A Pair of Top Fives at Road Atlanta
<< AIM Autosport Star Mazda drivers Mark Wilkins and James Hinchcliffe delivered a pair of top-five finishes at Road Atlanta, finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Wilkins's performance was particularly impressive given that he had missed two races with a foot injury and was still on crutches. Brandon Thomas was also competitive, but was held back by a gearbox issue in the race and his fourteenth-place finish did not represent the effort put forth by the driver and his crew.

Practice
This is the second visit to Road Atlanta this year, the series having made their first stop there in April. The series specified a harder compound for this event and the team found that after a certain mileage, the cars would begin to loose balance. AIM Autosport's Star Mazda Team Manager, Ian Willis, said that with a combination of high-speed corners and two critical slow corners that require good power down, the optimum setup for Atlanta ends up being a compromise. In this case they had to weigh and balance stable high-speed handling and precise low-speed responsiveness.

The team walked the 2.54-mile (4.09 km) twelve-turn track and found that some cement inserts had been added in areas where the asphalt had broken up. Sealer had been used on other areas. And, rain had left the track pretty “green” (dirty with not much rubber build up). This meant that the track would get better over the course of the event. The team had to view improvements with a very critical eye: Was the car better, or was the track better? The team also had a secret weapon in the form of AIM partner and former driver Andrew Bordin who observed the cars at various points around the circuit.

Drivers Hinchcliffe, Thomas and Wilkins were a little frustrated by repeated red flags which interrupted test and practice sessions, but the team was clearly headed in the right direction and Mark Wilkins topped the charts in the first official practice session.

"I began to work on left foot braking which I have never done before," Wilkins reported. "I took to it well and we were pretty quick so Ian and I just worked on setup and balance. On Wednesday we were quickest and the car was superb, but on Thursday we were off a bit because I was pushing a little too hard."

Qualifying
For qualifying, the team went with a higher downforce setup that had proved quick in practice and testing, but Willis admitted that was the wrong way to go. The team recovered quickly and got the cars up to speed, but used more laps than they would have liked, putting extra miles on those hard compound tires.

Wilkins led the way for AIM Autosport, posting a time of 1:21.126 to grid fifth. Next was Thomas who was eleventh and Hinchcliffe, expecting a top-five, was handicapped with a loose spark-plug wire and qualified fifteenth.

"We had a good car for qualifying," said James. "Unfortunately, a spark-plug lead fell off which severely affected the engine's performance. We couldn't find the problem in the pits, so I went out and did what I could."

Race
When the green flag dropped, James got away beautifully and had a great opening lap, moving up six places. Mark, unfortunately, went the other way, dropping back to seventh, but setting up for some exciting racing as he fought back.

Brandon overtook two cars at the start and began gaining ground on the pack ahead, but a problem with gear shifting hampered progress after the initial rush. He pressed on and adapted his driving, but had to drive a defensive race and lost several places, ultimately dropping to fourteenth. Brandon and the team rightly expected more, but he did well given the circumstances.

Wilkins showed that his two-race absence had not taken the edge off and fought tenaciously with the likes of Jono Klein, Pablo Donoso and Ryan Justice. One by one, they fell to Wilkins as he battled his way up to fourth.

After starting in the middle of the 30-car field, Hinchcliffe was simply tearing through the pack as he headed for his fifth-place finish. Having just been displaced by Wilkins, Klein, Donoso and Justice soon had another AIM Autosport car bearing down on them. Donoso put up a notable fight, racing side by side with Hinchcliffe for half a lap before reliquishing the position.

Championship
Although James still has a mathematical chance of taking the championship it will take some dreadful luck on the part of points leader Raphael Matos. With one race remaining and a maximum of 45 points available, Hinchcliffe sits third, 36 points back. He does, however, have a good chance of taking second from Robbie Pecorari and has no chance of being challenged by Graham Rahal, who is 55 points adrift.

Missing two events caused Wilkins to tumble down the standings and he is now eleventh. Another good result in the finale could see him vault well up the table.

Thomas, who had a string of top-ten finishes before some rough outings at Portland and Road America sits eighteenth, but is also a good candidate to move up with a good result at Mazda Raceway.

Ian Willis
AIM Autosport Star Mazda Team Manager

"James drove a terrific race to come from fifteenth to fifth, and Yancy and Steve (his crew) gave him a very good car.

"This was Mark’s first race back since breaking his foot in mid-August and, even though he still has to use crutches to walk around the paddock, it did not hurt his driving as he was in the top five every session all week.

"Brandon had his first Mazda race here in April with another team and this time out was significantly more competitive showing the progress he has made and the preparation of his car by his AIM autosport crew Brent and Martin."

#96 Mark Wilkins (AIM Autosport/Trizec Canada)
Qualified: Fifth (1:21.126)
Finished: Fourth (-12.890)

Mark:
"I think the biggest challenge was maintaining focus during the race. I was unable to do any cardio work out other than some light swimming for seven weeks, so physically I wasn't up to par. The last few laps of the race I was pretty tired and found it difficult to maintain focus.

"To help my foot, Matt put some padding under my heal which helped over the bumps. Fortunately, I had good movement in my ankle so I was able to push the gas to the floor!"

#97 Brandon Thomas (AIM Autosport/Western Union)
Qualified: Eleventh (1:21.908)
Finished: Fourteenth (-46.457)

Brandon:
"Having Andrew Bordin standing in as our driver coach did a lot of good. Andrew suggested a set-up change which worked very well; we all picked up at least half a second on lap time.

"Hopefully, the last race weekend of the season will go better for us. I'll be driving flat-out to achieve my best result of the year."

#98 James Hinchcliffe (AIM Autosport/Emexis/Noco/Mobil 1)
Qualified: Fifteenth (1:22.104)
Finished: Fifth (-14.630)

Quotes from James:
"If we'd had one yellow to close the field up, I think we had a shot at a podium. The guys gave me a great car so it made my race a lot easier.

"Now we look forward to Laguna and to end the season on a high note."

AIM Autosport Notes:
The 2005 Star Mazda season wraps up

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