18 September 2017
Monterey, 19 September 2017 – On October 11, 1957, Ferraris finished first and second in the Pebble Beach Sports Car Road Races – the first sports car race held on the newly completed Laguna Seca Raceway located in Monterey, California. In that race Pete Lovely drove a Ferrari 500 TR to the overall victory, finishing ten seconds ahead of John von Neumann in a Ferrari 625 TRC. Now sixty years later, four drivers in two red Ferrari 488s will look to commemorate that historic win by driving to victory in this weekend’s IMSA SportsCar Championship race at Laguna Seca.
GTD. Scuderia Corsa’s Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen arrive at Laguna Seca with a strong 13-point lead in the GT-Daytona championship. Having captured six podium finishes this season, the duo have stretched their championship lead with remarkable consistency in the no. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3. At the previous IMSA race at Virgina International Raceway Balzan and Nielsen finished just off the podium, in fourth position. This Laguna Seca race also marks five years since Scuderia Corsa made its debut in the Grand-Am Sports Car Series, when Alessandro Balzan qualified the no. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 on pole position.
GTLM. Risi Competizione drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander are fresh from a podium finish at the previous round at Virginia International Raceway, where they finished in third position in the no. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE. They will try to fight for the win this time.
Schedule. Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Championship race will be shown live on FOX Sports 1 at 5:00 PM EST, and will be streamed live for international audiences on IMSA.com. Qualifying will be streamed live on IMSA.com at 2:20 PM ET.