This piece was written by Michelle Sanchez, who was a member of the Young Journalist Program sponsored by Risi Competizione and COTA. As a part of the program, students move into the press room at Circuit of the Americas and receive a total immersion introduction into real-time/real-world media coverage. Michelle is a Journalism Student at the School of Journalism at the University of Texas. Photo by Daulton Venglar.
AUSTIN, TX – Growth in an industry that is a “man’s” sport can be intimidating, but for some women, racing in the fast lane eliminates any obstacle.
Being a fan of A.C. Milan brings a sense of pride to Rossella Manfrinato who is from Milan, but working for the Italian brand Ferrari means even more to her. Manfrinato is one of two women who works for Ferrari that is based out of Houston.
At a young age her father would take her down to the racetracks and there she fell in love with racing.
Manfrinato has a long history in motor sports, working in car manufacturers and with race car teams. She studied Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in vehicle dynamics at Politecnico Di Milano. She now works as a technical supporter for Ferrari.
“I’ve been with the motor sports for a few years now and once you’re in you cant get out of it,” said Manfrinato.
To her working in an environment that is dominated by men doesn’t bother her. She shares a small Ferrari trailer and works with about 15 men on a daily basis. Her job is to analyze and understand the responses of a vehicle.
“I love working on cars and I’ve seen more women working in this industry. It’s not weird to see us in the pit anymore,” said Manfrinato.
Data Engineer Chase Navarre, who is the other woman working for Ferrari says that her and Manfrinato have a strong support system and the support from their male co-workers.
“She is very intelligent, easy to work with and we don’t compete with each other. Instead we use each other to learn new things,” said Navarre.
But working in the racing industry comes with some challenges for Manfrinato’s personal life. She hasn’t been able to start a family due to the amount of traveling she does.”I don’t have kids because my partner and I travel with the team all the time. There’s no way,” said Manfrinato. For some having a family is a priority but for Manfrinato her family is out on pit row.
The Fine Print: Photo of Ferrari Tech Rossella Manfrinato by Daulton Venglar, member of the Young Journalist Team.
The Porsche Parade
This piece was written by Rachel Wenzlaff, a University of Texas Journalism Student and a member of the Risi Competizione/COTA Young Journalism Program 2015.
The Porsches made me late.
I live 30 minutes from the Circuit of the Americas. This morning I decided to give myself one hour to get from my apartment to the parking lot at COTA and then from the media shuttle to the media building. Theoretically I would have had 15 to 20 minutes to spare.
And then there were the Porsches.
I squeezed into the media van, shoulder to shoulder with large, sweaty cameramen and expensive equipment at my feet. The door was slammed shut and we were off… and then after five feet we were stopped.
An exceptionally slow moving car coral of more than 150 Porsches blocked media vans and shuttle busses from making their way onto the grounds.
We sat motionless in the van, counting Porsches like sheep. Large gaps separated the cars. A reporter sitting behind me pointed out that professional racecar drivers would have known to drive nose to tail, but in the driver’s seat of these cars were mostly affluent, influential men with little to no racing experience. They were simply people who could afford the cars and gathered to show them off.
“Okay this is bull sh**,” a reporter next me shouted. “Drive, just drive!” he told our driver. “I have to get to work!”
After a little more persuasion and support from other reporters in the van, our driver slowly began to creep his way into the cavities between the Porsches.
A parking lot attendant flailed his arms, motioning us to stop.
“No!” our journalist leader shouted out the window. “We are going!”
The driver, clearly uneasy, followed orders and rolled past. Lead and followed by sports-car steads, we finally arrived at the media building.
But that experience was only a taste of the extravagant lavishness I would experience at the Lone Star Le Mans.
A walk down the paddock is a walk down luxury lane. Trucks for BMW, Corvette, Mazda, Audi, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Viper, Porsche line the paddock path. The newest and most advanced models of each car rest behind ropes receiving careful touch-ups and maintenance.
Price values of the cars range from $500,000 to $2 million. That’s 19 to 77 times as much as my college tuition.
Young fans peered over the ropes, attempting to persuade their parents to into irresponsible purchases.
“That’s the car I want for my sixteenth birthday,” a young boy said to his dad, while pointing at a Corvette.
I walked farther down to the retail booth, where purchases become more reasonable, but not much. Want an Aston Martin zip-up jacket? That will run you $200 before tax. A Ferrari zip-up? $110.
My college student bank account and I were definitely out of place here.
