The NJMP 250 presented by Crown Royal, round 9 of the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16, saw AIM Autosports Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins take their No. 61 Pacific Mobile/BioSign Ford Riley to an impressive 4th place finish. Mark Wilkins qualified for third, holding on to the same position until the race’s first caution. While most of the traffic pitted, he took the chance to lead the race until the mandatory pit stop at the 45-minute mark. Mark Wilkins thought he had a good, trouble-free run, and was happy with his performance.

Burt Frisselle took over and rejoined the race at 10th. He slowly weaved through the traffic, settling on third after overtaking Michaek Shank Racing’s No. 6 The Pit Stop on Norris Lake Ford Dallara driven by Michael Valiante. It seemed like AIM Autosports is due for their third podium this season, but towards the end, an unfortunate incident involving a GT car trying to recover from being thrown off-circuit due to some oil on the ground made Burt Frisselle lose a position, finishing the race on 4th. The No. 61 car was damaged and misaligned, but Burt Frisselle persevered to get the car past the checkered flag.

Team Engineer Ian Willis was very disappointed with the result, saying the team deserved a podium with the way the two drivers handled the majority of the race. Despite this, both Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins remained positive, acknowledging their performance, and chalking up the crash incident to bad luck — which is an unavoidable part of motorsports racing.

Round 10 of the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 will be the Crown Royal 200 at the Glen, to be held at Watkins Glen International Short Course on August 6th to 7th. SPEEDTV will be covering the event live August 7th, starting 6:00pm ET.

Tags: GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, NJMP 250, Rolex and Motorsports, Rolex and Sports