Risi Competizione is looking for a change of fortunes in the third round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship here at Long Beach after dramatic crashes took them out at Daytona and Sebring.

Giancarlo Fisichella is hoping to record his first race laps of the season after his No.62 Ferrari was eliminated in both the opening two races before he could climb aboard.

This weekend he is joined by team newcomer Dane Cameron who quickly got up to speed on the Long Beach streets in the morning practice session.

“It’s very different to what I am used to but I like it and it was a good session,” Fisichella said.

“I learnt the track and I think we are quite competitive and consistent which is what we need to be at this stage. Our main problem has been mid corner understeer, which we will be able to fix, but it’s a good start.”

At the one hour mark, Fisichella handed over the Ferrari to newcomer to the Houston-based team, Dane Cameron. The young Atlanta-based Californian driver has driven at Long Beach before but not since 2008 in a formula car and, until this morning, his time in the 458 had been limited to 30 brief laps at Houston Motorsports Park.

He quickly got up to speed with a lap of 1:20.335 which placed him P6 in the GTLM class and only 0.53s from the fastest runner in the session, the No.4 Corvette.

“It was a good little session and I’m still getting acclimated to the car, getting comfortable and figuring out what makes it tick,” Cameron said.

“I’m very much enjoying the team and everyone’s made me feel incredibly welcome – I feel like it’s a pretty good plug and play! We’re trying to figure out how much the circuit’s going to change for later this afternoon and how much to adjust the car, but we’re all getting up to speed and we’ll try to execute well for this afternoon and the race tomorrow.”