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GRAND-AM: Introducing Brian Frisselle
Written by: Marshall Pruett   
10/08/2009
Oakland, CA
 
If you follow Grand-Am you know the name ‘Frisselle.’ The brothers Brian and Burt Frisselle have been staples of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, but in 2009, Brian has put himself on the map as one of the brightest young stars of the sport.

Teamed with veteran Max Angelelli at Wayne Taylor Racing, the 25-year-old Californian grabbed the SunTrust Racing opportunity with both hands, and finds himself just 8 points out of the championship lead as the season wraps up this Saturday in Homestead-Miami.
Brian Frisselle has made short work of launching himself into title contention with Wayne Taylor's SunTrust Racing team. (LAT) » More Photos

For all of Frisselle’s efforts and accomplishments in the Daytona Prototype category, he’s still largely unknown to the world outside the Rolex Series, but that won’t last for long.

Driving for AIM Autosport in 2008 saw Frisselle place 5th in the driver’s championship with two wins, a pole, and eight top-10s, but under the tutelage of Taylor and Angelelli, Brian’s results have changed dramatically.

At WTR, Frisselle’s scored just as many wins – two – but it’s in both speed and consistency where he’s made the greatest strides. Seven top-4s serve as proof of Frisselle’s growth, and six visits to the podium – 55% of the time – that has helped to put WTR in a position to claim the driver’s championship.

Leigh Diffey, SPEED’s veteran Rolex broadcaster, says he’s been impressed with Brian’s evolution as a driver and a professional.

“I think part of that is because of the team he's in now. He understands his surroundings. He’s now representing as significant as SunTrust. You can see he is carrying the load more; he’s internalizing the responsibility that comes with being in an elite team. When I think of him last year, he was laughing the whole time. Last year he was still in college, and this year he’s in the real world. He’s still smiling, but the laughter has been replaced with a harder edge.”

Now in his fifth season of Grand-Am competition, Frisselle has travelled a long path to vie for a Rolex Series championship, but for a driver of his lineage, it was only a matter of time. Older fans might know the name ‘Frisselle’ from father Brad’s exploits in IMSA and Can-Am, but as Brian shares, following in his father’s footsteps wasn’t always the plan.

“You know, auto racing has been a kind of glue for our family, it's always kept us together. It's been a passion that we all share together. Racing is something we would come together around, whether it was on TV to be together to watch a race or at the racetrack. So when Burt and I got into racing, it was something that the whole family would work together on. My sister worked on the website, my dad would help coach us, my mom did everything she could because she had been there before with my dad helping him get through his racing career. So it's really a family sport for us and also a family business. But you know, it's kind of funny, growing up I always kind of separated myself from motorsport and for some reason, I just assumed it was more of something for my brother.”

After the brothers participated in a karting school and began snowmobile racing when they moved to the east coast, Burt’s interest in driving grew, and after a bit of coaxing, Brian soon joined him.
Two wins in 2009 have Frisselle and teammate Max Angelelli poised between the Gainsco and Ganassi outfits ahead of Saturday's Daytona Prototype finale. (LAT) » More Photos

“For his senior project my brother went to a racing school and did very well and my family decided, ‘Well, maybe this is something we should try to help him pursue.’ I never really thought about it much. And then he started having a lot of success, he won a scholarship through Skip Barber and I again, I was never really asking for it. My parents said, ‘You know, Brian, do you want to give it a try? You were always quick in snowmobiles.’ They thought it was unfair that Burt was getting to do all this racing, so I said, ‘Oh, sure, I'll try.’ I don't really know why I didn’t have the desire up to that point, but I went to the Skip Barber racing school and everything went really well. I was hooked immediately.
I knew then that speed was my passion and it has been ever since. At that point, I wanted to do anything I could to make a career out of it.”

Frisselle credits his racing school education with helping to lay the foundation for the skills he uses today. “I learned a lot at Skip Barber. They have a lot of very talented drivers instructing there and so you learn a lot there while improving your craft. And then competing in their national series, especially at the time, it had the youngest, most talented drivers around. In my year in the nationals, I raced against Raphael Matos, Salvador Duran, Matt Jaskol; it was really a great learning experience.

Frisselle lists one of the staff members at Skip Barber – another name familiar to Grand-Am fans – as playing an early role in teaching him what it would take to become a professional racing driver.

“As an amateur trying to learn what it's going to take to be a pro, a really influential person to me was Oswaldo Negri. He was a test driver for the Barber Dodge Pro Series. He really kind of showed me that lots of people are quick. That's a given. There's a lot of talented, fast race car drivers but the way you can separate yourself is your ability to read the car and understand setups. And he was very influential to my brother and I in that area and really kind of put a focus in for us that if we are going to try to make it, we have to be good in that area of expertise. It was a defining moment in our understanding the difference between being an amateur and a pro.”

With Negri’s help to understand the chassis setup and engineering disciplines associated with racing, Frisselle’s curiosity was thoroughly sparked. His father was a renowned engineer whose exploits with the self-developed Frissbee Can-Am cars, and with Brian’s new-found interest in the technical side of the sport, his education continued to build.

“My dad had kind of told us stories about how they came across some ground effects downforce with his car, the Frissbee that he and his team developed in Can-Am. It's a bit of a different era but we learned that to get an advantage on each other, the easiest way to out-drive someone is have a superior piece of machinery underneath you. I think that was always in our blood.”
Brian (left) and Burt (right) Frisselle got their start in the Rolex Series in 2005 with the Synergy team. (WTR) » More Photos

After his time racing in the Skip Barber series and then Formula BMW, Brian and Burt made the leap to Daytona Prototypes in 2005. Frisselle says that while they weren’t racing in a preferred chassis, it afforded them an invaluable learning opportunity.

“It was in many ways an uphill battle coming into the Rolex Series. The first year I drove with my brother at Synergy, and at the time we had the Doran chassis which was an inferior chassis to the Riley and to the Crawford. And on top of that we were the youngest, most inexperienced driver duo, and we even had the smallest budget! Whenever you have a situation like that it's hard for the team, it's hard for the drivers. It's just not a recipe for success. At times we were able to show what we could do but it was tough. But it opened up opportunities and it made us more of a viable option to other young teams that were trying to come into the series.

After two seasons with Synergy, the pair caught the attention of a new team that was moving up from Star Mazda. By the end of his tenure there, Brian would be ready for the move to take his place at SunTrust Racing.

“We ended up moving on to AIM Autosport for 2007 and the first year I didn't get to drive the full year. I would sit out every other race, as would my brother because we were swapping seats…that was tough. And then the following year I finally got to stay put, same car, same team, same engineer and Riley chassis, competitive Ford engine, and things just really clicked. Finally, I was in a really good spot in my career. And (co-driver) Mark Wilkins and I were really able to shine on a great team and show everybody in the Rolex Series what AIM Autosport was capable of and what we were capable of.”

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