Ben Ainslie's impressive performance at the America's Cup looks set to guarantee his place in 2013 edition "This is exactly why Oracle hired Ainslie," said David Carr, from Italian team Luna Rossa Piranha. In the first event, you could tell he had just done the Games. It was like he was in the changing rooms after a massive football match, sitting a bit dazed on the bench and thinking thank god that is over. Ainslie was recruited by the American team, which is owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison, back in January as the No 2 helmsman to Spithill, to make certain he was not free to race for another team. Yet they gave him permission to campaign his own team, JP Morgan Ben Ainslie Racing, in the ACWS, an exhibition circuit showcasing the spectacular new AC multihulls, to enable him to gain experience in the boats and provide a platform for launching a British campaign to win the 35th America's Cup, a long-cherished dream. His Olympic commitments prevented him from competing in the first three events in Naples, Venice and Newport Rhode Island but once his fourth gold medal was secured, he flew straight to San Francisco. He came 10th out of 11 contenders in his first competition. Then after a month of intensive training, spending hours on the water in San Francisco Bay and living in the ACWS bubble, the hard work paid off with an astonishing run of successes against some veteran AC campaigners such as Sir Russell Coutts, Dean Barker and Loïck Peyron. "It was disappointing not to hang onto the lead but after a bad start we did a really good job to fight back and secure second so I couldn't be happier with the way the week's gone," Ainslie said.