The two Brazilians who regularly compete in Grand-Am, Ricardo Zonta and Oswaldo Negri, will have the company of a compatriot in the fifth race of the season, scheduled for Saturday (17), in Laguna Seca. Cristiano da Matta is back to the track, fully recovered from the serious accident he suffered in August 2006, during training for the champ car series, in Elkhart Lake. He will make a special appearance in the race sharing the car with the American, Jimmy Vasser. A return that has even greater significance for Ricardo.

They were team mates in the Toyota Formula 1 team in 2003 and 2004, when Cristiano was the race driver and Ricardo, was responsible for the tests. "Since that time we have built a great relationship and I am happy to see that he is fully recovered from the accident," he says. It was also the last time that Ricardo was at the Laguna Seca track. He completed a number of laps of the track in the Toyota Formula 1 car in 2006. But the importance of the circuit in his career goes far beyond that day.

It was also at Laguna Seca that he secured the world title in the FIA GT championship in 1998 with Mercedes-Benz. The victory was his last step before debuting in Formula 1 - the next year he drove for the BAR F1 team. "I like the circuit because it is up and down and has quite nice corners. Of course, it is too bumpy, but quite good anyway and has some medium speed corners as well. I think it’s quite fun.” said Ricardo, who because of his commitment to this race will not participate in the third stage of Stock Car, that will be disputed Sunday, in Curitiba, Brazil. His replacement in the Panasonic Racing team will be Julio Campos.

The hopes of Ricardo, who shares the car with Nic Jönsson, in Krohn Racing, is in relation to the performance of the Pontiac Lola, which was not as good as was expected in the last race, in Virginia. “I hope it goes well. Of course, we were expecting to go quick at Virginia, but it was not as fast as we wanted and quite difficult for us. Virginia was supposed to be one of the best tracks for us. It’s quite difficult to imagine if the Lola will go quicker in Laguna. We are going to try to make the car quick and do well there.”said Ricardo, who so far this year, has his best result of third place in Mexico City.

1 Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas, 137 pontos

2 Jim Matthews/Marc Goosens, 116

3 Mark Patterson/Oswaldo Negri, 103

4 Alex Gurney/Jon Fogarty, 102

6 Bill Auberlen/Joey Hand, 90

11:30 AM - 12:00 PM     1st practice

3:00 PM - 3:25 PM         2nd Practice

4:50 PM -  5:05 PM        Qualifying

10:00 AM 11:00 AM        Final Practice

1:45 PM 4:30 PM           Race