The Grid.co.uk    the national & club motor racing website - est1998          

  ^News

Next for the 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series is the Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway, 45 minutes South of Miami, April 27–29.

AIM Autosport now has two months before round two of the 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series, the Porsche 250, scheduled for March 30–31 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. The team will not be taking any time off during this long break in the schedule; as soon as the car arrives back at the team’s headquarters in Woodbridge, Ont., the crew will start the process of stripping, examining and rebuilding the car.

FXDD (www.fxdd.com), a Foreign Exchange Dealer registered with the CFTC and a member of the National Futures Association, is headquartered in New York Cityʼs No. 7 World Trade Center. The company is a leader in online Forex trading dedicated to providing superior customer service, powerful trading technology, and reliable streaming liquidity. Providing services to individual and institutional traders, hedge funds, commercial entities, brokerage firms and money managers around the world, FXDD offers 24-hour Forex trading by way of its trading platforms, which include: MetaTrader, FXDDTrader, PowerTrader and FXDDAuto. Providing 50:1 leverage in the U.S., as well as competitive bid-to-ask spreads, FXDD’s services currently provide competitive interbank pricing, no-interest accounts and fully-automated execution. 

AIM Autosport

AIM Autosport is a professional motorsports team active in highly-competitive sports car and open-wheel racing series in North America. AIM has achieved success in every category it has entered through its operating efficiency, engineering skill, experience, dedication and stability of workforce. The team’s top-tier program is a Ferrari 458 Italia GT Grand-Am driven by Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato. In 2012 this car is entered in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series including the 50th anniversary running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. 

Since its launch in 1995, AIM has built a winning heritage by fielding competitive cars for talented young drivers in junior development categories. That continues with multi-car teams in the Road to Indy® professional driver development ladder where AIM is a perennial pacesetter in the Star Mazda series. For more information, visit aimautosport.com or facebook.com/AIMautosport. 

Ferrari Maserati Québec

Ferrari Maserati Québec, located at 3980 Jean-Talon West in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, offers each client state-of-art showrooms displaying new and pre-owned vehicles as well as an award winning after-sales service department. www.ferrariquebec.com

mail your news to editorthegrid@yahoo.co.uk  

AIM Autosport Team FXDD Claims Second Place at Barber with Superb Ferrari 458

Drivers Take Confidence from Excellent Braking, Handling and Tire Wear 

AIM Autosport Team FXDD took second place yesterday at Barber Motorsports Park as Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal drove exceptionally throughout the 2h 45m race. The team’s Ferrari 458 Italia GT Grand-Am was set up superbly to yield a combination of fine handling, superior braking and extended tire life that provided the drivers with confidence. 

Assentato, who qualified the car second on Friday, was at the wheel for the opening stint. He held second place through most of his driving shift, pressuring the leader at stages, but happy to play a waiting game as he knew his FXDD Ferrari was gentle on tires and could use that to his advantage when the competition began to loose traction. As his pit window approached, Assentato was able to take the lead with a decisive pass exiting turn five. The lead was short lived as he was soon called in for the planned stop. 

Co-driver Jeff Segal took over driving duties and was equally fast, but twice fell victim to odd circumstances during caution periods. A caution issued shortly after he began his driving stint should have given him excellent track position as the field headed to the pits, but the car was seventh when the pit cycle was complete. 

Thanks to some exciting and skillful driving that included many passes, Segal was up to third late in the race. The FXDD Ferrari maintained top pace while competitors began to struggle on worn tires. Segal looked certain to claim second place when a full-course caution was issued. The caution was short and should have set up a two-lap fight for the victory, but circumstance had the GT leader alone and ahead of the field as the pace car picked up the DP car that was the overall leader of the race. When the action resumed, Segal took advantage of the car’s braking to take second with a decisive pass into turn five. There was no opportunity to fight for the win, but the team was satisfied to see their Ferrari cross the line in second place. 

AIM Autosport Team FXDD is elated that its new Ferrari 458 has claimed front-row starts for its first two races and, after eighth place in the gruelling Rolex 24, has claimed second place and looked capable of claiming a victory yesterday at Barber Motorsports Park. 

"I'm really proud to be able to get onto to the podium with the AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia, and in only our second race no less,” Segal commented “Everyone involved in this effort has worked hard to get to this stage and a big thanks goes out to all of the team members and crew as well as our partners at Ferrari and Michelotto. 

"The race went fairly smoothly for us and, if not for getting split from the GT leader on the last yellow, I think we could have made a play for the win. This is a greasy, low-grip track and one of our biggest strengths with the Ferrari is that it is kind on tires over long stints and that was really important today. The layout at Barber is basically tailor-made for the Ferrari 458 GT with short straights and fast, long-duration corners, so I'm glad we were able to capitalize and leave with a nice points haul." 

