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Photos by James Davies. |
AIM Takes Ninth at Laguna Seca 2007.05.20: AIM Autosport earned its fourth top-10 finish of the season after racing as high as third place in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday. Burt Frisselle of Lynchburg, Va., drove the first stint in the No. 61 Lexus-powered Riley Mk XI, starting 17th after a technical violation erased his seventh-place qualifying position. He pitted after the first lap to meet the series requirement for a pitstop in the first 45 minutes of the two-hour 30-minute race. He then worked through the field to third before handing off to Mark Wilkins of Toronto at 1h37. Wilkins returned to the track in seventh position, but struggled with grip on the slippery track and had to settle for a ninth-place finish. Burt Frisselle: "It's another top-10 for a young team. Every time, we're moving forward. Running up front for a long time in the top-five was just great; it just shows the field we're coming. Ian [Willis] and Craig [English, the team engineers] have their heads wrapped around this car now. I think the next step for us is the podium. As the stint went on, the car just got better and better. They gave me a great amount of adjustability with the roll bars throughout my stint, so as the track changed, I was able to adjust the car to it. It makes my job a lot easier when you have the support that these guys provide." Mark Wilkins: "I struggled with front-end grip, being able to get the car in on the entry to the apex so I could get back to throttle early enough. Here [at Laguna Seca] it's all momentum, so you need to get the throttle earlier everywhere. It seemed like whatever change I made, it just didn't give me what I was looking for in the front. The guys did a great job, but it wasn't a great result. I need to look at the data, look at my driving and see what we missed."
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Established in 1995 with a mandate to identify, train and manage emerging motorsport talent AIM operates multi-car teams competing in the Formula BMW USA Championship and the Star Mazda Series North American Championship. Among those drivers who have graduated from AIM Autosport are former series and rookie champions james hinchcliffe, Andrew Ranger, Andrew Bordin, J.F.Veilleux, Jonathan Macri, L.P. Dumoulin, Anthony Simone and Dan Burchill. Other notable AIM graduates include, Sam Hornish Jr., Billy Asaro, mark wilkins, Ashley Taws, Paul Dana, Tom Dyer, Josh Schreiber, Dan McMullen and Antoine Bessette. |
