Risi Commits to Rolex 24

Photo: Brian Cleary/IMSA

Risi Competizione has committed to next month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, with the Houston-based team having entered its Ferrari 488 GTE for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener.

Drivers for the race have yet to be announced although the GT Le Mans class entry is expected to feature an all Ferrari factory lineup.

As reported by Sportscar365 earlier this week, the Giuseppe Risi-led operation is understood to planning a two-race program that will also include the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

“We are pleased to return to Daytona for another 24-hour race,” Risi said. “We’ve been coming here nearly every year since the team started in 1998, except for the years we focused on ALMS, and it is always an important endurance race.

“We’ve yet to win this one, although we’ve been on podium a few times, so that’s a goal we’d like to accomplish.”

The team was present during this week’s Michelin On-Track Opportunity with Miguel Molina at the wheel.

Sportscar365 understands Daytona will feature only a single entry from the team, after having also run a GT Daytona-class Ferrari 488 GT3 in this year’s event.

Additional races beyond Daytona and Sebring could be possible, including a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, pending entry.

While having operated Keating Motorsports’ GTE-Am entry in this year’s race, it’s unclear if a deal has been finalized between the two Texas-based organizations for the 2019 running, which Keating again has an auto-invite for.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John