Boardwalk Ferrari Supercar Life Racing's Scott Tucker scored his ninth victory of the 2009 season Friday in race No. 1 at the Ferrari Challenge Series World Finals at Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain.
Tucker raced past North American division pole winner Henri Richard after Richard, under pressure from the No. 55, spun out half way through the 35-minute race. Tucker then easily gapped the field to take the top position.
"We've done exactly what we've needed to do to this point," Tucker said. "We simply keep on winning. We were patient and we were able to get the job done again."
The race included cars and drivers from both the North American division and the European division of the Ferrari Challenge Series. Mark McKenzie finished third in the North American division, followed by Harry Cheung and Zak Brown.
Tucker encountered some excitement early in the race with contact with another car, and Richard maintained a healthy lead of at least six car lengths for the majority of the first half.
"It was a game of cat and mouse at that point. Henri was surprisingly fast," said Boardwalk Ferrari Supercar Life Racing Team Personnel Director Ed Zabinski. "Scott showed a lot of patience and he took advantage of an opportunity. He ran an excellent race."
Shortly past the midway point, however, a car spun out in Turn 9 and, under pressure from Tucker, Richard made a small error at the turn's exit spinning off the track into the sand. That allowed Tucker to take over the lead in the North American division.
"Being the more experienced driver, Scott judged the situation a little better than Henri," Zabinski said. "The rest of the race, Scott was able to relax a bit and turned some conservative laps times to make sure he would win. He was comfortable the rest of the way."
This year's event is the first time the Ferrari World Finals have been held outside of Italy.
The second race of the 2009 Ferrari World Finals for the North American and European divisions -- the season finale -- is set for Saturday at10:55 a.m. local time, 4:55 p.m. ET.
