Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo No. 62:
James Calado (GBR)
Alessandro Pier Guidi (ITA)
Davide Rigon (ITA)
Daniel Serra (BRA)
(Daytona Beach, Fla., January 30, 2022)…The 60th annual Rolex 24 At Daytona was one for the record books. Frigid temperatures at the iconic Daytona International Speedway, a huge field for the twice-around-the-clock endurance race and a door-to-door last lap battle made for an interesting event that included 17 full course cautions and temperatures barely above freezing.
As always, the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari team came to win. With four Ferrari Competizioni GT factory drivers behind the wheel, including Italians Alessandro Pier Guidi and Davide Rigon, along with Brit James Calado and Brazilian Daniel Serra, led much of the race in class throughout the night and were consistently within podium reach after the first 100 laps.
The race was relatively by the book for the Houston, Texas-based team. They cycled through their drivers and tried to take advantage of the numerous cautions throughout the course of the 24-hour race with no drama the entire race.
With consistent performances from Serra, Rigon and Calado, it was Pier Guidi who piloted the Rosso Corsa red-liveried Prancing Horse across the finish line in his tenth Rolex appearance. Running P3 with less than three minutes to go, Pier Guidi benefited from the last-minute side-by-side battle of the two front-running Porsche 911 GT3Rs of Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor, as they smashed their way through the final turns. Jaminet took the checkered flag with Pier Guidi 2.185 seconds behind.
The last time that the Risi Competizione team stood on the podium was in 2019 with a second-place class finish after leading much of the late race.
Despite having slightly underpowered straight-line speed throughout the race, the dynamic foursome managed to remain competitive to the very end. Having started from nearly the back of the grid in 11th position of the 13-car class field, they powered their new 2022 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo to a podium finish while competing in IMSA’s newest classification, GTD Pro.
Pier Guidi clocked the fastest No. 62 GTD Pro lap of the race during on Lap 324 with a time of 1:45.203.
The last quarter of the very competitive GTD Pro field saw four competitors on the same lap with just hours to go. In the end, Risi Competizione completed 711 laps and picked up their sixth Daytona 24 podium finish.
Rick Mayer, Risi Competizione Race Engineer:
“It was a good finish considering how our Roar and event week went. I’m not sure we had anything for the Porches because they certainly had banking speed and that’s how you do well at Daytona. But we’ll certainly take second considering where we started.”
James Calado, driver No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO:
“I feel bad and disappointed. I’m always second here and it’s frustrating. You know, as a private team without much running last year, I think we did a really good job. We lacked a little bit of pace, but we were there. We hung on, but there’s always what ifs. What if we’d have pitted before the yellow flags, but you know I’m happy to finish second, but just annoyed because it’s a big race to win and another opportunity gone. But let’s see, I’m still young enough, I think – so we’ll see.”
Alessandro Pier Guidi, driver No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO:
“It was a challenging race but, in the end, everything went okay. We started the race fairly low in the field but were able to drive through the conditions and so many cautions to get to the race end and be fighting for the victory. Honestly, it was a bit painful at the end, losing a position to an unlucky final yellow, so I had to overtake many cars in different classes, and I had no time to catch the leader. At the end we had to gain a position. I think, all-in-all, we did the maximum we could. Second is always a bit painful here at Daytona. We already finished twice in second in the last few years here. We will try again.”
Davide Rigon, starting driver No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO:
“We really gave it everything thanks to Risi Competizione who did an amazing job. Overall, this weekend we had good speed, but not enough this time to win. Thanks to all my teammates — James, Ale and Daniel. They did an incredible job. It was not easy out there. A lot of traffic and little mistakes. I’m super happy with the result. Of course, for the second time we were second. We really would like to win this race once!”
Daniel Serra, driver No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO:
“It’s a strange feeling. Of course, it’s nice to finish second, but I think it’s not enough here. We would really like to win. We tried everything we could. The car was good, and we missed a bit of top speed comparing to the Porsche, but the team and the drivers did a great job. Tomorrow it will feel better.”
The Risi Competizione Ferrari team has not yet announced any additional racing plans for 2022.
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