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AIM & Doncaster - Mexico race |
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Sunday, 04 March 2007 |
AIM Autosport notched a seventh-place finish in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race in Mexico City, capably switching from endurance mode – and a fifth-place finish in the Rolex 24 At Daytona – to sprint mode (two hours 20 minutes). The rookie team charged from 18th to seventh to win the SunTrust Improve Your Position Award in the No. 61 Lexus-powered Riley Mk XI backed by Exchange Traded Gold, Barrick Gold Corporation, RBC Financial Group and Telus' Mike Network.
Mark Wilkins of Toronto started 18th after an electrical failure stopped his qualifying effort, but gained three positions on the first lap and 11 more before pitting from fourth place to hand over to Brian Frisselle of Lynchburg, Va. Frisselle took the wheel at 1h17, returned to the track ninth and chased two positions to finish seventh.
Doncaster Racing enjoyed a strong sixth-place GT finish in the race,
staged on the 2.5-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course. Greg
Wilkins of Toronto started the No. 17 MineStar / Tim Hortons Porsche
911 GT3 Cup car ninth in class and steadily moved up to fourth. Dave
Lacey, also of Toronto, started his stint at 1h16 from ninth, worked up
to seventh and took sixth place on the last lap.
race report
car time driver action
17 start G Wilkins
1h16 change pit – Lacey in, four tires, fuel
61 start M Wilkins
1h17 change pit – Frisselle in, four tires, fuel
Brian Frisselle: "I feel comfortable here; I feel comfortable
on all high-speed tracks. The credit all goes to the crew: they gave
Mark and I a great car. I can't thank Mark enough for making it easy on
me, bringing the car up [through the field] – I didn't have to pass
barely anyone. Overall, it's just a great result."
Mark Wilkins: "We overcame some adversity in the last couple of
days. We missed a session, we missed qualifying and that hurt us, but
we knew we had a great car. All the AIM guys just did a fantastic job.
Our goal was to win the SunTrust award for most-improved position and
if we accomplished that, it was a very successful race."
Dave Lacey: "The end-of-race pass was very gratifying – it's
always nice to pass a pro guy like Wolf Henzler in one of the top cars
in the series. From a points point of view, we're really holding our
own and it kinda catapults us up to the pointy end of the standings.
I'm thrilled with the effort the guys put in."
Greg Wilkins: "It was a pretty successful day. We had our
troubles when we arrived – we didn't get all the practice in, with
mechanical glitches. There are some really great teams out there and we
managed to keep on the pace. To move up from ninth to sixth against
this competition, I'll take that any day."
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