Grand-AM: Daytona II
Coming home 5th from the back of the pack

(2009.07.03) After starting the race from the back of the field, AIM Autosport recovered to record a fifth-place finish in the Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday (4th). Burt Frisselle had qualified the No. 61 Ford Riley on the inside of row two (3rd) for the afternoon race but officials moved the car to the back of the grid when they determined that a piece of bodywork was out of compliance. This meant that Burt would now have to fight his way forward but the car had been fast all day, showing the pace to get the job done, but it would be a matter of staying out of trouble in the process.

Things seemed to go AIM's way in the early stages and the race engineers made the right choice on strategy while Burt made the right moves on the track to move up despite some incidents in traffic. Unlike what happened at Mid Ohio, this week AIM anticipated a yellow that allowed the team to get the car in for tires, fuel and driver change and gain track position. After the yellow, the No. 61 Ford Riley was sitting third and Mark Wilkins was able to move up to sit second.

Unfortunately, an earlier incident caused some damage at the rear of the car and the car was becoming a bit of a handful for Mark to deal with. He would fall off to fifth and despite running some quick lap times, the team also had to switch to a fuel conservation mode toward the end of the race. Mark would bring the car home in fifth place and the team picked up some valuable points.

AIM remains in eighth place in the championship but is only one point behind the two cars ahead (tied for sixth) and eight points out of fifth at the halfway point of the season

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