The Download: Tequila Patron Sports Car Showcase

Ferrari Teamwork Pays Off: The results show that the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia of Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer finished second in Saturday’s Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase, leading twice for 64 of the 76 laps.

What’s missing in the box score is the fact that the team nearly missed qualifying after an incident at the end of final practice. It took a total team effort to get the car ready for qualifying – ensuring a competitive position on the starting grid.

After leading Friday morning’s GTLM practice, Fisichella jumped up to second in the class in the closing minutes of the second round of practice. Looking to go even quicker, the veteran impacted the tires at the exit of Turn 8 on his final lap, leaving the car without a rear wing and damaged bodywork.

With only a 10-minute break before qualifying, Risi Team Manager David Sims’ team went to work. They replaced the rear deck/wing assembly, rear bumper and the left-side mirror. After working on the car for 16 minutes, the team released Fisichella, who managed to run seven qualifying laps – putting the car third on the grid, and bettering the existing track record.

Similar repairs at your local Ferrari dealer would cost at least $15,000 – and might take slightly longer than 17 minutes.

The unsung hero of the repair work was crewman Russell Adams. Since the team did not have a spare bumper in the pits, the crew radioed the truck driver back in the paddock to get a spare bumper and start walking it to the pits.

Adams began running from pit road to the paddock, where he retrieved the bumper. He then ran through the sea of humanity for the three-quarter mile trek back to the pits.

“The bumper isn’t heavy, but it’s like carrying a six-foot kayak,” said team engineer Rick Mayer. Once back to the pits – with the walkway behind pit road packed with people – Adams ran the remaining distance on pit road.

While placing second, Risi Competizione won the race’s DEKRA Green Challenge Award for the second consecutive event. The award is presented to the most environmentally clean, fast and efficient GTLM competitor at each TUDOR Championship race.

“It all points to the maintenance of the car in the pit stops and fuel consumption and everything that goes with the performance of the team,” Sims said. “It's really special.”

Threes Are Wild For VisitFlorida.com: The No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP team finished third on Saturday, giving the team its third consecutive third-place finish. That places Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook second in the points after podiums at Daytona, Sebring and Long Beach.

“It was not our day for a win yet,” said team owner Troy Flis. “That’s what we need to do to win a championship, just keep finishing on the podium and being consistent.”

Streak Remains Alive: A fifth-place lead-lap finish for the Action Express Racing No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP has now allowed the team to complete a perfect 10,569 miles of competition since the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship debuted at the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

The team with championship leaders Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa is also the lone car to complete every lap in 2015.

Trouble-Free Run: The No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP was fast but unlucky in the opening two races of the season. Saturday, an incident-free race led to a fourth-place finish for the Action Express Racing car.

Eric Curran led a lap at the end of his stint before pitting. Dane Cameron then turned in the fastest lap of the race with a lap of 1:15.682. The pair shares fourth in the Prototype standings with Long Beach race winners Ricky and Jordan Taylor, 11 points behind leaders Barbosa and Fittipaldi (96-85).

Mazdas Pass On Qualifying: SpeedSource owner Sylvain Tremblay opted to play the strategy card and held his two SKYACTIV diesel-powered Mazda Prototypes from participating in Friday’s qualifying session.

Feeling his cars would have qualified at the back of the grid anyway, Tremblay was looking to maximize his cars’ superior fuel mileage.

“By not qualifying, we saved one heat cycle on the tires,” Tremblay said. “Our goal was to run the race with only one stop, using the same set of tires. We’re using everything we can to gain every advantage we can.”

Joel Miller and Tom Long finished seventh in the No. 07 Mazda, one position ahead of Tristan Nunez and Tom Long.

“Last year, we were eight percent off here at Long Beach,” Tremblay said. “Now, we’re four percent off, so we cut the deficit in half.”

Tremblay is looking forward to the next event on the schedule – Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, coming up in only two weeks.

“Mazda Raceway was one of our best tracks last year. We have our best setup there.”

Working the Paddock: Kuno Wittmer, the 2014 GTLM champion who has been without a full-time TUDOR Championship ride since SRT Motorsports pulled the plug on its program at the end of last season, visited the GTLM paddock in hopes of returning to the class.

“I’d like to get back in to the GTLM paddock,” Wittmer said. “I know it’s unlikely for something to happen this season at this point, but I’m hopeful for 2016.”

In the meantime, Wittmer will race in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, co-driving the No. 93 HART Honda Civic Si with Chad Gilsinger.

IMSA Goes West Part II: The Prototype Challenge (PC) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes return to action at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, joining their P and GTLM counterparts at the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey powered by Mazda on Sunday, May 3. The event will feature the four classes competing in a single two-hour, 40-minute event instead of last year’s split two-hour format.

The race will air live on FOX Sports 1 at 4 p.m. ET. The weekend also will include races for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo.