01/07/2010
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The famed Road Atlanta Raceway was the stage for the third and fourth round of the 2008 Ferrari F430 Challenge series on April 19th and 20th. The vast elevation changes and blind corners make Road Atlanta one of the most technical and difficult tracks to learn in North America. It is also home of one of the most difficult turns in racing; the fast, down-hill turn 12. 33 cars entered round 3 and 4 of the 2008 Ferrari Challenge Series.

The Friday practice sessions went well for the Beverly Hills Ferrari Challenge Team as Jay Lee posted the third fastest time in session third and John Horejsi was in the top 10 in every session. Silicon Valley’s Henri Richard spent Friday learning a new track and ended up 12th in his best session. Qualifying was set for Friday afternoon. Jay Lee qualified an excellent 6th, John Horejsi 10th and rookie Henri Richard 16th. The prospect of getting all three R3 Motorsports cars in the top ten was realistic when the team packed up Friday night.

Early morning showers prevented the team from participating in the early practice sessions. As we witnessed on Friday, when two competitors destroyed the cars beyond repairs, this track is not very forgiving. Therefore, it was decided that skipping the wet session was best.

Race one saw a clean start by all the drivers with John Horejsi (Hojo) making up 3 places on the opening lap. A few laps later he made his way past Jay Lee for sixth. Henri Richard was in the thick of a fierce battle for 10th, which saw cars going three-abreast into corners and making wild passes with two wheels on the grass. His in-car video looked like a season long F1 highlight of passes. Unfortunately two cars ran into each other in front of Henri and he had to go through the grass to avoid them and as a result spun. He lost 5 places because of this but wasted no time getting some of them back. Henri finished a fine 12th. Hojo past another car to finish 5th with a few laps to go and Jay Lee finished 7th. Roberto Fata won the race from pole. All three drivers were pumped up for Sunday’s race.

The start of Sunday’s race saw Hojo and Jay battle one another for the final podium spot, until a late race off by Hojo dropped him back to 6th. Jay was turning some of the fastest laps of the race battling his was to a fantastic second place; his first podium of the 2008 season. Henri had another race that looked more like a Nascar race then sports car race. Unfortunately he was a victim of too many other people’s mistakes that caused him to spin twice and lose positions. While stationary on the side of the track cause by the second spin, he was hit hard on the left front and suffered too much damage to continue.

Infineon raceway in Napa Valley, in two weeks time, is the sight of round 5th and 6th, Hojo won his first race last year there and this is Henri Richard’s home track. We will also have Christopher Ruud back for that event.