2005 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series-Aasco Motorsports debuts 2005 Season with Top-Four

Aasco Motorsports Debuts 2005 Season with Top-Four

 

FONTANA, Calif., April 3, 2005 - Aasco Motorsports made an impressive
2005 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series debut here at California
Speedway today. The Dennis Aase-owned operation, from nearby Anaheim,
qualified the No. 26 New Century Mortgage Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry
third in the GT class field for the Grand American 400. Two hours and
45-minutes after the green flag, Patrick Long (Las Vegas, Nev.) crossed
the start-finish line with an impressive fourth-place in class. Long and
teammate Pat Flanagan (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) ran as high as the lead in
the event but a poorly timed yellow flag at the end of the race hurt
their overall position. The duo fought back from as low as tenth to
finish the day with the pairing's first top-five in Rolex Series
competition. 

 

Long took the green flag as the highest qualifying Porsche in the
stacked 24-car, GT class field for street-based machines. He raced into
the class lead in a commanding way on lap 13 and maintained that until
stopping for fuel, tires and a driver change on lap 21. Flanagan, who
was making his fourth Rolex Series start, then took over driving chores
of the New Century machine leaving the pits in sixth position. Flanagan
worked the car back up as high as third and kept it securely in the
top-five in class before handing the wheel back to the Porsche factory
driver in the last third of the race. The 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans GT
class winner continued to make ground before a caution period came out
with the overall leaders just in front of him, breaking his contact to
the class leaders. Long didn't relent. Fighting for every inch of track
here in his native California, Long re-took fourth with less than five
minutes remaining in the timed event. 

 

The race marked the first of six Grand American Rolex Series events that
the Dennis Aase-owned team will enter this season. Flanagan and Long
will next team at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 1. The race is
Aasco's third top-five in five races since the start of the 2004 season.
It was Long's fourth Rolex Series start and matched his highest finish.
It was also Flanagan's fourth start, upping his previous best, earned
here last season, by one spot. 

 

New Century Financial Corporation is a real estate investment trust and
the country's second largest non-prime mortgage finance company. Founded
in 1995, the Irvine, Calif. company is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the ticker, NEW. New Century operates in 29 states with
approximately 5,000 employees. The No. 26 is joined on-track by the No.
02 New Century-backed Daytona Prototype.

 

Quotes:

Pat Flanagan: "I want to thank Dennis and the crew from Aasco. They gave
us an awesome car today. Patrick drove the wheels off the thing all day.
We got caught out by the pace car and never got caught all the way back
up but, overall, it was an awesome finish for the day. We didn't catch
all the breaks we would have wanted but it was a good debut. We'll pack
it up, head on to Laguna Seca and try to get on the podium up there." 

 

Patrick Long: "I was really thrilled with the way the team and the
driver lineup worked out for our first Grand American race of the
season. We would have had something for them there at the end but we
just got hung-out with the safety car coming between us and the leader.
Still, everyone was really happy and I even managed to find a duel on
the last lap. So, it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to moving
on to Laguna Seca." 

 

For more, please visit www.AascoMotorsports.com.