Scuderia Corsa Closes Up in Championship Race at Monterey

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From tenth position, the combined efforts of Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell and Scuderia Corsa would leap through the GT-Daytona field during Sunday’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to finish in fourth position in the no. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.

 

The result, which propelled Sweedler and Bell to second in the GT-Daytona driver’s championship and Scuderia Corsa to third in the team championship, was achieved in front of a large crowd of supporters from nearby Ferrari Silicon Valley. A large number of Ferraris from Ferrari Silicon Valley were also in attendance at Laguna Seca.

 

“It was a good day for us and we made up a bunch of ground in the championship,” said Sweedler. “With the current state of things, we knew that we would be fighting a little bit of an uphill battle here. The balance of the Ferrari, the strategy from the pit box, and the pit work got us up to the lead for a little while and we are pretty happy with fourth place. I think everyone was expecting more contact and more caution periods, but we came away with a relatively clean red Ferrari.”

 

“My stint behind the wheel was pretty uneventful, actually,” said Bell. “It was green the whole way and with how the strategies played out I wasn’t really racing against anyone. But we are happy with the result. This definitely wasn’t going to be our strongest circuit and all things considered, we had a very good finish and a great points day. At circuits where we aren’t at our strongest, it is really good to have days like this where we can still make up ground.”

 

Team owners Giacomo Mattioli and Art Zafiropoulo found themselves in the dual roles of team owners and event hosts during the weekend as they provided their guests from Ferrari Silicon Valley with an up-close look at the team’s operations as well as the no. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. And while their Ferrari would narrowly miss the podium, they were thrilled to provide a strong result on their home track.”

 

“The most important thing for us is the championship and today was a positive day in that regard,” said Mattioli. “We had a wonderful day at Laguna Seca with over 80 clients coming to cheers for us on Saturday and Sunday. Their enthusiasm was contagious and made us proud to represent Ferrari. Certainly, with the current BoP, this is not a track that is well-suited to the Ferrari at the moment. But the drivers and the team did a great effort to give us as many points as possible and move the drivers to second in the championship. Starting from tenth, Bill and Townsend had their work cut out for them, but they and the crew delivered a performance that our guests were able to enjoy from start to finish.”

 

Scuderia Corsa will compete next at the Pirelli World Challenge race at Mosport on May 15-17, and at the next TUSCC race at the Raceway at Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan on May 27-28. 

Adam Sinclair
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