Mr. Montreal Ready for Rolex at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Montreal, Que. (17 August 2011) – The GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series travels to Montreal this weekend for the Montreal 200 and Round 11 of the 12-race championship as Brian Frisselle looks for a solid showing in Doran Racing’s No. 77 Office Depot Ford-Dallara.
Although Doran Racing has not had the season they have hoped for so far this year with a best finish of fifth at Virginia International Raceway, Frisselle is ready to rebound this weekend as he returns to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – a track where he has had great success.
Not only is the famous 2.709-mile Formula 1 circuit the site of Frisselle’s first ever career GRAND-AM victory with AIM Autosport in 2008, he also returned the following year with SunTrust Racing and scored his second consecutive victory at the track.
Frisselle has earned two of his four GRAND-AM race victories at the 15-turn Montreal road course and has only started outside the top-five once. The Colorado resident certainly knows the quick way around the circuit and looks to put that experience to good use on Saturday as the series stages another two-hour sprint event.
“I always enjoy coming back to Montreal,” said Frisselle. “Any track that you’ve won on, you are always going to like just a little bit better than the others! Having won with two different teams and two different cars makes it even more special. Hopefully, I can add a third team this weekend. Even though the Office Depot car has been consistently quick, we’ve had some unfortunate luck at Doran Racing in the last few rounds. But hopefully, heading back to a track like Montreal, we can turn that a little bit and have a big result.”
Frisselle will again share driving duties with Henri Richard as the duo looks for a run at the front. The Montreal 200 event begins with a practice day on Thursday, August 18 followed by additional practice and qualifying on Friday. The two-hour race is set to start at 11:15 AM (ET) and can be followed at www.grand-am.com for live timing and scoring.
SPEED will broadcast the event on tape delay starting at 7:00 PM (ET) Saturday.
Frustration for Brian Frisselle at Watkins Glen
www.frisselleracing.com
Watkins Glen, N.Y. (13 August 2011) – Brian Frisselle overcame several challenges in Saturday’s Canadian Tire 200 to finish eighth at the Watkins Glen International short-course event.
Frisselle qualified the No. 77 Office Depot Ford-Dallara fifth on the grid for the 10th round of the 2011 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season and looked to make a move forward at the start of the race as the No. 90 car went wide into Turn 1.
“I’m not sure what happened on the start,” said Frisselle. “The inside row really checked up and then something happened with the No. 90 in front of me and I was very unsure of who was inside of me so I just played it safe through there.”
Once the dust had settled, Frisselle slotted into the fifth position and despite setting a decently quick pace, saw those lap times compromised as he quickly began to struggle with rear grip. Doran Racing made the call to bring Frisselle to pit road for changes during the race’s one and only caution on Lap 10.
The team used the caution as an opportunity to put co-driver Henri Richard into the car as he ran the middle stint of the race before handing the No. 77 back over to Frisselle.
The grip issues continued throughout the rest of Richard’s stint and the No. 77 would go a lap down before Frisselle returned to the controls. Despite rebounding with a much quicker pace toward the end of the race, there was just too much ground for Frisselle to make up in the shorter two-hour sprint event.
“We started struggling with rear grip early on so we made some tire pressure adjustments and then we put Henri (Richard) in,” offered Frisselle. “Unfortunately then we were having front tire blistering issues so Henri lost a good chunk of time and by the time I went out, we were down a lap and we just went through our paces from there. Toward the end of the race, I was around the No. 61 car which finished fourth today and our pace was very good in comparison so it was unfortunate that we couldn’t show the speed of our car today. The Office Depot car definitely had speed on newer tires but we just didn’t get what we wanted today.”
Frisselle and Doran Racing will look to come back stronger next weekend as the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series visits Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the Montreal 200.
