Inside the World of Risi Competizione , Where Passion Meets Discipline and Champions Are Built
Every March, something remarkable happens in a small city in central Florida. Sebring population just under 11,000 quietly doubles, then triples, then transforms entirely. The roads fill with trailers and RVs. The fields around the raceway bloom with canopy tents and folding chairs and the smell of grills going at all hours. Families arrive with children of every age. Couples come for the weekend. Friends reunite under banners they have carried here for decades. Solo travelers show up with lawn chairs and nowhere else they would rather be.
This is not just a race crowd. This is a tribe and the one thing every single person in it shares is a love of the automobile that goes beyond logic, beyond practicality, beyond anything that can be fully explained to someone who does not already feel it.
At the center of it all, in the paddock of the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, sat a red Ferrari.
Not just any Ferrari. The No. 62 of Risi Competizione a Houston-based operation founded by Giuseppe Risi that is, by any honest measure, the most accomplished Ferrari GT racing team in the history of North American motorsport. Seven Sebring victories. A Rolex 24 at Daytona win in 2024. More than two decades of fielding Ferrari factory talent at the highest level of American endurance racing. When the Prancing Horse comes to Sebring, it comes wearing the colors of Risi.
And behind that car behind the gleaming Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO, behind the world-class drivers, behind the engineers and mechanics is a story about what it actually takes to build something that lasts. Not just in racing. In anything.
That is the story Willie Lora and I came to Sebring to tell.
A Temporary City Built on Passion
I made the trip with my colleague, business partner, and fellow journalist Willie Lora. Between the two of us, we have covered presidents, elections, and breaking news across multiple countries. Neither of us had ever been to a race like this.
What strikes you first about Sebring is not the race. It is what surrounds it the weeks before it, the culture around it, the city that grows organically from the flat Florida landscape every March and disappears just as quickly, leaving behind only tire marks and memories.
Two weeks before the event, families and racing fans begin the pilgrimage. RVs and mobile homes roll in and line up in rows stretching as far as the eye can see. Canopy tents go up. Grills get lit. Children run between campsites while couples walk the grounds and old friends reunite under banners bearing the colors of their favorite teams. By race day, tens of thousands of people have gathered and they are not a crowd. They are a community.
They call Sebring the Woodstock of Motorsports, and standing in the middle of it, you understand why. This is not a comfortable event. The Florida sun is punishing. The ground vibrates. The noise is relentless. And yet people choose to be here, year after year veterans who have attended 30 consecutive races, first-timers wide-eyed at the spectacle, families with children of all ages, couples, solo travelers, collectors, engineers, and people who do business in the world of cars.
Giuseppe Risi, who has been coming to Sebring for over five decades, put it beautifully when we sat with him after the race:
“Everybody that’s come here are owners of a car. They didn’t come here on a bus or public service. So you come in a car somebody, it’s an automobile, a friend or friends together. And especially even little girls — you say well, just little boys that like cars, but even little girls enjoying themselves. I look at all the people. I enjoy watching the people and seeing how animated they get when they’re watching these cars go.” said Giuseppe Risi, Founder, Risi Competizione
The passion for automobiles is the only membership card required at Sebring and it is enough to make strangers feel like old friends.
What do a High Performance Car Carry
The day before the race, Willie and I published our preview of the GTD field and the engineering precision behind the No. 62 built around our conversation with Miles Bradley, the team’s Chief Mechanic. Bradley had described the moment at the end of a race when the crew’s work is complete and everything passes to the drivers:
“The last thing anybody does is look at the end of the race before it happens. The last pit stop tends to be in the hands of the pilot. As a crew, you know you’ve done most of what you can do after that last pit stop and then you become a spectator at that point.” Miles Bradley, Chief Mechannic, Risi Competizione.
Those words took on new meaning less than 24 hours later.
On race day, Willie and I made our way into the paddock, the inner world of the race, where the real story lives. There, amid massive transporter trucks and gleaming machinery, stood the No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO, surrounded by a team that moves with the synchronized calm of people who have done this hundreds of times and know that composure is part of the job. Willie moved through the paddock with his camera, capturing the controlled intensity of a team hours away from battle engineers bent over laptops, mechanics making final adjustments with practiced hands, drivers quiet and focused in the way that only competitors at the highest level know how to be.
Sebring, Giuseppe had told us, carries a history that commands that kind of seriousness:
“This is one of the top endurance races in the world. Historically, some of the absolute greatest drivers in history have raced here Phill Hill, Stirling Moss, you name it. We’ve had lots of success on this track. We’ve won it six or seven times. It’s demanding, it’s punishing, and good preparation and good drivers is what gets you the results.” — Giuseppe Risi
When It All Came Apart
Just before the three-hour mark, at 1:05 p.m., the race changed in an instant.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, a three-time Le Mans champion was at the wheel of the No. 62, attempting a pass in Turn 17 of the 3.74-mile circuit. Both his Ferrari and the No. 65 Ford Mustang he was challenging spun in the corner. While the Risi car sat stopped on track, it was struck by another competitor. The impact damaged the subframe. The No. 62 was retired on the spot.
Pier Guidi explained afterward with the precision of a driver who had already replayed every frame in his mind:
“I was passing and we had contact and we both spun. It would not have been an issue except after the spin I was on the track and got hit. I was trying to follow the LMP2 car that overtook the Ford. The Ford closed the door, and we slightly touched and we spun. The damage contact was not with the Ford — it was after being on track at a hazardous spot.” Alessandro Pier Guidi, Driver No. 62
This was not a failure of preparation. It was not a mistake by the driver. It was the sport’s cruelest variable the wrong place at the wrong moment arriving for the second consecutive race. A similar incident had ended their day at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, when another car turned into Daniel Serra in the infield section just after the two-hour mark.
