Tuesday, 29th January 2008

Prototype team sets sights on rest of Rolex Series season after strong - but fruitless - Daytona show.

AIM Autosport may not have made it to the finish of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, but the Toronto-based team certainly made a statement as it battled with the likes of Ganassi and Michael Shank Racing at the front of the field.

The black-and-gold Riley-Ford enjoyed an outstanding opening to the 2008 Rolex Sports Car Series before a run of bad luck ultimately forced the team to park up and begin preparations for the rest of the season. All four drivers - Mark Wilkins, Brian Frisselle, Andrew Ranger and Colin Braun - led the race at different stages, and the decision to move to Ford power for 2008 proved to be prescient, as the team led nearly 40 of the 448 laps it completed over 16 hours.

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“Last year, we were very conservative and worked our way up and were eventually fifth at the end,” said team owner Ian Willis, “We had good luck last year, but it certainly didn't go our way tonight.

"We had a number of issues that put us about 26 laps behind at some point and, when the tyre let go,..... The car is repairable and we could probably have got it back out on track in a couple of hours but, when you're that far back, sometimes you just have to cut your losses.

"But this was a good kick-off to the season as far as pace was concerned, and we know we had a podium-calibre car and driver line-up today. Andrew did an amazing job to keep it off the wall when we had the tyre problem, and we're working with Pirelli to evaluate the cause.”

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