MISERABLE MILLER FOR RISI COMPETIZIONE

UTAH GRAND PRIX, TOOELE (SALT LAKE CITY), UTAH, (May 18, 2008) -- Risi Competizione’s dreadful run of bad luck continued in Utah today with only one of the two Ferrari 430GT cars finishing round four of the American Le Mans Series. Patrick Friesacher and Harrison Brix fought with a malfunctioning power steering system, intense heat and dusty track conditions to take eighth place in today’s Larry H Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix. The GT2 class was won by the #45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche who led from start to finish, with the first Ferrari (Tafel Racing) finishing in third place.

The problems for the #62 car started early. Having driven a stunning qualifying lap to secure a front row place on the GT2 grid, Jaime Melo’s team mate Mika Salo was forced to start the race from the pit lane after a problem with the fuel filler prevented him from taking his place on the grid.

Salo drove a superb double stint, climbing all the way from the back of the field through to as high as second in class before handing over the car at the 1hr 33minute mark to Melo. After a re-shuffling of positions due to pit stops, the Brazilian driver was pushing hard to re-claim a podium position when he clashed with the #28 GT2 Corvette in a passing maneuver. The Ferrari was flipped into the air and landed heavily before leaving the track…and the race.

Risi Competizione’s Team Manager, David Sims, said afterwards; “Whatever the rights and wrongs of the incident were, our main concern now is assessing the extent of the damage to the #62 car. It was due to leave Utah on Wednesday for Europe so we obviously hope that it’s not too badly damaged to prevent that from happening. We are certainly going to have our work cut out over the next few days.”

The Official Sponsors of Risi Competizione, 2006 and 2007 ALMS GT2 Team Champions, are Boost/Motorola, Michelin, Freescale, Ferrari of Silicon Valley, Ferrari Financial Services, Boardwalk Autogroup, Delphi and Ferrari of Houston.

The Risi Competizione team now leaves the USA for Europe where it will be taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14/15. The next round of the American Le Mans Series will be the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, CT on July 12.

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For further media information contact Fiona Miller by email to fmiller@risicompetizione.com or call +44 7770 371332.