Race Engineer Rick Mayer was measured but candid:
“It was an unfortunate early incident that put us out early with damage that we couldn’t repair and still be competitive. We had a decent car; not the fastest car, and we would have been in the hunt for a potential podium. But we have to come back next year and try again.” Rick Mayer, Race Engineer, Risi Competizione
Daniel Serra, ever the team player, kept his focus forward:
“It was unfortunate we had to retire early. A lot of things happened and it didn’t go our way. Thanks to the team for doing a great job, as always. My co-drivers were fine too, so now it’s time to regroup and get ready for Watkins Glen.” Daniel Serra, Driver No. 62
And Davide Rigon captured the quiet frustration of a champion who knows the result does not reflect the effort:
“Having another retirement is tough and does not show how good the team is. It’s a shame, especially after Daytona. All we can do now is get ready for Watkins Glen and wish for better luck.” Davide Rigon, Driver No. 62
Twenty-Two Years in a Mobile Office
What happened next became the most memorable moment of the entire day.
While the damaged car was being assessed trackside, Willie and I were invited to sit with Giuseppe Risi in what he calls his mobile office the cabin of the big transporter truck that has been carrying his Ferrari to racetracks across America for over two decades. Willie had his camera. I had my questions. And Giuseppe, minutes removed from one of the most frustrating results of his season, had something neither of us expected: stillness.
We had first met Giuseppe at his office in Houston to discuss the season ahead. Sitting with him here, in this truck, with the sounds and smells of a race still unfolding outside the window, was something entirely different. The Houston office speaks of business. This cabin speaks of a life’s work.
His first words were not about the race. They were about his driver.
“Most importantly, the driver is safe. Thank God. It was not his fault. He is a worldwide champion with all the experience. We have been winning this race six or seven times. Today was just not our lucky day.”
We asked him what, beyond passion, has sustained his operation for 55 years in one of the most demanding and expensive sports in the world. His answer was precise and unhesitating:
“Racing cannot be just pure passion. There’s got to be discipline and respect — and that’s what will produce the results. There’s a lot of people racing with a lot of passion, but it fluctuates up and down. But after 55 years, you know how to temper it. And if you still want it after that amount of time, then it means you’re really stuck with it for the rest of your life.” Giuseppe Risi
He went further, connecting those two words to something that reaches well beyond motorsport:
“When you have respect, you have discipline. When you have discipline, you automatically have respect. Now, when you have those two items, you can then become a professional in whatever field you wish, whatever the skill set you have whether you want to be a professional pianist, a professional tennis player. You’ve got to have those two items. Those two items are the key to what your success is going to be.”
Earlier that day, after the accident, all three drivers had come to find Giuseppe not summoned, but by their own choice. It was a quiet moment that said everything about the culture of this team.
The Women Who Keep It Moving
In a sport that tends to celebrate almost exclusively the people in helmets, Giuseppe Risi made a point of telling a different story, the one happening behind the scenes, year after year, race after race.
“Barbara has been working with my team for about 24 years. She writes little stories. She knows all the people, all the press people. She goes to the press meetings and comes and tells us how things are going and how things are doing. That’s always something very helpful.”
That is Barbara Burns, Communications and PR for Risi Competizione 24 years of institutional knowledge, relationships, and storytelling woven into the fabric of the team.
“Anna has been with us for nine years, and she is a real workhorse. She liaises with the drivers, organizes, and she does everything on a day-to-day basis. She plays all those roles.”
That is Anna Lenzi, Team Manager for Risi Competizione nine years of keeping every moving part of a world-class racing operation on track.
Two women whose names rarely appear in race reports or championship summaries, but without whom the operation simply would not function. Giuseppe made sure we knew them by name. So will this article.
It takes a village to field a Ferrari at Sebring. Risi Competizione has spent over two decades building theirs with discipline, with respect, and with the kind of loyalty that does not show up in lap times but shows up in everything else.
What Sebring Leaves Behind
The championship standings after Sebring tell one version of the story. Porsche Penske Motorsport swept the podium in a dominant performance that extended their extraordinary record at this legendary circuit. For Risi Competizione, two DNFs in the first two Michelin Endurance Cup races have made the road ahead steep.
But standings are not the whole story and Sebring never has been only about results.
Three races remain: the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, the 6 Hours of Road America, and the Petit Le Mans. Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra will carry the fight. And anyone who has spent time with this team in their garage, in their paddock, in the cabin of a truck that has crossed America with a Ferrari in tow for over 20 years knows they will arrive at each of those races the same way they arrived here: prepared, disciplined, and believing.
As for Sebring itself, the city that rises from the Florida asphalt every March, it was already beginning to pack up by the time we left. The RVs would roll out. The canopy tents would come down. The children who had fallen asleep to the sound of engines would wake up somewhere on a highway heading home, already part of a tradition they may not yet have words for.
That is what Sebring gives you, beyond the race result. A feeling. A belonging. A reminder that some things are best experienced together, in the heat and the noise, with thousands of strangers who suddenly feel like your people.
Once it gets into you, it doesn’t leave.
Andrea Gomez is a journalist and media executive originally from Colombia, based in the United States since 1997. She is Vice President of The Los Angeles Tribune Español and a former Lead Anchor at Univision Houston.
Willie Lora is Vice President of The Los Angeles Tribune Español and former CNN Español International Political & News Director. Photography and video by Willie Lora.
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