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On Saturday night, March 17th, Jaime Melo really earned his money when he took his Ferrari 430GT home to a last lap GT2 class victory by just 0.202 secs after 1,221 miles and twelve hours of racing! The Risi Competizione car he shared with Mika Salo and Johnny Mowlem just edged the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Joerg Bergmeister for Flying Lizard Motorsports. It was Risi Competizione’s first win at the 12 Hours of Sebring; in 2006, the team took third on the competition debut of the Michellotto developed tipo which went onto great success in every arena of sportscar racing. The 2007 Sebring win continued a Risi Competizione/Ferrari winning streak that includes five victories in the last seven ALMS races. Another important statistic: It was also Risi Competizione’s third “last-to-first” win in a year (the team also won come-from-behind victories last year at Utah and Portland). The two-tenths of a second lead, when crossing the finish line at Sebring, was also the closest margin of victory in the 55 year history of the race. The win was typically hard fought. Jaime Melo put the Ferrari on pole, but before the race the team elected to change tyres from those used in qualifying, because of an on-course incident right at the end of the qualifying session. The tyre change mandated a move to the rear of the grid, per ALMS/IMSA rules. At the start, Melo wasted no time pushing the 430GT to the front of the class, taking over the lead in class within one hour of the start of the race. Double-stinting the drivers the Ferrari then maintained its lead until Hour Nine when Marc Lieb put the No. 45 Porsche GT3 RSR into first after some on course excitement from the Ferrari. Running without incident is never a given in any race and in a twelve hour race like Sebring it is almost impossible. Eight hours into the race, Mika Salo spun out on Turn 17, at a spot where some drivers had earlier reported sand on the track. The Ferrari’s lead evaporated, Lieb seized first, and Salo set off to get it back. At Nine Hours and twenty-five minutes into the race, Salo had regained the lead and then pitted to turn the car over to Melo, who had been elected to finish the race. Melo exited the pits, with approximately two hours and thirty minutes left to the chequered flag and he would not be out of the car again until the race was over, the team asking him to do two and one-half stints. At ten hours into the race Melo was 5 secs ahead of Bergmeister in the Porsche. He was still 5 secs ahead at the 11th hour. Then the Risi Competizione team had another drama. Melo, who had built up and was nursing a twenty-second plus lead, came into the pits for a splash and dash but was held in the pits for twenty agonizing seconds by an official who penalized the team for “visor up during fuel refueling”. Twenty very hard earned seconds were handed back to the relentless Porsche of Flying Lizard. As Melo headed off into the darkness for the final stage he was going to have to do the last thirty minutes with fading brakes; the pads were wearing down quickly and there was a chance the pads were not going to last until the end of the race. The decision had been made to press on because the margin was too close. A brake pad change would doom the team to second or worse. Bergmeister started cutting into Melo’s very slim lead. There is speculation in the pits that the Porsche factory engineers have pushed the 911 GT3 RSR’s engine mapping into extreme territory, boosting power, because the car is moving faster than it has all day. Bergmeister trims and cuts, a half-second here, a tenth there, off Melo’s lead. With just two minutes left Bergmeister has the Ferrari within sight and starts flashing his lights at the 430GT to let Melo know he’s closing in. But Melo never looks back—why bother, the finish line is in front—and so the lights go unseen in the cockpit of the 430GT; Melo’s entire focus is on the course in front of him and this one little problem that he knew was coming - the brakes have completely gone. There is one more drama, the overall winning Audi is behind the Ferrari and the Porsche, so when it crosses the finish line Melo and Bergmeister have another lap to do. By now, Bergmeister had taken the Ferrari’s lead down to three tenths of a second and was gaining ground with enough velocity to overtake by the finish line. Down the front straight they scream on the last lap, Bergmeister closing in on Melo as they approach the 1st turn, but losing him as they both exit. Up comes the Porsche, away goes the Ferrari. Down the back straight, last lap, the Porsche pulls up alongside the Ferrari but Melo edges his nose back in front. Into the start of turn 17 the cars fly, side by side, they touch, bounce
off each other, but Melo keeps it together. He holds his line as the cars
brush one more time, but now it’s the Porsche that looses ground
then Melo is gone, over the finish line, in front, winning in the 12 Hours
of Sebring with a two-tenths of a second margin; the closest in history.
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