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First street fight for Ferrari 488 GTEs at Grand Prix of Long Beach

After starting the season with a 24-hour and a 12-hour contest, Ferrari’s new 488 GTE racers will face a very different challenge at this weekend’s IMSA SportsCar Championship in Long Beach, California.

At this weekend’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, IMSA SportsCar Championship will compete in a 100-minute race on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary circuit set along the seaside streets of Long Beach. The challenging circuit features numerous pavement changes, bumpy sections, and numerous low-grip and low-speed corners that will challenge the chassis and suspension of the competitors in the GT-LeMans class.

Risi Competizione, who won at Long Beach in 2007, narrowly missed scoring another victory last season before finishing in second position. A strong performance in the No.62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE at the 12 Hours of Sebring resulted in fourth position for the team, and drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander will be looking to improve on that result in Long Beach.

The No.68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE will race at Long Beach with a slightly different driver lineup for the team’s GT-LeMans competitor. Daniel Serra, who was part of the driving team at Daytona and Sebring, will be joined by Alessandro Balzan. Balzan is making his first GT-LeMans start, and recently won the 12 Hours of Sebring in the GT-Daytona class.

The Pirelli World Challenge will also be competing this weekend at Long Beach, with a pair of Ferrari 458 Italias that will battle in the GTA class. Martin Fuentes, who drives the No.07 HUBLOT / Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458, enters the Long Beach weekend as the championship leader after scoring four consecutive victories to start the season. Bill Sweedler, the 2015 IMSA GT-Daytona champion, will make his first Pirelli World Challenge start in the no. 11 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.

The IMSA SportsCar Championship race will be shown live on Saturday, April 16 at 7:00 PM ET on FOX Sports, while the Pirelli World Challenge race will be shown live on Sunday, April 17 at 2:00 PM ET on CBS Sports Network.

Stay up to speed at @FerrariUSA and join the conversation with #FerrariGTRacing and #FerrariFirsts.

04/13/16

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