Subaru Road
Racing Team
Concludes Season in Fine Form
- Team Drivers
Aquilante, Skavnes finish second in Drivers’
Championship -
Phoenixville,
PA – Oct. 8, 2009
Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) drivers Andrew
Aquilante and Kristian Skavnes drove a focused
race enroute to a fifth place finish in the
four-hour Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge
road racing series season finale at VIRginia
International Raceway near Danville, Va.
When the checkered flag flew on the last lap of
the season’s final race, Aquilante and Skavnes,
drivers of the #111 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B,
had finished second in the Street Tuner class’
season-long Drivers’ Championship.
Subaru gained two spots to finish a strong third
in the 10-way battle for the Manufacturer
Championship.
“I’m proud of what
Andrew, Kristian, and our entire crew,
accomplished not just today, but over the course
of the full season,” noted Joe Aquilante, whose
Phoenix Performance in Phoenixville, Pa.,
prepares the team’s Subaru.
“We completed 914 laps of 919 possible on the
season at 11 tracks from coast-to-coast,
finished every race, and led our class in five
races. We did all this with only one car within
our team. When you have all your eggs in one
basket, you have to carry it carefully,” he
pointed out.
“At V. I. R., we led our class three times for a
total of 38 laps, our three pit stops were timed
and executed perfectly, and we finished the race
only a few seconds out of the win,” Aquilante
added. “Although we did not win, this was a good
day, and it has been a good season.”
Andrew Aquilante, on the second lap, rocketed
into the lead from his second place on the
starting grid, held the point for the next 23
laps, and again for eight laps during his second
stint in the car. Skavnes ran in the number one
spot for seven laps during his mid-race driving
shift.
Aquilante qualified the Subaru second quickest
on the rolling, 3.27-mile V. I. R. road course,
with a 90.137mph lap, and turned an even-faster
90.634mph speed on the race’s 19th lap. That lap
stood as the race’s fastest for all ST cars.
“This was our longest race of the season,”
Andrew noted, “and VIR is a track where you can
let the car stretch its legs. You have to manage
tire and brake wear, though. Lots of very
high-speed entries into tight corners here, and
that’s hard on the brakes for everybody.”
“This concludes our third year of competing in
the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series,” said, James
Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of
America, Inc. “Even in the midst of an
increasingly competitive ST field
year-over-year, the team found its stride to
achieve our best overall season. Joe Aquilante
and at the contributing members at SRRT Phoenix
and Phoenix Performance have done a remarkable
job in fettling the performance available in our
Subaru Legacy platform.”
During the weekend’s pre-race test day,
exploratory laps were recorded by the team’s
Subaru Impreza WRX STI as a potential 2010
season Grand Sports class contender. Aquilante
and Skavnes were joined by five-time SCCA
National Champion Don Knowles. “The results
were encouraging”, noted Aquilante, “but there
are no firm plans yet. We would like to do it,
and so would our partners at Subaru.”
The SRRT team effort also tied for first for the
Team Performance Index award. Andrew Aquilante
won the Driver Performance Index for the Street
Tuner class, over 138 drivers, with Kristian
Skavnes placing third.
The Index awards are computed on qualifying and
finish positions, laps led, and consistency, as
well as other performance parameters with a
score of 1.000 as perfect,
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.