ALMS

Road Atlanta II: Risi Ferrari qualifying report

Kelleners qualifies the Calpont Ferrari in eighth. Braselton, Georgia --Â Risi Competizione driver Ralf Kelleners qualified the number 35 Calpont Ferrari 360 Modena GT in eighth place with a time of 1:34.099 and a speed of 97 mph for Saturday's ...

Published: Oct 18, 2003, 3:50 PM

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Kelleners qualifies the Calpont Ferrari in eighth.

Braselton, Georgia -- Risi Competizione driver Ralf Kelleners qualified the number 35 Calpont Ferrari 360 Modena GT in eighth place with a time of 1:34.099 and a speed of 97 mph for Saturday's 10-hour American Le Mans Series season finale at Road Atlanta.

As the team was warming up the Ferrari V-8 engine for the qualifying session the rain began to fall. "We have never run the car in the rain. When it rained here in June ALMS canceled the qualifying session. We basically guessed at the wet set-up and Ralf is a professional and knew not take any unnecessary, qualifying is not that important when you are running a 10-hour race," said Dave Sims, Risi team manager.

"The rain shower was really disappointing. We have a great racecar in the dry, but we have no experience in the rain. I was able to do about five laps to get a basic feel for the car in the wet, then I pitted to make some changes and I did not have enough time to see if the adjustments improved the car. I just wanted to get a reasonable time so we could at least see the front of our grid. The weather for the race looks good, so I am confident that we can put the Calpont Ferrari up toward the head of the GT class in the race tomorrow," said Ralf Kelleners.

In dry conditions Kelleners ran a 1:23.449 with an average speed of 109 mph. This time puts the Calpont Ferrari in the top four of the GT field.

"Ralf did a great job considering the conditions. It is tough to guess at a suspension set-up for the wet, especially here with the undulating track layout. We have a couple of small things to check in the warm-up tomorrow morning, then we will have to be cautiously aggressive to get the car up where we deserve to be," said Anthony Lazzaro, co-driver.

The green flag will drop at 11:30 a.m. EST on Saturday. Speed Channel will televise seven hours of the event live throughout Saturday.

-rc-

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