Grand Am GT - AIM/FXDD On Front Row

Birmingham, March 30, 2012: The Ferrari 458 Italia GT Grand-Am fielded by AIM Autosport Team FXDD will start from the outside of the front row in tomorrow’s Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park. With a lap of 1m 30.985s, averaging 146.457km/h, Emil Assentato secured the spot with just under three minutes remaining in a 15-minute, late-morning qualifying session.

The session was close fought with the top nine cars spanning less than one second. After showing in various top-ten spots, Assentato dug deep and pushed hard to post a time that missed pole position by just 0.223s. Demonstrating just how close the competition was, Assentato’s time was was just 0.016s clear of third place.

The FXDD Ferrari 458’s strong performance this morning was in marked contrast to yesterday’s showing when the team went the wrong way with setup. The AIM Autosport Team FXDD crew remained at the circuit working on the car until midnight yesterday and their efforts rewarded when the car set the top time in both of today’s pre-qualifying practice sessions. Assentato was happy with car’s setup during the qualifying session and had the confidence to push hard around the scenic, 17-turn road course.

“AIM Autosport did a great job setting up the car,” Assentato commented after the session. “Thanks to Jeff, my co-driver, for his help with setup and thanks to FXDD for supporting us.”

“We applied our knowledge of DP cars to our setup yesterday and struggled for pace,” said Race Engineer, Ian Willis. “We took a 180º turn today and made great gains. Then Emil took the car for qualifying and did a stellar job.”

“The team did an awesome job,” said Sporting Director, Andrew Bordin. “Everyone stayed cool and professional while they got the car sorted.”