The official qualifying press release from the Risi Comp Press Team, on site at Road America.
RISI COMPETIZIONE – ROAD AMERICA
POST-QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia GT No. 62:
Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA)
Pierre Kaffer (DEU)
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin…(August 8, 2015)…Risi Competizione driver Giancarlo Fisichella handled the qualifying driver chores today in the No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia GT for tomorrow’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Following a rainy Friday, which never saw the Risi Ferrari on track, brighter skies prevailed today at the 14-turn, 4.048-mile/6.515 kilometer Road America circuit. Fisichella qualified the Risi Ferrari 458 Italia on the second row, in the third position on the grid, for tomorrow’s 2 hour and 40 minute sprint race with a time of 2:02.721 at 118.747 miles per hour. This was Fisichella’s second qualifying effort this season, after previously qualifying the Risi Ferrari for the Long Beach round. Teammate Kaffer has qualified for the other six IMSA races.
The 33-car IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship field at Road America includes eight GTLM entries. This weekend is Fisichella’s second time in seven races as the Risi Competizione qualifying and starting driver.
GIANCARLO FISICHELLA, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia, Risi Competizione qualifying driver:
“Actually, it was a very impressive qualifying session. This morning it was quite comfortable. We knew for the qualifying session the track temperature was better for us, but I didn’t expect to be that much quicker. We are third and three-tenths slower than the leaders. It’s a great time. I did a perfect lap and I’m really happy about the balance of the car. It’s going to be a tough race obviously, but I’m looking forward to it. We have a good chance of doing well. It will be important to have a clean race, good strategy, and a good pit stop and go to the end of the race.”
RICK MAYER, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia Risi Competizione Race Engineer:
“We’re really happy and surprised with qualifying third. Honestly, we didn’t think we’d be that fast compared to our competition. We had two non-sessions basically on Friday when it was wet and we basically ran and qualified off the truck set-up and it just happened to work well for the track and Giancarlo did a great job. We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow and it’d be really amazing if we could consolidate that position for a podium at the end.”
DAVE SIMS, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia Risi Competizione Team Manager:
“It was a really good qualifying session. We did a small camber change on one side. That’s all we did from this morning, which was our only on-track session, from the set-up we came here with from the workshop. Giancarlo said he can put the car anywhere he wants it on the track. He said it’s great, just leave it alone, it’s a perfect race car.It was a great qualifying round with a really amazing, quick qualifying time. Pierre thought Giancarlo did a great job and is pleased he qualified so well for both of them for tomorrow’s race.”
Tomorrow’s schedule includes a warm-up tomorrow morning, Sunday, August 9, from 9:00-9:20 a.m. CDT. The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase race begins at 2:05 p.m. CDT for two-hour and 40-minutes.
Tune-In Information:
Live coverage of the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase is on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, August 9 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. EDT. Live timing and scoring is available for all on-track sessions at IMSA.com and on the IMSA Smartphone app.
For more information, please go to www.risicompetizione.com and follow us on Facebook/RisiCompetizione , Twitter @RisiComp or Instagram @RisiComp.
# # #