Risi Competizione endured a tough race at Laguna Seca, suffering multiple penalties for both racing and pit lane infringements.
The Ferrari 458 Italia had started the race from class pole, but could only manage an eighth placed finish after the penalties, which included three cases of pit-lane speeding. New ALMS rules mean that rather than pit speeds measured by a ray gun, speeds are measured by a 3ft automatic column, with results being non-protestable.
“I think we had more penalties today than we’ve ever had in a whole season; it was unbelievably unusual.” said team manager David Sims. “We also had two penalties for avoidable contact and we went to Race Control with our drivers straight after the race to look at those again in slow motion to see whether they were unfair or not. However, the bottom line is that you have to serve what’s given to you, and that once you have that amount of time in the penalty box, and you lose up to three laps to your competitors, a four-hour race isn’t long enough to come back. The competition here is very high and there was no way back today.
“In order to avoid this happening again, we need to now sit down with the drivers and go through everything that happened and, at Lime Rock, we’ll walk the drivers up to these columns and physically and visually log it into their minds on both the entrance and exit to the pits.”
