As Risi has seen at first hand, however, the fast and challenging Mosport track can catch out even the most experienced of competitors with its short runoff areas relative to the speed of corners.\u00a0\u00a0 At 2.459 miles (3.96 kilometres) long, the historic Canadian circuit is one of the fastest in the American Le Mans Series, and while its ten corners are demanding they are also deeply enjoyable for nearly every driver.<\/p>\n
In 2010, Finland\u2019s Toni Vilander\u00a0 drove a superbly judged race to take the No. 62 Pennzoil Ultra sponsored Ferrari F430 GTC from the back of the starting grid to second place in the manufacturer-led GT class.\u00a0 He, together with team mate Jaime Melo, will be hoping for a trouble-free weekend at Mosport after electronic issues on the all-new-for-2011 Ferrari 458 Italia cut short their charge at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Vilander acknowledges that Mosport requires some compromise in terms of car set up:\u00a0 \u201cYou want to have a perfect race car, like at every track, but to do a single quick lap here is one thing and to have a good, fast race car is another.\u00a0 Mosport is a track I enjoy – maybe it suits my driving style \u2013 and it\u2019s very smooth and fast with lots of high speed corners.\u00a0 You have to be smooth with the steering wheel and throttle at the same time and it\u2019s the sort of place that, if you get a fast lap which flows well, it makes you feel really good!<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main things we have to think about are the tires, as the circuit is demanding on tires, and set up. We\u2019ve tested with Michelin in Italy and are now able to use the experience of the races so far this year to make good steps forward.\u00a0 Most important is that we need good, dry practices and a decent qualifying session so we can start up with our competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fourth round of the 2011 American Le Mans Series will feature 35 entries \u2013 17 of which are from the GT class.\u00a0 Of those, aside from the expected, close-run challenge from BMW, Corvette and Porsche, Vilander expects the Ford GTs to present a particular type of challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ford GT is amazingly quick on the straits.\u00a0 Although the Ferrari feels like one of the quickest through the corners, it\u2019s a hard battle on the straits.\u00a0 They just pull away from you in the braking points which can make it difficult sometimes if you find yourself behind them.\u00a0 A quick car will get through in the end, but we have to be patient…something I\u2019ve learnt at bit about recently!\u201d<\/p>\n
The next round of the American Le Mans Series will be the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport at Mosport International Raceway, Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada on Sunday, July 24 starting at 3 pm (ET).\u00a0 The race will be shown LIVE on ESPN3.com \/ americanlemans.com and Rogers Sportsnet in Canada from 2:45-6:00 pm, and on ESPN2, Sunday, July 24, 10 pm \u2013 midnight (ET).<\/p>\n
About Risi Competizione<\/p>\n
Risi Competizione is a Houston-based Ferrari racing team lead by Managing Director Giuseppe Risi. Official team sponsors include Pennzoil, Motorola, Boardwalk Auto Group, Ferrari Fort Lauderdale, Ferrari Financial Services and Ferrari of Houston.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | Miller Communications-Risi Competizione<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Risi has seen at first hand, however, the fast and challenging Mosport track can catch out even the most experienced of competitors with its short runoff areas relative to the speed of corners.\u00a0\u00a0 At 2.459 miles (3.96 kilometres) long, the historic Canadian circuit is one of the fastest in the American Le Mans Series, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[5264,5334,1392,1306,3188,792,3190,108,5372,5282,5320,3189,5281,1750],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13156,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155\/revisions\/13156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}