AIM's Poscente Wins Masters Class at Portland
Bunker Fourth Overall, Herrington Knocked Out at Turn One

2006.07.26: Having achieved some revitalizing results at Salt Lake City last week, the AIM Autosport Formula Mazda Team traveled northwest to Oregon for a race on Portland International Raceway's 3.166-km (1.967-mile) twelve-turn road course. Once again, Rob Bunker led the way for AIM, following up last week's run to third, with a fourth-place finish. Masters Class competitor, Jay Poscente, overcame several obstacles to claim his first class victory, finishing eleventh overall. Unfortunately, Daniel Herrington was eliminated from the race when he was caught up in a first-lap crash.

Testing and Practice
During a promoter test held the day before official practice began, Daniel made it clear he had fully recovered from the crash in Montreal. Second fastest in the morning, just 0.07 seconds off the top time, he topped the timing chart in the afternoon. Rob was tenth in the morning session, while Jay, still driving a rented car following the Montreal crash, struggled for pace in both sessions.

Two official practice session took place on Friday and AIM used both of them to experiment with setups. Daniel was fifth in the morning and sixth in the afternoon while Rob ranked eighth and seventh. Jay's situation was worse than ever, his times among the slowest in the field. The problem was the engine. Having finished the Salt Lake City race with clogged radiators, Jay's overheated engine had to be sent for service. Unfortunately, the replacement appeared to have suffered some internal damage so another unit was installed for Saturday's qualifying session.

Qualifying
Daniel qualified sixth with a time of 1:09.536 while Rob posted a 1:09.975 to rank thirteenth. Jay, much happier with his new engine, saw a two-second improvement on his times from Friday. Despite this, he qualified way back in 27th.

The Race
First-turn collisions are not uncommon at Portland International Raceway, so race officials elected to use a bypass route on the opening lap. The bypass omits the first two corners (the Festival Turns) and rejoins at corner three. This creates a straightaway that extends all the way to corner four. AIM's Formula Mazda Team Manager, Ian Willis, voiced concern that this would simply move the potential of a first-turn incident to a point where it would occur at a higher speed and on a narrower section of track. Unfortunately, he was right.

With the green flag waving, the field roared down the long approach the first turn. The pole sitter, squeezed by the driver next to him, spun and caused a chain reaction crash. Daniel's car was hit three times. His battered machine, along with seven others, would go no further.

Rob read the situation, dodged the spinning cars and jumped to fourth place before a full-course caution was issued. He held the position after the restart while Jay started making use of that new engine. Before long, Jay was up to the middle of the pack and still climbing. Rob, still in fourth, slowly slipped back from third, but similarly edged away from his pursuers.

Having fought his way into the top ten, Jay was bumped into a spin. He managed to avoid any contact and scrambled back into the race to finish eleventh overall, taking the win in the Masters Class. Rob, with more than 3.5-seconds worth of clear track both ahead and behind, cruised home fourth.

Afterthoughts
Jay's richly deserved victory in the Masters Class was cause for celebration. Having qualified poorly, he charged through the field and even endured being punted into a spin en route to the win. Rob's drive was also impressive. Skillfully avoiding the first-lap crash and dashing past several competitors, he drove mistake-free to take fourth.

Sadly, Portland may mark the end of the line for Daniel's season. His budget, already stretched by the huge crash in Montreal, is sapped now that his car, again, needs extensive repairs. While he hopes to secure the funding to return, he will be unable to compete for at least a month. Everyone at AIM Autosport is hopeful that this personable young man and obviously talented racer is able to return and finish the season.

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