"What a great day for us,” said Assentato. “I'm delighted with a podium finish, if a bit disappointed that a possible win slipped away. It's fantastic to be campaigning a Ferrari in the Rolex Series and the car is truly a pleasure to drive. It really suits my driving style well, which definitely gave me the confidence to qualify well and run up front during the race. I'm looking forward to the coming races, and to getting to the top of the podium soon." 

“Barber is always a difficult track to get a good setup and on Friday we found a combination that really worked well,” said Race Engineer, Ian Willis. “Emil and Jeff both drove to the limit to achieve this tremendous result.” 

“The AIM Autosport Team FXDD engineers and crew did a great job,” said Sporting Director, Andrew Bordin. “Our drivers did a spectacular job!”

AIM Autosport Team FXDD Eighth in 50th Anniversary Roles 24 at Daytona

Team Battles Huge Field in Debut Race with New Ferrari 458 Italia GT Grand-Am 

AIM Autosport Team FXDD took eighth place yesterday in the GT class of the Fiftieth Anniversary Rolex 24 at Daytona as its FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia GT Grand-Am performed flawlessly for 24 consecutive hours at Daytona International Speedway. The team faced stiff competition in its debut race with its new Ferrari, battling 47 other cars in the GT class with top drivers representing GT championships around the world. 

The twice-around-the-clock race began on Saturday at 3:30pm with Jeff Segal at the wheel of the AIM Autosport Team FXDD entry. On Thursday afternoon, Segal qualified second, putting the car on the front row for the start of its first race. After briefly surging into the lead, Segal settled into race pace for the long drive ahead. 

Although the FXDD Ferrari 458 ran flawlessly for Segal and his co-drivers, Emil Assentato, Anthony Lazzaro and Nick Longhi, the gruelling 24-hour contest was not without anxious moments. 

A couple of contact incidents within the first six hours of the race, including one that knocked the car into a spin, gave the team cause for concern, but AIM Autosport had put significant effort into protecting key components of the car in the event of light contact and the Ferrari emerged unscathed from both incidents. 

Another moment of drama arose when Longhi ran out of fuel as he neared the end of a driving stint in hour nine. The car coasted into the pits where it was refuelled and Longhi handed off to Segal. The motor stumbled after the stop, but the quick-thinking Segal was able to reset the computer and rejoin the fray. 

The most significant setback came 11h 15m into the race when Lazzaro received a 1m 50s penalty for passing the pace car under yellow. Lazzaro was, in fact, entitled by the rule book to pass the pace car, but as Race Control had yet to issue permission at the time of the pass, the penalty was levied upon AIM Autosport Team FXDD and a few other teams who had interpreted the new 2012 yellow-flag rules in similar fashion. 

From that point on, the race went quite smoothy for AIM Autosport Team FXDD. At around the 12-hour mark—near 3:30am—the team made a scheduled replacement of front brake rotors and pads. Then, while running eighth with just 45 minutes remaining in the race and a sizeable gap to the next car, the team elected to replace the front-left brake pads as a precautionary measure. The service was completed without losing a position and the car went on to cross the finish line eighth in the GT class. 

“I am a little disappointed that we were not fighting for the win. On the other hand, today we proved that the Ferrari 458 Italia GT Grand-Am has great potential and is reliable over 24 hours,” said Segal, who logged over ten hours in the car during the 24-hour run. 

“First of all, I am very pleased to have finished the race. With a new car, there is always the question of reliability and for the car to finish a 24-hour race on its debut is a testament to both Ferrari and the standard of preparation by AIM Autosport Team FXDD,” stated Assentato. 

“Ferrari proved today that it is a force to be reckoned with in Grand-Am endurance racing,” said Lazzaro. “For me, it was satisfying and encouraging to see the pace and reliability that the new car had.” 

“This first race has certainly justified Ferrari's decision to create the 458 Italia GT Grand-Am; our car was both fast and perfectly reliable,” remarked Nick Longhi. "The highlight for me though was qualifying, Jeff putting the car on the front row in the most competitive GT field in 50 years of Daytona racing history. It was very satisfying for our team to give Ferrari that result to thank them for their great support in such an important event." 

“Given our strong qualifying performance, it is easy to focus on just the race win and overlook what a tremendous achievement it is for a new car to finish a 24-hour race as gruelling as Daytona,” said Race Engineer, Ian Willis. “I’m reasonably content with the result, but am much more excited by the speed and reliability it showed out of the box.”

pic AIM Autosport