Racer - Fall 2015 MAZDA

OLD FRIENDS BRING THE FIREWORKS

eammates, friends, rivals…Johnny O’Connell and Olivier Beretta have run the gamut as racers, so when the Pirelli World Challenge GT Championship came down to these two determined competitors in the finale, fireworks were pretty much guaranteed.

Even when the two were teammates with Corvette Racing in the American Le Mans Series and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they had their on-track clashes – most famously at Mid-Ohio in 2008.

Seven years later, at this year’s Long Beach PWC round, O’Connell spent some time nosed into a tire barrier after Beretta – whom he had just passed – went inside Kevin Estre’s McLaren, which was inside O’Connell’s Cadillac, wrecking both drivers. Everyone was penalized, but O’Connell left Long Beach – where he says he thought he had a car to win – with

100 points less than Beretta.

And in the closing minutes of the 2015 season, they hit again as the Monégasque driver made a desperate attempt to pass O’Connell in Turn 8 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where Beretta needed a win to have any hope of claiming the title.

They slid sideways in tandem down the
Corkscrew, with O’Connell’s Cadillac ATS-V
GT3 sitting idle for a few seconds while he
watched his championship hopes slipping
away. Even after serving a drive-through
penalty, Beretta remained in the title
frame…until a final twist saw him park his
R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia at
Turn 11 after making contact with the
wall. That gave the title to O’Connell,
despite finishing more than a minute
behind the leaders in 12th.

“He wasn’t even close to me,” said
O’Connell of the Beretta incident. “When
I crested the hill, he was four or five car
lengths back. It was the biggest Hail Mary
attempt in history. I’m disappointed in him.”
“We want to do well, and we need to
do well,” says Beretta. “It’s our job on the
line, it’s our life. When I’m in the car, it’s
not that I say, ‘He isn’t my friend…’ No.

I have no enemy; I have no friend. I just
try to do the best I can in that moment.”
O’Connell echoes that, saying: “I don’t
One’s the king of Pirelli World Challenge, but entered 2015 in
reset mode. The other was new to it all. Cue drama to the end.

Pre-finale, buddies and PWC GT class title contenders O’Connell (LEFT) and Beretta hammed it up for the cameras. Come the race, the gloves came off for real... FRIENDS AND RIVALS