{"id":463,"date":"2009-09-26T22:44:02","date_gmt":"2009-09-27T03:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racinginfocus.com\/rif\/?p=463"},"modified":"2009-12-15T22:49:59","modified_gmt":"2009-12-16T03:49:59","slug":"race-report-risi-competizione-petit-le-mans-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/alms\/race-report-risi-competizione-petit-le-mans-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Race report-Risi Competizione | Petit Le Mans | final"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><span style=\"color: #000080;\">RISI TAKE THE ENDURANCE TRIPLE AT PETIT LE MANS | 26.09.2009<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s 8<sup>th<\/sup> place overall result, in what may well be known in the future as the \u201cTout Petit Le Mans\u201d or &#8220;Mini Le Mans&#8221;, tops an outstanding year for Risi.\u00a0 They have taken victory laurels at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans outcome continues a run of wins at the last five endurance classics, beginning with the 2008 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It turned out to be an extraordinary race due to thunder, lightning and rain storms which deluged the track, and the race action was suspended after 4 hours and 49 minutes due to unsafe track conditions.\u00a0 \u00a0At the time the red flag was shown, Mika Salo\u2019s Ferrari F430 GT was leading the GT class with a lap in hand thanks to an inspired early strategy call for wet Michelin tires.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The race remained suspended for a further 3 hours and 56 minutes before the checkered flag was shown\/called as the rain showed no sign of letting up and darkness was approaching.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mid race, as the skies darkened and the rain started to fall, the #62 car was the first in the GT class to make the change from slick to wet tires, while under the 6<sup>th<\/sup> of the seven full course caution periods.\u00a0 This allowed Salo \u2013 in increasingly heavy rain \u2013 to pass all his competitors, first on the track, and then additionally as they all had to pit for their own wet tires.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Declared a \u201cwet race\u201d prior to the start, Jaime Melo took the Ferrari from its 10<sup>th<\/sup> place grid position up to 5<sup>th<\/sup> place in class by the 5<sup>th<\/sup> lap, and ran strongly in changing track conditions to keep in touch with the two fast-running Corvettes and two Porsches ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pierre Kaffer continued the good work, despite continual pressure from the #87 Farnbacher Porsche and a chasing Corvette which, had it got past, would have put the Ferrari yet a further lap in arrears.\u00a0 Great pit work and strategy by the Risi crew (only one of the team\u2019s seven pit stops took place under \u2018green\u2019 racing conditions) ensured that the #62 car headed the GT class as weather conditions took a turn for the worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis race has really been a revelation,\u201d said Team Principal, <strong>Giuseppe Risi<\/strong>, after the race.\u00a0 \u201cI am very, very happy for my team and for Ferrari for us to have our second victory at Petit Le Mans.\u00a0 At the beginning of the race it looked as though we had a real good fight on our hands, but racing is what it is.\u00a0 You can lose a race on the last lap, or win it, and we made the right call on our tires.\u00a0 The rain was there for everyone to see, but we took a bigger gamble than everyone else by coming in earlier because we were listening to what our driver was telling us.\u00a0 The feedback from him was that people were beginning to slide in front of him and he thought it the right time to change tires.\u00a0 Between our engineer, Rick Mayer, and myself we made the decision to come in.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe it\u2019s fair to say that this result today confirms the quality of this team and shows it to be maybe one of the best GT teams ever.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Starting driver, <strong>Jaime Melo<\/strong>, was full of praise for the Risi team and his team mates.\u00a0 \u201cIt was kind of a strange race but I think we had a competitive car.\u00a0 I was a bit conservative at the beginning as the track was wet and I didn\u2019t want to take any risks.\u00a0 The car was comfortable in both wet and dry conditions.\u00a0 Even if the race had continued we could have kept up a good pace in these conditions.\u00a0 I need to say thank you to Pierre who did a very good job for the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> and 4<sup>th<\/sup> stints and to Mika, who I think drove for only seven laps \u2013 five behind the safety car [laughs]! \u00a0\u00a0Thank you to the whole crew and for the strategy, everyone has been phenomenal.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe still have one more race to go and we are now 19 points behind the Flying Lizard Porsche in the Championship and we never give up so we\u2019ll see what happens in the last race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pierre Kaffer<\/strong> took the opportunity to thank Ferrari for bringing a revised aerodynamic package to this event which \u201chelped us a lot.\u00a0 The track was drying more and more during my stint and the car was pretty good during the race.\u00a0 It was exciting to drive and I think the GT class was again very exciting for the spectators.\u00a0 We had great battles and I want to thank the whole team who did a great job to help us get where we were, and my team mates.\u00a0 I can always learn something from Mika \u2013 he might not have done such a long stint but he made the most important call of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After good-naturedly taking the teasing about his lack of race laps, <strong>Mika Salo<\/strong> reminded his team mates of his version of events.\u00a0 \u201cI might not have been in the car very much but if you go around for 4 hours in 6<sup>th<\/sup> or 5<sup>th<\/sup> position and then I\u2019m in the car for half an hour and I went from 6<sup>th<\/sup> to the lead, then I think you can take what you want from that!\u00a0 Seriously though, it\u2019s a great team with always a very nice atmosphere.\u00a0 It\u2019s only the third race I\u2019ve done this year and it\u2019s a great atmosphere; everyone is working so hard and is so serious and professional about their racing.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got two team mates who I can trust and who don\u2019t go off and destroy the car \u2013 apart from Jaime sometimes [said with a big smile and to much laughter in the media room] \u2013 and it\u2019s such a pleasure always to drive for the Risi team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RISI TAKE THE ENDURANCE TRIPLE AT PETIT LE MANS | 26.09.2009 \u00a0 Today\u2019s 8th place overall result, in what may well be known in the future as the \u201cTout Petit Le Mans\u201d or &#8220;Mini Le Mans&#8221;, tops an outstanding year for Risi.\u00a0 They have taken victory laurels at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the &#8230;<\/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":[5264,99,100,103,104,109,106,5281],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463"}],"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=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}