Subaru Road Racing Team Stays Determined
thru Season’s Last Lap
- Aquilante,
Skavnes currently second in Drivers’
Championship -
Phoenixville, PA – Oct. 1, 2009
Serving as the final round of the Grand-Am
KONI Sports Car Challenge road racing
series, VIRginia International Raceway sets
the scene for championship-seeking drivers
Andrew Aquilante and Kristian Skavnes,
co-drivers in the Subaru Road Racing Team’s
(SRRT) #111 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B.
The consistent, resilient duo currently
holds second in the series Drivers’
Championship points, 31 points out of the
lead, with the season’s final race set for
Sunday at VIRginia International Raceway
near Danville, Va.
“One car stands ahead of us,” notes Joe
Aquilante, whose Phoenix Performance in
Phoenixville, Pa., prepares the team’s
Subaru. “We’re not focusing on that,”
Aquilante said. “It is an extreme
mathematical possibility but not a realistic
one, so thinking about is just an
unnecessary distraction for the drivers and
the team supporting us. We have a 20-point
advantage over the next driver, though.
We’ll run our normal consistent race and
protect that advantage.”
“You can’t help but feel proud,” added James
Han, motorsports marketing manager for
Subaru of America, Inc., “that a one-car
team, in a series sporting 10 manufacturers
many incorporating multiple teams cars, has
its drivers in second place entering the
season’s final race. Such an effort speaks
volumes about the strength of this team and
the impressive product which Subaru has in
the Legacy platform.”
The four-hour Bosch Engineering Octoberfest
race has qualifying Saturday at 3:25pm ET,
and the race’s green flag is Sunday Noon.
“This will be the third race of the season,
too, where the faster Grand Sports class
cars are racing the same time we do, so we
must remain vigilant in not getting caught
up in racing competitor cars from the other
class,” Aquilante added.
Starting driver Andrew Aquilante is looking
forward to the Virginia race. “VIR is like
Watkins Glen, Daytona and Homestead in that
it has a lot of high-speed corners and long
straights. Those characteristics benefit the
Subaru’s engine capabilities, and we’ve done
well at all three,” he said. “But VIR also
has many corners that are low-speed, and
those areas are where Subaru’s
All-Wheel-Drive system and great handling
package give us a bit of an edge.”
Skavnes, who finishes the races, said the
team, “… wants to end the season on a
positive note with a win. We’ve won three
races in this series, and we’re not a long
shot to win at VIR.”
Sponsors for SRRT include Subaru Of America,
Inc., Subaru Tecnica International (STI),
Subaru Performance Tuning (SPT), Subaru of
Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA), VAC
Motorsports, Automotive Racing Products,
Hawk Brakes, Rockland Standard Gear, Quarter
Master, Ecutek, Racing Radios, Lista, Rotary
Lifts, Cusco, Carbonetic, Mac Tools, Hella,
Perrin, and Vedalo HD.