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The #62 Risi
Competizione Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer, Jaime Melo and
Mika Salo won the GT2 class of the 100th American Le
Mans Series race in a dominant fashion on Saturday –
leading the 2009 season-opening Twelve Hours of Sebring
from the second hour until the finish. Finishing eighth
overall, they led home a Ferrari 1-2, and the team’s
Krohn Racing drivers Tracy W Krohn, Nic Jönsson and Eric
van de Poele rounded off an excellent day for both the
team and Ferrari with a sixth place finish.
The #62 Ferrari’s achievement was all the more
remarkable as it had started from the back of the grid,
and because one of its drivers didn’t arrive at the
track until the early hours of Friday morning so had
missed most of the valuable build-up time.
It took Mika Salo less than 50 of the 332 laps that the
#62 Ferrari completed today to get from it starting
position of 10th to the head of the class, a place it
never relinquished. The win, Salo’s 14th and Melo’s
13th,was the second in three years for the pairing
(following the record-breaking 2007 GT2 finish), and
Kaffer’s first on his debut with the team. While the
Krohn Racing drivers were not able to repeat their
podium finish of 2008, they had a relatively trouble
free run through to sixth. Bad luck essentially
prevented them from finishing in a stronger position.
Risi Competizione’s Team Principal, Giuseppe Risi, said
of the victory: “It always takes a while for this kind
of thing to sink in, especially when you mentally
prepare yourself for the worst. We dominated the race,
had absolutely no technical problems at all with either
of the cars so it was a perfect result, and the team did
a fantastic job right from the get-go. All six drivers
did a superb job and it’s a perfect start to the
season. I’m also proud to say that three Ferraris
started and three finished, all in the top six which is
a testament to the product and how these cars are
prepared. I’m very happy.”
Jaime Melo: “I got here at the last
moment this week so I need to really thank Mika and
Pierre who worked all week on the set up of the car and
did such a good job on it for the race. They also had to
make a big sacrifice for me which was their grid
position for the race so I thank them for that as
well. Mika made a great start for us, and the car was
very consistent throughout and we managed our tire
situation and strategy well. My ankle was really painful
towards the end [Melo broke his ankle in November] so
Mika and Pierre had to do more hours in the car than I
did, but I’m still happy to get the win. One more is one
more!”
Pierre Kaffer: “For me it’s really special as
it’s my third time at Sebring and my second win here so
that’s a good statistic. [Kaffer won overall in an Audi
in 2004]. I want to say I’m really pleased to be part of
the Ferrari family and the Risi Competizione team – they
have helped me a lot this week and I’m looking forward
very much to the rest of the season with Jaime and in
the ALMS. I hope we can win more races and fight for the
Championship.”
Mika Salo: “We won last time [in 2007]
from the back of the grid too so it must be lucky for
us! It was a perfect race, but you know with fewer cars
on the track it can make it more difficult not
easier. It means that sometimes you can do six or seven
laps and not see anybody else in your class and it’s
difficult to keep concentration. It would have been easy
to screw up but none of us did. I had a few close calls
with some prototypes – well, the Peugeots – but we don’t
have a scratch on the car and we won by two laps so
that’s a good result. The Porsches may have been faster
over a lap, as we saw earlier in the week, but our car
is very consistent and in the long run we can beat
them.”
Tracy Krohn, Risi-Krohn Ferrari 430 GT Driver
and Krohn Racing Owner: “This was a
particularly clean race at Sebring. We only had three
yellows. There was very little damage for anyone – which
is good. It was a quick race. Our car, the No. 61
Ferrari, was mechanically perfect the entire race; every
system worked, every switch, everything electrical and
mechanical on the car worked. Risi did a great job
preparing this car. I thought everybody did a great job
driving today. We had a few unfortunate things, which is
just how racing is, and we ended up sixth in class which
is quite an accomplishment with this kind of field. It
was a very competitive field, so we’re real happy. It’s
always nice to finish this race which is a particularly
difficult race in that physically it is always
demanding.”
Nic Jönsson: “First of all I have to
thank Risi Competizione and the Krohn Racing team.
Everybody did a fantastic job again preparing our
Ferrari 430 GT for us. The car ran flawless all day.
It’s just that we had a few mishaps in the middle of the
race when we went a couple of laps down because we
didn’t stay out to get a wave by under yellow. That got
us two laps down and that’s where we ran the rest of the
day basically. Otherwise the last two to three hours we
really had the pace of the leaders. I’m very pleased
although not 100% happy with our result. I think this
looks very positive for Le Mans; if we have as good of
preparation and pace there, we have a very good chance
of being out front as well.”
Eric van de Poele: “We tried hard.
Except for a few seconds lost for small reasons, there
was no big problem. The car was very reliable. We tried
our best. Nic did an incredible job and did a lot of
stints. Tracy had very good laps as well. What we know
is that GT2 is really the hardest competition in the
ALMS Series. Unfortunately today we couldn’t do much
better than we did. I’m always very happy to race with
Giuseppe Risi. It’s really a fantastic team, always very
reliable.”
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