From Pit Lane
Jeff Pomfret, Daytona Prototype Lead Mechanic

2007.05.05: Jeff Pomfret is AIM Autosport's lead mechanic. Working closely with chief mechanic Kevin O'Reilly, Jeff is responsible for preparing the No. 61 Lexus-powered Riley Mk XI for every track session. He is a "fly-in" crew member, working his day job during the week, then joining the team on race weekends. He also handles all of AIM's composite repairs through his company, New Tech Composites. Here's an inside view of his track world:

I've worked on race teams fulltime, but chose not to continue as a fulltime career. I enjoy being with my family during the week, but I still like to do racing, so I've been granted a great opportunity with AIM to be able to do that.

Kevin and I contact each other during the week on the phone and keep up to speed on what's going on. There's a lot more happening than what you see on TV. These guys at the shop put in hours and hours fabricating, making sure everything is ready. That's what you don't see on a race weekend, but kudos to those guys for bringing a good car to every race.

At the track, there's a certain protocol that we follow, certain things that we do to the car that don't change weekend to weekend. The car comes set up; I just help Kevin make any adjustments. Once we get the car on the track, we start to fine-tune it and make all those adjustments. If something breaks, I help him fix that.

We have drivers' lives in our hands, so we have to be very conscientious and focused every time we're on the car and look for anything that may potentially break. We do a lot of preventive maintenance. The car is nut-and-bolted after every session – we touch every nut and bolt on the car and there are hundreds! It takes about an hour with two guys doing it.

The guys who have experience in sports cars know their job. If you've been doing it so long, you just know what your role is and you fall into that role. We know what has to be done. Ian Wilis and Craig English, our engineers, really have a good handle on what they're doing. They're not guessing. It seems like every adjustment that we make is accurate. It's a steady climb toward more speed and better handling. We don't seem to digress, we don't go backwards, we're always making adjustments forward. It's excellent! I've been on some teams where it goes the other way and it hasn't been too fun.

The key to success is to remain focused and make no mistakes. You don't want to beat yourself, you don't want to overlook something on the car that can take you out of the race. It's a whole team effort, so if the drivers do their job and we give them a good car to drive without any problems, it's a winning combination.

VIR was a very exciting weekend, fulltime fulltime! I was very proud of Mark's qualifying effort – to take sixth spot on the grid among some of the most seasoned professionals in the sport today was simply amazing. As for the race, I thought we had a very good run going, but with the level of competition, one small glitch can lose you some spots. But that's racing. The AIM team is definitely headed in the right direction and I am very proud to be in the company of such dedicated and professional individuals.

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