Gallery: FIA WEC 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas
The photos in this gallery were shot by Daulton Venglar and by Taylor Wiseman. This year’s Young Journalist Program was a double-header: cover the IMSA TUDOR 2 hour and 40 minute race in the morning and then the World Endurance Championship 6 Hour race in the afternoon. One of the projects that we asked the Young Journalists to undertake was photographing the race, not just writing about it. In this ambitious assignment in real time/real world journalism, we were assisted to a massive degree by our kind friends and professional associates at CANON photography. Specifically, CANON sent two Senior Professional Marketing Specialists, Michael (“Mike”) Sheras and Jim Rose and three cases of CANON professional grade DSLR equipment, including the CANON EOS 1D Mk IV, EOS 1DX, EOS 5D Mk III along with an amazing assortment of their Image Stabilized Zoom lenses, batteries chargers, etc. CANON’s Bob Malish was the driving force and contact behind the project; he’s headquartered in Dallas and took the time and made the considerable commitment and large physical effort to personally deliver the gear to the team. It wasn’t easy and I know first hand, because I carried the gear out and had a chance to experience the serious physical effort that Malish put forth carrying it in. But Hardware wasn’t the only element CANON brought to the project: It brought Software and Photographic Knowledge, in the form of Sheras and Rose, who were onsite throughout the two-day race weekend, performed clinics, coaching sessions, and equipment guidance for the Young Journalists, only one of whom (Daulton Venglar, who is the Photo Editor for the Daily Texan at the University of Texas) had previous photographic experience. Risi Competizione’s Team Photographer Regis Lefebure also provided track-side coaching, as did Keith Rizzo, who is another shooter for Risi Comp and COTA. You can see how fast the team raised their photographic game by taking a close look at this Gallery of Photos, which was produced during the WEC race. The lesson here: good coaching, great equipment and the right, ambitious attitude and effort will deliver the goods. There will be another, more extensive post on the photographic component of this year’s YJP (Young Journalist Program) but in the meantime, enjoy the Gallery. And special thanks to Daulton and Taylor for producing this work, to CANON for their assistance and support, to COTA and to the WEC for access and support, to Regis Lefebure and Keith Rizzo for their help and professional knowledge, and to the Young Journalists (Daulton Venglar, Taylor Wiseman, Rachel Wenzlaff, and Michelle Sanchez) for their enthusiasm and energy for the project.
Dave Sims
Written by Rachel Wenzlaff as part of the Young Journalist Program
For a man that says he does as little as he can, Dave “Beaky Sims” sure does a lot.
The drivers ultimately make the car accelerate, turn, brake and stop, but there would be no car to race without Dave Sims.
Simms has been the team manager for Risi Competizione for over a decade. He describes what he does simply as “looking out for the children” (children being the mechanics, drivers and staff he oversees.) But ask any of the “children” on the Ferrari team and they’ll tell you he does nothing less than everything. Whether it’s managing the relationship with the sanctioning body about rules and regulations or organizing the flight details of drivers, Simms handles it.
But Sims didn’t use to do everything.
Sims got into the racing business as a mechanic with Formula 1 in the 1960’s. Back then F1 was not nearly the organized sport it is today. There was far less money on the line and it was extremely dangerous.
In two years, from 1968 to 1970, two of Simms’s drivers died during a race: Jim Clark in 1968 and Jochen Rindt in 1970. It was a heartbreaking experience and not a good thing to be associated with as a mechanic, but in those early days of F1, it was just a fact of the sport.
Sims pushed on in the business, eventually working in practically every form of racing. Now, nearly 55 years later, he’s quite well known in the racing world and, as his peers claim, he’s become quite the ladies man.
He has a family in England where he’s from, but because of the travel demands of racing, he only gets to visit home about three times a year.
“I’m a bachelor here and a family man in England,” he said.
And he impresses the ladies all without any help from the teams that employ him. Despite working around flashy sports cars for more than half a century, he drives a Toyota and doesn’t really have any interest in driving anything like a Ferrari.
“I’m just sitting in traffic anyway; its not going to get me there any faster,” he said.
Family man or ladies man aside, one thing is certain, he is a racing man and always will be. He says he’s excited to go to work with the team everyday simply because “it’s the job. Its all I know.”
Before The Race: The Pits and The Grid. Photos by Daulton Venglar.
Daulton Venglar is covering the races at Circuit of the Americas this weekend as part of the Young Journalist Program. This is his second gallery of work.
The Art of the Precise Pit Stop
By Taylor Wiseman
Pit stops. They can be the difference between fifth place and second place. Or No Place and a Podium.
Risi Competizione has done well this season during pit stops, typically performing the fastest pit stop time in each race. They’re so good at pit stops that earlier this year they won an award.
During the 63rd Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring the Risi Comp team was awarded the DEKRA Green Challenge Award. This award is given to the most environmentally clean, fast and efficient GTLM team during each TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Race.
Chief Mechanic, Mark Sims, takes pride in how fast the team can start and finish their pit stops.
“We came up with a method back in the workshop and when everyone’s together we can actually do the pit stops at the workshop.”
