www.QV500.com - Ferrari 550 Part 7: 550 GT 'Italtecnica' - 2002 Season
 

110866, Magny Cours 3 Hours		 With Rafanelli switching to the American Le Mans Series for 2002, it looked as if only Prodrive 550's would be contesting the FIA's GT Championship. However, a few weeks before the opening race, ex-Ligier and Larrousse F1 driver, Philippe Alliot, announced he was setting up the Force One Racing team in partnership with David Hallyday. Having already driven together in the FFSA series, Alliot and Hallyday bought the ex-First Racing chassis 110866 and recruited Herve Guilpin to subtly rework it. Ready for the first round and quite beautifully detailed, 110866 made a brief and problematic debut when propshaft problems prevented the car from starting at Magny Cours.
   
Things were looking up at Silverstone where, having been on the pace and despite suffering a particularly long stop for new brake pads, Alliot and Hallyday eventually recovered to 12th overall. Absent from Round 3 in Brno, Jarama saw 110866 retire early on with engine trouble and this convinced Force One to miss round 5 in Anderstorp, the team deciding to try and overcome some of the reliability issues that had so far hampered their campaign. At Oschersleben, another team showed up with a re-worked Italtecnica 550, Dart Racing unveiling the ex-Rafanelli chassis 115811 with which they would be contesting the final three rounds as preparation for a full 2003 campaign. Luca Riccitelli and Dieter Quester would drive. Alliot and Hallyday were back in 110866 meanwhile, this time running for 62 laps prior to posting another DNF. Spa Francorchamps epic 24 Hour race hardly seemed to promise much for the all-French team and sure enough, engine problems meant the Force One 550 had managed to finish just once in five races. Three weeks later, Alliot somewhat unsurprisingly switched the team over to running a Viper GTS-R. So for Round 8, still only one Italtecnica 550 was present but this time it was the Riccitelli / Quester Red Bull-backed car that, having qualified a promising 8th, retired after 22 laps with alternator trouble after making a good start. Oil pressure pressure forced Riccitelli out after just 3 laps around Donington and after failing to finish in Estoril, Dart Racing ditched the Ferrari.
 

107633, Sebring 12 Hours		 For 2002, the crack Rafanelli squad switched from Europe's FIA GT Championship to running in the American Le Mans Series whose GTS regulations permitted more extensive changes. Only the street cars block, heads, a few chassis sections and a manual gearbox were retained. Heading to Sebring's 12 Hours with a completely reconfigured car in a vivid green livery, 107633 arrived from Italy missing an engine, its new 6-litre unit having not quite been ready in time. A near stock 5.5-litre motor (albeit blueprinted and fitted with hot camshafts) was installed in Florida after being shipped from California, but come Thursday's qualifying, 107633 hadn't even been completed.
   
However, by race day, with little more than a test engine fitted and absolutely no development time under its belt, 107633 ran reliably in the hands of Emanuele Naspetti, Domenico Schiattarella and Johnny Cecotto, finishing 30th overall and fifth in the GTS class. With their new 6-litre motor now fitted (having been engineered in just six weeks), Sears Point saw the Rafanelli 550 move up to the sharp end of the grid, but after a strong performance gave the team a third in class behind the works Corvette C5-R's, Naspetti and Schiattarella were disqualified because of inadvertantly running an over-sized airbox (*). Mid Ohio saw 107633 retire after 38 laps with mechanical problems, Round 4 at Road America yielding a better result with a very impressive seventh overall equating to 3rd in GTS, two laps down on the winning Pratt & Miller Corvette. Although the Rafanelli 550 could rarely touch the factory-backed Corvette's for speed, they were normally best of the rest, faster and more reliable than the Viper's and Saleen's. Consecutive GTS podiums were secured around Washington DC's street circuit and at Trois Rivieres in Canada, then after retiring from the Laguna Seca round with broken suspension on lap 33, Rafanelli rounded out the year with class fourth's in Miami and at the 10 Hour Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans. Considering the sorry reliability record of Italtecnica 550's in the FIA GT Championship during 2002, the performance of Rafanelli's GTS class contender seemed all the more impressive.
 
Date Rd. Race Drivers Team Chassis Overall Class
16/03 ALMS 1 Sebring 12 Hours Naspetti / Schiattarella
Cecotto		 Rafanelli 107633 30th 5th
21/04 FIA 1 Magny Cours 3 Hours Alliot / Hallyday Force One 110866 DNS -
05/05 FIA 2 Silverstone 3 Hours Alliot / Hallyday Force One 110866 12th 11th
19/05 ALMS 2 Sears Point Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 11th 3rd*
02/06 FIA 4 Jarama 3 Hours Alliot / Hallyday Force One 110866 DNF -
30/06 ALMS 3 Mid Ohio Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 DNF -
07/07 ALMS 4 Road America Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 7th 3rd
14/07 FIA 6 Oschersleben 3 Hours Alliot / Hallyday Force One 110866 DNF -
21/07 ALMS 5 Washington Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 10th 3rd
03/08 ALMS 6 Trois Rivieres Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 8th 3rd
04/08 FIA 7 Spa 24 Hours Alliot / Hallyday
Jakubowski		 Force One 110866 DNF -
18/08 ALMS 7 Mosport Park Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 18th 5th
22/09 FIA 8 Enna-Pergusa 3 Hours Quester / Riccitelli Dart Racing 115811 DNF -
22/09 ALMS 8 Laguna Seca Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 DNF -
05/10 ALMS 9 Miami Naspetti / Schiattarella Rafanelli 107633 15th 4th
06/10 FIA 9 Donington 3 Hours Quester / Riccitelli Dart Racing 115811 DNF -
12/10 ALMS 10 Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans Naspetti / Schiattarella
Papis		 Rafanelli 107633 13th 4th
20/10 FIA 10 Estoril 3 Hours Quester / Riccitelli Dart Racing 115811 DNF -
 

115811, Oschersleben launch