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| Lime Rock Race Notes: Risi Competizone |
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Meanwhile, Toni Vilander, driving for Ferrari of Silicon Valley and Ferrari of Ontario's Remo Ferri and his R. Ferri Competizione team, was dishing out his on-track business card to the other GT2 competitors, seizing first with a steely grip and then logging lap after lap at the front, leading the class and avoiding the many dramas going on around him. His drive was marvelously consistentjust the type of thing that warms the hearts of Team Managers, Team Owners, and Team Strategists everywhere.
But destiny had a different point of view. At 3:38PM, the Ferrari 430GT roared down the hill leading onto the front straight, and hit what appeared to be fluids laid down seconds before by one of the Courage C65 Mazdas, and went off, flying into the offending car which was by now parked up against the wall, sustaining enough damage that the Ferrari was unable to continue. It was a disappointment as Toni Vilander had been turning in really a brilliant drive on his F430GT debut outing at a track he had never before seen.
The good news though was that Vilander was uninjured. He was examined at the track's medical facility, and pronounced bruised but OK, though with a possible hairline fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his foot, although further x-rays would be needed. Vilander walked out of the center under his own power and in disgust at the bad luck that put him out of the race. I wanted to do so well for the team&I feel badly for them, he said, although once he hit the on-track fluids he was merely a passenger in his own race car.
On-track, Marc Gene kept the #62 F430GT in the hunt as he consistently reeled the leaders back. After the race, Gene said after his first stint: "It took a while to get used to the traffic. The car is fine." No doubt, Lime Rock Park is a tough track for today's sports cars. It is tight, at 1.54 miles long and the fastest prototypes are lapping in the 47 second range. The tight track mixed with the closing speed of the prototypes presents a tough driving challenge.
At 4:45PM (1 Hour, 49 Minutes Race Time) the #62 F430GT pitted and in the ensuing driver change, Gene was replaced with Mario Dominguez, who left the pits like a man with something to prove. He did, and by race's end he had driven the Risi Competizione F430GT into fifth place, despite the car having started from the back of the grid, despite the on-track incident with the Porsche RS Spyder, and despite two unplanned pit stops. Dominguez's comment at the end: Another thirty minutes and we would have fourth and thirty after that, third.
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