Strong practice session for the Exchange Traded Gold #61 Ford Riley
Some minor changes and a new set of tires do the trick

2008.03.28: After sorting out a couple a couple of issues that cropped up in Thursday's practice session, the team hit the track this morning for the final session ahead of qualifying this afternoon. Brian (Frisselle) would take the car out first on a fresh set of tires and quickly came up to speed. "We went out yesterday on scrub tires to compare against our test times here a few weeks ago and found that we had lost some pace" commented Brian "Putting on a fresh set this morning we found ourselves back on pace and improved our times. The car was good and we are back where we want to be."

Mark (Wilkins) took over the car half way through the session and was also on pace. "We had a good run this morning" offered Mark. "Brian set some good times early which we expected as tires can go off pretty quickly here so I concentrated on grip issues and setup."

It is expected to get warmer this afternoon and there will be some extra rubber on the oval sections which could work to the teams advantage in picking up a bit more rear grip. Team principal Ian Willis is optimistic of their chances in qualifying.

"It was a very good morning session" noted Willis, "and we are very happy sitting P6 at the moment, just 4/10ths back. Based on this session we are confident we can start top five tomorrow. Brian and Mark did a great job this morning and we think we have the car for a front row start."

The team ended the session on 18 laps and finished P6 in the nineteen car Daytona Prototype filed with a time of 1:13.225 (113.076 mph).

A single 15-minute qualifying session goes this afternoon at 3:30 pm DST.

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