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AIM & Doncaster - Mexico preview |
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Monday, 26 February 2007 |
long haul
AIM Autosport will travel 5165 miles to compete in the March 3 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. Walter Ristucci, AIM's transporter driver, has prepared a turn-by-turn plan that details his 167-hour round trip from the race shop in Woodbridge, Ont., through one Canadian province and six U.S. states to Mexico City. Steve Hedrick will meet him in Laredo, Texas, and the two will alternate driving stints in the series convoy to Mexico City.
The AIM transporter will cover a lot of miles this season, carrying the
No. 61 Lexus-powered Riley Mk XI car that is sponsored by Exchange
Traded Gold, Barrick Gold Corporation, RBC Financial Group and Telus'
Mike Network. The two series races in California will be even further
than the Mexico trip – 5382 miles to Monterey and 5253 miles to Sonoma.
fave track
Brian Frisselle of Lynchburg, Va., will share
Mexico driving duty with AIM lead driver Mark Wilkins of Toronto.
Frisselle qualified on the front row for the 2006 race, just one of the
reasons the event is his favourite of the 14-race season. He noted,
"It's a great place to race, the fans are so enthusiastic, the food is
excellent. It's probably my favourite event of the year, just because
it's such a fun atmosphere to race in."
He believes mastering
the final turn on the 2.5-mile road course is the key to speed: "It's a
long-duration, high-speed corner and it leads to the biggest
straightaway, so you're going to have to be quick out of that corner
and you're going to have to have a good chassis. It's a very
complicated, technical course with a lot of turns, so your car's got to
be handling well."
new and improved
Doncaster
Racing will join AIM on the Mexico grid, entering the No. 17 MineStar /
Tim Hortons Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the GT class. The car has been
rebuilt since the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January and also sports a new
2007-specification suspension. "It's another signal that we're
improving the car all the time," noted Doncaster principal John Lacey.
Dave
Lacey and Greg Wilkins, both of Toronto, will alternate driving stints
in the two-hour 30-minute race. They finished seventh in class last
year, their first start at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
"The
track is very technical, so you have to get the car to the right place
on the track to set it up for each of the esses. You need to be in
exactly the right place for the last run out of the esses to get the
speed on the straightaway," Wilkins said. "We were really competitive
[in 2006] – with all the pro drivers in front of us, we were the first
of the 'amateurs', so that's not a bad result."
– aimautosport.com –
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