BUZZ SODEMAN MORE COLUMNS SPECIAL TO THE PVTMike Petersen, right, and his Pahrump-based White Lightning team competed in the 12 Hours of Sebring last weekend. The car is a Ferrari F430 GT. Advertisement

While Pahrump Valley Speedway racers enjoyed a rare weekend off, the American Le Mans Series was running its second endurance race, the 55^th anniversary of the legendary 12 hours of Sebring.

Pahrump Valley-based Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning MMPIE/PAWS/Michelin Ferrari F430 GT (No. 31) announced Feb. 13 that the Steve Pruitt (Sandy, Utah)-owned Corsa Motorsports would join forces with the GT2 class team.

The new Corsa Motorsports/White Lightning EquiWest/Michelin Ferrari F430 GT (No. 32) team relocated to Pahrump while maintaining facilities at the new Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

Both teams will be under the direction of engineer Frank Funke (Wetter, Germany) and crew chief Dennis Chizma, the 2005 GT2 Mechanic of the Year.

Both teams utilized the same over-the-wall pit crew, an element adopted from Formula One racing, while some members of the team will be split between the Nos. 31 and 32 teams.

To differentiate between the two teams, the No. 32 team used the traditional Ferrari Rosso Scuderia red, the same color that the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One program paints its cars - as its base color.

The car also had at its core the long-standing Petersen/White Lightning paint scheme of the neon yellow roof and trademark white lightning bolt down the flank.

The endurance classic marked a number of firsts for the teams under the White Lightning banner. Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing, for the first time, raced the blood red Ferrari instead of anything other than a Porsche 911.

Corsa Motorsports/White Lightning Racing recently announced that it had selected its third driver for the event, Jose Maria Lopez from Cordoba, Argentina. Lopez was in the process of setting a number of benchmarks himself.

It is Lopez's first ALM series race after an outstanding career in open-wheel racing (GP2 in Formula 1). The 23-year-old was debuting on the United States motorsports scene, as well as his birth as a sports car racer.

Lopez comes out of the karting circuit and immediately became a Renault development driver.

Pruitt had this to say about the youngster: "Pechito (his nickname) is intelligent, fast and strategic with F1 experience. His extensive experience in GP2 will provide a well-rounded lineup for Corsa."

The youngster joined full-season drivers Maurizio Mediani (Reggio Emilia, Italy) and Rui Aguas (Porto, Portugal). Aguas was also competing in his first-ever start in the United States after being a Ferrari factory driver for seven years.

Mediani has been in the same role for four years and holds the distinction of helping develop the Ferrari 430 Challenge car for competition.

Holding down the driving chores for the Petersen team were Tim Bergmeister (Langenfeld, Germany), Tomas Enge (Monaco) and reserve driver, Memo Gidley (Novato, Calif.).

Dale White, team manager for the Petersen team felt, "that the depth of these two driver lineups is the best we have ever had in our cars. Lopez will learn quickly from the veterans and he'll be up to speed. We are confident he will be quick and adapt well."

Testing, prior to qualifying, provided both ends of the spectrum for the teams. In the first 55-minute session the No. 32 Ferrari took to the course with Aguas behind the wheel and set the fastest time in GT with a 3.227 seconds over the 3.7-mile circuit, some four tenths quicker than his time the previous day.

Lopez, who had never driven the F430 GT or seen Sebring prior to his laps was second quick in the first session with Mediani third just an eye blink behind.

Not to be outdone, Enge went out in the Petersen Motorsports entry and climbed to the top of the GT2 class with a 2:02.694, a time bettering the track record of 2:03.563 (set in 2006) by nearly a full second. Bergmeister and Gidley were also able to turn quick times.

The exhilaration was soon lost in the second 55-minute session for the Pruitt owned team.

Aguas was forced off-line early in the practice session and backed the Ferrari into the tire barrier in turn 17. The car suffered extensive right rear damage, including a heavily crumpled but repairable aluminum fender, a destroyed bumper and deck lid and damaged rear wing.

Internally, several components of the car took the brunt of the heavy hit, damaging the right side exhaust header and several suspension components.

Replacement pieces were on hand and the body shop will remove, then straighten and re-weld the rear fender.

The car needed to be race-ready for the one and half-hour night practice session which is critical for several reasons.

It will allow the team to determine if the repairs were made properly and if the setup remained fast. Also critical is giving the three drivers experience on the course in the dark. Nighttime laps are required by regulations for all drivers.

Failure to run the three laps would require special allowances by the IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) and would also make driving at night more difficult for the drivers, none of who has ever raced at Sebring before.

Thanks to a rainstorm, the car was at least partially ready for the required night laps. With the assistance of the Petersen team owner, Michael Petersen, the crew removed the No. 31 engine cover and rear wing and the Corsa team was able to get the required three nighttime laps per driver completed.

Lopez, on a rapidly drying track, blistered the time charts with a lap of 2:21.465, the second fastest lap in the session. Unfortunately, repairs weren't completed prior to qualifying and the team had to start at the rear of the grid.

The other Petersen entry qualified second. Enge turned his fast lap on the second of four circuits. He turned a 2:02.784, some seven-tenths quicker than the third-place qualifier. The top four cars on the grid bettered the existing track record of 2:03.563, set last year in qualifying.

If Corsa didn't have bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck. Just before the race entered the eighth hour, Lopez experienced an engine fire that engulfed the entire rear section. Lopez was uninjured and the team would finish 16th in class, 32nd overall and 158 laps down to the eventual winner.

Petersen Racing overcame contact at the beginning of the race, after inheriting the pole position, which damaged the entire nose of the Ferrari. Constant repairs by the pit crew was able to garner an eighth place finish in class, 22nd overall and 30 laps in arrears of the winner of GT2. For the final 11 hours, the team turned laps that would have easily challenged the winner of the race.