Frisselle Racing Laguna Seca Race Wrap-Up
Brian matches season-best result as Burt gets unwanted test time
(Monterey, CA) 18 May 2008 – Burt Frisselle had been hoping to get some testing time in the new No. 47 BSI/CDOC Dallara-Ford, but not this way.
After his co-driver Gabriel Gardel was punted off-track early in Saturday’s Rumbum.com 250 event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the Doran Racing team made the most of a bad situation to prepare for races in the future, repairing the Dallara to rejoin the track as Burt took over the controls to try a variety of new set-ups.
The Doran Racing squad, which had started the day with an impressive effort to repair the car in time for the race start after Gardel had an off in the final warm up on race morning, had to do kick in for repair duty once again to rectify damage to the cooling system before Frisselle could return to action. But the quick garage work allowed Frisselle to strap in and treat the rest of the race as a test session with the car, which was making only its third start in Rolex Sports Car Series competition.
“It’s a shame that Gabriel got knocked off the track, but looking at what happened out there, it could have been a lot worse as far as the damage, so at least we were able to get back out and get some more data with this car,” said Burt. “The Doran guys did a great job to get us back out on track and just gave us a chance to test with this car a little bit because it’s still so early with this machine compared to most of the cars out there.”
“It has been challenging as well with the two-day schedules that a lot of these races have now, because you just don’t get too much of a chance to improve the car so we thought we’d use the track time we had here, even though of course we’d rather have been racing!”
On the other side of the Frisselle Racing garage, AIM Autosport once again had the Gold Ford-Riley flying as Brian saw a strong qualifying result convert into excellent race pace as he made an early pit stop and then charged to the front to lead six laps. The podium possibility was erased, though, when an airgun jammed during a subsequent pit stop as Wilkins had to rejoin the pack deep in the field.
But Wilkins, who took his first Grand-Am podium back in 2004, put the race pace to good use and powered his way back up to sixth before running out of laps to move up even further. The result matches the sixth place showing from the duo in the April VIR event, and has the two looking forward to Watkins Glen.
“Two solid finishes in a row is great but everyone can see that this AIM Autosport Gold Ford-Riley is really capable of more,” said Brian. “But we’ll take these points and this momentum and head for the Glen. This team keeps raising the game and hopefully we can show that with some even stronger race finishes sooner rather than later!”
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Press Notes:
About AIM Autosport
Established in 1995, AIM Autosport operates multi-car teams competing in the Formula BMWUSA Championship and the Star Mazda Series. The company has a mandate to identify, train and manage emerging motorsport talent. AIM has provided many young drivers with a solid foundation on which to build a career in professional racing. The success of the AIM driver development programs has been achieved through the dedication of our employees and the ongoing support of our commercial and technical partners.
Away from the track, AIM Autosport serves the needs of the racing community with a purpose-built preparation shop situated in the Toronto suburb of Woodbridge, Ontario.
Chassis brings resume of success to AIM Autosport:
AIM Autosport's Riley chassis was purchased from Chip Ganassi Racing and comes to the team with an impressive legacy of success, having won the Rolex Sports Car Series Championship in 2004.
AIM Autosport Alumni:
AIM has a long history of bringing drivers up through the ranks, and the alumni list reads like a who's who in the sport: www.aimautosport.com/drivers/Alumni/Alumni.htm
Performance-Oriented:
Performance Drink, the "Official Performance Drink" of Grand Am has signed on as an associate partner for the 2007 season, and will be utilizing the relationship to develop and demonstrate the high-performance capabilities of the drink. The drivers in the Rolex 24 At Daytona will be participating in a unique program that will closely monitor their bodies' performances throughout the enduro. More details to follow.
For additional information
www.aimautosport.com
