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Three years in the German F3
Championship followed before a switch from single-seaters
to sportscars brought GT2 class victory in the 1996 24 Hours
of Le Mans, while during the next year he claimed GTS
victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona, as well as in GT2 wins
at the Suzuka 1000kms and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen.
Ralf’s career has included varied stints in Grand American (2000/02) and
the German V8 STAR series (2001) as well as in ALMS driving
the Audi R8, before he joined Risi Competizione in late
2002.
His arrival came
just in time for the ALMS series’ prestigious September
round, held at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, when he united
with Lazzaro to finish in an excellent second place, the
best finish that year for a non-Porsche runner. The team
completed its two-race season with a very strong third-place
finish in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
In the nine-race 2003 ALMS season, Kelleners and Lazzaro
finished second four times in the GT class with the Ferrari
360GT and provided a real serious threat to the
category-leading Porsches. The runner-up finishes came at
Trois-Rivieres, Mosport, Laguna Seca and Miami. The duo also
finished third in two races, at the Infineon Raceway and the
Petit Le Mans. Thus the two were on the GT podium six times
in nine races. He was also joined by Lazzaro as well as
Terry Borcheller for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the trio
completing race in 27th place.
Kelleners began the 2004 season, again driving for Risi
Competizione, at the 12 Hours of Sebring by finishing in
16th place overall, 7th in GT. The
Ferrari team then went on to win the GT class and finish 7
out of 27 at Lime Rock. They completed the season with four
fourth place GT class finishes, including at the Petit Le
Mans when Kelleners and Lazzaro were joined by Italian
Fabrizio De Simone.
"I'm a
safe driver,” says Ralf. “I can go quickly without being
hard on the chassis or taking risks. I can go a good race
speed without causing any trouble. A race-car driver has to
have a very big ego to be successful. But in sports-car
racing, it's different. You have to work with your
co-drivers. You may be the quicker driver, but if you don’t
work with your team mate, your car may not win.
"I always ask the Americans to call me Joey because my name
always causes trouble and never gets pronounced the right
way!” added Ralf.
Winter at Risi Competizione
In the break between the end
of the ALMS racing season (October) and the start of the
next season (Sebring—this year will be held on March 18th),
the race workshops at Risi Competizione remain very busy
with racing and service activities.
Risi Competizione is a
full-year-round operation. The highly experienced, official
Ferrari-trained team members are employed full-time and not
hired/fired at the end of each season as is the case with
many other race teams. During the non-racing months of the
year, the skilled technicians at Risi Comp work on a variety
of projects: including the factory-authorised F1 Corse
Clienti (client Formula 1 cars) programme, restoration of
vintage and historic race cars, rebuilding of Risi
Competizione own cars to “as-new” condition after a season
of racing, and service work on everything from F1 cars to Le
Mans specification racers. This winter the team has been
working on a string of unique and valuable cars, including
an ex-Niki Lauda 312B3 and the ex-Michael Schumacher 310B,
on behalf of private clients, as well as undertaking service
and preparation work on one of the ex-Momo Ferrari 333SPs.
As always at Risi
Competizione, the emphasis is on carrying out activities the
right way, all of the time, for any client or project. If
you’re interested in learning more about the services of
Risi Competizione – which include everything from organizing
and operating a racing team to the preparation and servicing
of race cars
–
please contact either Donald Pierce or
Russell Adams on phone 713-772-3868.
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