Daytona II: AIM Autosport qualifying report

Pacific Mobile/Biosign car to start 5th at Daytona
Lacking test time at track, team hopes for wet or mixed race conditions

Daytona Beach, Fla. (July 2, 2010) -- AIM Autosport's Pacific Mobile/Biosign car will start tomorrow's race at Daytona International Speedway from 5th place following a qualifying session this morning and the subsequent disqualification of a competitor for an aerodynamic infraction. Having missed the season opener, the Rolex 24, and series test sessions, AIM Autosport lacks track time at Daytona this year. The team is working to find out what it needs to do to improve its dry set up here, but doesn't hesitate to admit it's hoping for rain.

The day started with a pair of practice sessions this morning. At 8:00am, the cars rolled on to the track as light rain was coming to an end. The car looked very good in the changing conditions, placing 3rd with a lap of 1m 54.164s at 112.260 mph, 0.356s behind Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas in car 01.

For session 2 the rain came back and AIM, like most teams, elected to skip the session.

Under cloudy skies, but on a dry track, Mark took the wheel for qualifying at 11:15am. Nosing around the top 3 in the early minutes, things looked promising for a little while, but, later in the session, the team's lack of experience here this year began to show. Mark managed to wrest a 123.933 mph lap in 1m 43.410s to slot into 6th place. His lap was just over 1 mph slower than pole man Ricky Taylor in car 10, but nearly 1 mph quicker than the 7th qualifier.

"In the transition from wet to dry, we missed the set up," said chief engineer and AIM Autosport principal, Ian Willis. "We reached a plateau in speed and couldn't go any faster.

"We're prepared for the rain," he added with a grin. "But we'll try to figure out what went wrong."

"Qualifying was a tough one," said qualifying driver, Mark Wilkins. "That was our first time here with the 2010-spec. dry tires and we took a bit of a stab at set up. We've got some changes to make and we'll have to see how they work in tomorrow's practice session, but if we get mixed conditions for the race, we'll have a strong package for sure."

"We were a bit rushed by the schedule, but on the track we were good in the rain and the transition," said driver Burt Frisselle. "We're behind in the dry because other teams have tested here, but I'm sure we'll be there for the race."

-source: aim autosport