Pit stops are made great through teamwork and individual drive to be fast. Sims and his crew have competition between the team when practicing pit stops.
“We all want to beat each other…so there’s a little bit of competition within the group. If the left side beats the right side they’re like, ‘aha you suck’, so it’s sort of built in.”
The Risi Comp teams performance in recent pit stops make you think about the 10,000 hours theory. If you practice something for 10,000 hours, no matter how good you were at the beginning, you will become a master. The Risi Comp team continues to master the art of the pit stop each race.
In todays’ race the Risi Comp team started in 8th place, by the end of the race they finished with a spot on the podium, taking 2nd. Pit stops were key in today’s success (see official race report, this site).
The general idea in racing is that you want to have the fastest car on the track in terms of speed but a senior team member gave some insight on that.
“All time has equal value in racing.”
Next time you watch a sport car race pay attention to pit time and see the position changes that take place throughout the field, you might be surprised.
Big Fan, Young Man
This piece is written by Taylor Wiseman, who is covering the Lone Star Le Mans Grand Prix as a member of the Young Journalist Program.
A young fan, arms covered in signatures, walks up to Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella, drivers of the Risi Competizione No. 62 Ferrari 458, unfazed by their professional driver status.
Kaffer and the young fan engage in conversation. Kaffer pokes fun at the hat nine-year-old Nicholas Swaluk is wearing, it’s not Ferrari. Kaffer takes the young fans hat off and gives him the No. 62 Ferrari hat right off his head.
“That was very nice, extremely nice,” said Swaluk when asked about Kaffer giving him his hat.
Kaffer attempts to put Swaluk’s hat on, takes it off and pretends to throw it away because, well, it’s not Ferrari. Swaluk continues to chat with Kaffer wishing him luck in his race today and talking cars with him.
Swaluk and his father begin to walk away from Kaffer and Fisichella as a man walks up, grabs a picture out of a folder and hands it to young Swaluk. The picture is the No. 62 car taken two years ago at CoTA.
“I got it signed and I didn’t want it to get wrecked because it was an amazing shot of the car,” said Swaluk of the picture he received.
Swaluk says Kaffer and Fisichella are his favorite drivers. He’s been following them since TUDOR began.
“This has to be one of my favorite series…this whole experience being down here in the Paddock, watching everybody down here working on the cars, just having this great experience.”
Swaluk and his father continued to make their way down the Paddock checking out each team as they walked by. Swaluk has been to 13 races this year and plans to go to many more.
“See ya at Daytona!”
Shooting Fast: Photos by Daulton Venglar
TIME And SCORING
You can follow the official timing and scoring for the Lone Star Le Mans Grand Prix at scoring.imsa.com
The Newest Ferrari Race Car is Fast Approaching
This piece was written by Michelle Sanchez, who is one of the Young Journalists working at the Lone Star Grand Prix this weekend under a project sponsored by Risi Competizione, The University of Texas School of Journalism, and Circuit of the Americas. Michelle will be posting articles throughout the race. Michelle Sanchez is a journalism major at the University of Texas.
AUSTIN, TX – The Circuit of the Americas is featuring the Lone Star Le Mans Grand Prix this weekend and among the many different car brands in the race, Ferrari is the one that stands out to spectators. Not only is Ferrari known for its fast sport cars complete with candy red coat and signature horse logo, but they also known for relentlessly improving the breed and so this fall are developing a new race car to add to the company’s long line of racing models.
Former Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella has been driving the No. 62 Ferrari 458 for Risi Competizione for the past two years now, alongside Pierre Kaffer. and notes that Michelotto who manufactures the vehicles for Ferrari will release a new racing model next summer, the Ferrari 488 GTE.
Fisichella who has test drove the Ferrari 488 GTE says the new racecar model is in its early stages and is currently a pilot or development car, but is very excited for the finished product.
It’s difficult to say what or how the new Ferrari 488 GTE series will look like or preform on the racetrack, but Fisichella knows enough to describe some of the new features.
“We are looking forward to a better grip to the car, and the shape of it. It’s also important to be as comfortable as I can be.” The Ferrari 488 GTE is still in the development stages but Fisichella is positive that the car will be the easiest to get in and out of.
Fisichella has driven Ferrari’s for most of his career. He has previously driven the Ferrari 430(GT2) and the Ferrari 458 in GT racing. As a former Ferrari F1 driver, he logged over 100 races.
According to, Ferrari mechanic Miles Bradley, the Ferrari is one of the most interesting cars to work on because it’s custom made from inside out. Ferrari designs are always built around racing and that many advantages for both and track cars.
“ It takes six hours to change the engine in a Corvette and about 45 hours of a Ferrari, ” says Bradley.
It is safe to say that the new Ferrari 488 GTE series won’t let spectators down when it comes to performance.