Off the track, the 27-year-old competitor in the American Le Mans Series' GT2 class is easygoing and laid-back. Sitting in the Risi Competizione hauler on Wednesday at Miller Motorsports Park, Melo joked about a recent bicycle accident near his residence in Italy and said he might be better off "staying home and drinking Coca-Cola all day."

Get him on the track in the No. 62 Ferrari 430GT, however, and he's anything but mellow. Melo and teammate Mika Salo, a former Formula One driver from Helsinki, Finland, have won all four GT2 races in the ALMS series heading into Round 5 on Saturday at MMP.

The Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix, which is actually four races within a race, begins at 5:05 p.m. on MMP's 4.5-mile, 23-turn road course.

The other three classes competing simultaneously are the Le Mans Prototypes (LMP1 and LMP2) and the GT1 class, which only includes two teams this week.