’s Millenium Falcon—everything was sleek, modern, electronic, perfected. An amazing ship and a historic one because of its’ jet propulsion drive; it was designed for cruising in modest ocean waters (i.e. the Carribean or the Mediteranean ; the owners would send it to Europe for the “season� on a freighter because the hull was not designed for crossing sometimes tough oceans like the Atlantic in March.
The Rybovitch boatyard that greeted me was vastly changed from the one we raced out of in the 90’s. Ravaged during one of Florida’s many hurricanes, the boatyard had been purchased by Wayne Huyzinga, one of America’s great entrepreneurs and someone who takes tangible pride in his operations. Wayne’s team had gone through the fabled boat yard, rebuilt the buildings and working decks, put in a 600 ton traveler to enable the yard to work on huge motoryachts, designed and built new docks and staging areas. Their level of detail even extended down to the cleats on the docks, all of which were custom designed and built for the yard. An amazing and expensive effort; walking down the dock I felt again the excitement of being on the water, at a place with such an astonishing history.
The “yacht hop� itself was fantastic, as was the chance to see a whole group of Ferraris parked side to side on the working deck next to the docks. The weather was perfect (low 60s), the crowd respectful (Jimmy Choo’s and Gucci loafers dropped into the shoe basket beside the entry to each yacht, so as not to scratch the fine wooden decks), and the overall ambiance wonderful.
But it’s just the warmup. Tomorrow is the real show—The Cavallino Concour’s D’Elegance, on the grounds of The Breakers hotel(another Palm Beach Legend), featuring some of the best and most honored Ferraris in the world.
One last look over the Rybovitch yard (and yes, the Fedship does look especially inviting) and then I’m into the rental, out of the yard, and off to the hotel. Saturday is truth day. Looking forward to it, I turn up Dylan as I speed across the causeway.