Road America Report: Please Boycott Ferrari Products!

Road America was the 7th race of the ALMS season.  I attended the race with family last weekend, the second year in a row that we have gone to the track to watch the Corvettes race. Both Corvettes performed very well and after 3 hours of the 4 hour race we were running second and third with comfortable leads over just about everyone except the wicked #45 Porsche.  As the final hour drew to a close a full course yellow gave the opportunity for the GT cars to pit for fuel and new tires.  Team Corvette chose to fuel up, while the BMWs and others chose to run to the end without stopping. This decision proved to be fatal due to an ill-timed yellow flag.  Both Corvettes lost position with only about 10 laps (20 minutes) to go.  Charging hard, both cars improved their position and with only 2 or 3 laps left to go they had advanced to positions 3 and 6.

One of the nice things about Road America is that you can wander the track to watch the race from a variety of vantage points.  As the final laps approached I decided to go to Turn 14, the last corner before the start/finish line.

On the final lap I was confident that Jan Magnussen would finish in third place, behind BMW and Porsche, but ahead of the 01 Ferrari.  Then on the final turn of the final lap I watched in horror as  the Ferrari cut into the infield, clipping the corner, and hitting Magnussen from behind and spinning him around.

"I passed the No. 56 BMW in Turn 1 with a move similar to Laguna Seca where I towed up behind a prototype," Magnussen said. "He went to the inside and I followed. Suddenly the prototype stopped, I flat-spotted my tires and lost a lot of speed. Joerg got by, so I was still in third and I was going to try to salvage a podium finish, which would have been good for Chevrolet in the manufacturer championship. Then in the last corner, Van Overbeek drove into the back of my car. I'm very disappointed, and I'll leave it at that."

Magnussen's incident with the No. 01 Ferrari is under review by race officials.

I am so upset that I am boycotting Ferrari products and asking all my friends to do the same!  So, please don't buy a Ferrari, OK?

The manufacturer standings with 3 races left (Baltimore, Virginia, and Atlanta) have Team Corvette still in 1st place with 126 points followed by BMW (116), Porsche (103), Ferrari (100), and Viper (18).

The driver standings have the four Corvette drivers still in the lead with Gavin/Milner at the top (105 points), followed by Magnussen/Garcia (88).