Risi Competizione has revealed that it will take just one car to Mosport for the latest round of the American Le Mans Series.
Due to what the team calls a 'scheduling adjustment affecting its drivers', the #61 car won't make the trip although it is expected to return to action for the following event in Detroit. Harrison Brix had been joined in the car by Rob Bell at Road America after Patrick Friesacher was injured during testing of the new A1GP powered by
Ferrari car.
The announcement means that Jaime Melo and Mika Salo will fly the flag along for Risi in Canada, with the pair seeking to secure their first win of what has proved to be a trying campaign in 2008.
The duo dominated the race last season with Melo taking pole and breaking the GT2 track record before leading the class from lights-to-flag to secure victory – with the fastest race lap thrown in for good measure.
That race was Salo's first outing at the circuit and the former
F1 racer said he was looking forward to returning.
“Mosport is a really fast circuit,” he said, “and also very difficult with both high speed corners and some blind corners to make life complicated! Our car was really good here last year and we raced quite easily in the end. It's the type of circuit where you need to have very good car balance to trust the handling in the high speed corners.
“It took a while to learn the track last year because of the blind corners and the high speeds, most of them are fourth or fifth gear corners. The walls are very close so there's no room for error; it's challenging, which is why I like it.
“The traffic will be difficult because of the speed of the prototypes. There's obviously the speed difference at all tracks, but here they will have much more down force so they'll be able to carry their speed through the corners better than we can.”
