The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTLM of starting driver Toni Vilander and teammate Giancarlo Fisichella finished in sixth position in the GTLM class in today's exciting Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen race at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, N.Y.The fifth round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship featured all four IMSA classes competing in a six-hour endurance format. Vilander qualified the car on the third row in the seventh GTLM class starting position.Both Vilander and Fisichella drove strong stints but the power of the mighty Ford GTs took the top two spots on the podium and the No. 25 BMW finished third. The Risi team, which is known for their quick and flawless pit stops, had a problem with slow refuelling an unfortunately lost some time in the pits.
Risi Competizione's Dave Sims accepts the DEKRA Green Challenge Award from DEKRA's Don Nicholson
The Risi team did take the DEKRA Green Challenge Award for the second time this year, after previously being honored at Sebring. The award is given to the team who exhibits the cleanest, fastest and most efficient pit stop performance and is determined through green racing protocols established by the United States Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and the Society of Automotive Engineers International as part of their alliance with IMSA.In addition, the Houston, Texas-based Risi team won the DEKRA award four times last year, including the Twelve Hours of Sebring, Long Beach Grand Prix, Monterey Grand Prix, and Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America.
Rick Mayer, Risi Competizione Race Engineer:
"The boys put a valiant effort in to get the car prepared for the race after Le Mans. They spent some very long days and nights to replace everything. Unfortunately, when we put the sprint fuel cell collector back in the fuel cell, something didn't assemble correctly. We loss three to six seconds per [pit] stop depending on how much fuel we put in it. We tried to investigate what that was, externally to the car, and we couldn't find anything. We'll fix it for Mosport. I thought we had a pretty decent car [in the race]. We certainly had nothing compared to the Fords or BMWs, but I think we were the best after that, although unfortunately the outcome didn't show that. We'll be ready for Mosport and go from there."
Toni Vilander, driver, No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTLM:"It was a good fight. It's a really hard and physically demanding track especially having done the race with just two drivers and with Giancarlo battling the flu earlier in the week. It was a hard fight, again, I think we didn't get all that we deserved. Good job by the team. We had some issues with refueling we have to investigate why we lost so much time there. Apart from that I'm really happy Giancarlo performed so well with being sick. We are still at a significant speed disadvantage to mainly the Fords but also the BMWs. I'm sure IMSA will address this soon."
Giancarlo Fisichella, driver, No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTLM:
"It was a difficult race. The result is not what we deserved because I think fourth was possible. We had problems with the fueling on the pit stop. I don't know, we lost several seconds every time unfortunately. I did my best. Toni did his best. I feel we drove very well. Unfortunately I think the performance gap to the Fords is too large. We were well down on top speed. It's like another category currently."Dave Sims, team manager, No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTLM"The DEKRA Green Challenge Award all about efficiency with the pit stops, fuel consumption and the amount of time you're in the pits. I'm a bit surprised we won it this race because we did have a small problem with our fueling, but the team is always quick and efficient in their pit stops. One again it's an honor to win the Dekra award for the second time this year."
The next race for the Risi Competizione Ferrari team is Round 6 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix, July 8-10 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport) in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada.
