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AIM Autosport Shatters Watkins Glen Qualifying Record

Watkins Glen, NY ? Brian Frisselle shattered the short-track qualifying record at Watkins Glen International Thursday afternoon, blazing around the 2.45-mile road course at a speed of 135.186 miles per hour.

The previous qualifying standard of 131.603 mph was set by Jon Fogarty a year ago, and 13 cars eclipsed the former mark.
In preparation for Friday?s Crown Royal 200, 20 Daytona Prototypes qualified for the 11th Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series of the season. The GT class will not participate in the 82-lap night race.

Driving the AIM Autosport Exchange Gold Ford Riley, Frisselle picked up his first Daytona Prototype pole position, and his achievement comes on the heels of the team?s sensational win a week ago at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

The AIM team earned its first pole of the year six weeks ago at the Daytona International Speedway with co-driver Mark Wilkins taking the speed honors.

?It feels awesome. We started out the weekend struggling a little bit with new set-ups that were chewing up our rear tires,? Frisselle said. ?Like normal for our team, we kept our heads down and focused on the set-up. It worked as we nailed it in qualifying. The car was a dream to drive and it is so good for this team.

?We have been knocking on the door all year and we finally knocked it down with a little bit of luck in the last race. At the same tine, you have to put yourself in a position to win and we have been doing it all year.?

Frisselle believes his team has the momentum to keep on winning. ?We have had a lot of things go wrong but it is finally coming together,? he said. ?Getting the monkey off our back and getting that first win, everyone seems to be lighter and the energy is different.?

David Donohue pushed the Brumos Porsche to the second fastest qualifying time of 134.328 mph.

The three-time 2008 pole winner stated, ?The car rolled off the track really good. We found a little bit of an issue in practice, which was a relief as I had thought we were doing pretty well. We have a good race car and the Brumos team is long over-due for a win. This being our home track it would be unbelievable to win here.?

Donohue?s co-driver is Darren Law, and the pair looked like sure winners until the car ran out of fuel a few yards short of the finish line.

?It was really frustrating, of course,? Donohue said. ?But our guys know they are putting a good car on the track and people are taking notice. Darren (Law) is doing an unbelievable job of bringing the car home at the end. In our hearts, we have won some races but no one really knows it yet.

Michael Valiante qualified the SunTrust Pontiac Dallara third and Fogarty bounced back from an excursion through a gravel trap to qualify fourth in the Gainsco Pontiac Riley.

Valiante will be joined by Max Angelelli and Alex Gurney will be with Fogarty.

Memo Rojas (Lexus Riley) took fifth place speed honors and Mark Patterson (Ford Riley) was in sixth.

Seventh through tenth were Bill Auberlin (Porsche Riley), Christian Fittipaldi (Pontiac Coyote), Ricky Taylor (Ford Dallara) and John Pew (Ford Riley).

Qualifying 13th, Andy Lally and Andy Wallace will be making their debut in the Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac Crawford.

The Crown Royal 200 will take the green flag at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening, and SPEED will telecast the race at 8 p.m. (tape delay).

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