Subaru Impreza WRX Debuts at
Sebring SCCA World Challenge Race
- Andrew Aquilante, SCCA Runoffs champion, to drive
-
Phoenixville, PA – March 12,
2009
Andrew
Aquilante and Phoenix Performance will give the 2009
Subaru Impreza WRX its professional sports car
racing debut on March 20 at Sebring (Fla.)
International Raceway, in the opening round of the
SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring
season.
Andrew
Aquilante raced his way to the Touring 1 class
National Championship in the SCCA’s 2007 National
Championship Runoffs, a drive which earned the
then-19-year old the coveted SCCA President’s Cup.
He began racing professionally in 2008.
“We
decided Subaru’s 265 horsepower, 2.5 liter
turbocharged, dual overhead cam ‘boxer’ engine and
the car’s symmetrical all-wheel drive system, would
be a good core package to enter into the World
Challenge Touring Car series under the new rules,”
said Joe Aquilante, whose company, Phoenix
Performance, built the Subaru.
SCCA
Pro Racing, Joe Aquilante explained, created a rules
package for entrants of production-based cars like
the Subaru Impreza, to legitimately compete with the
highly-modified cars in the series.
“Both
SPEED World Challenge series classes have great
competition, and the new rules opened the door to
being competitive in a great series. Now, with the
management of the series in the hands of a committee
of series team owners, we now have new rules which
allow reasonably-priced race cars to have a chance
to win against the all-out race cars,” Aquilante
added.
Practice on the world-famous 3.7-mile Sebring
circuit is Wednesday, March 18. Qualifying is
Thursday. The 50-minute race takes the green flag
Friday, March 20 at 11:10 ET. The race will be
televised by SPEED TV for airing at a date to be
announced.
Sponsors for the Phoenix
Performance Subaru include Rockland Standard Gear,
Automotive Racing Products, Hawk Brakes, Quarter
Master, Ecutek, Racing Radios, Lista, Rotary Lifts,
Cusco, Carbonetic, Mac Tools, Hella, Perrin, and
Vedalo HD.
About Phoenix Performance
Phoenix Performance, Inc. is
owned and managed by Joe Aquilante and is located in
a 32,000 sq. ft. facility in Phoenixville, Pa., 40
miles west of Philadelphia, PA. Team driver Andrew
Aquilante races a Subaru Impreza WRX in the SCCA
SPEED World Challenge Touring series. Andrew can be
reached at
www.andrewaquilante.com. For more
information about the team and the cars, call Joe
Aquilante at (610) 482-0141, by email at
JFAPhoenix32@aol.com, or visit –
www.phoenixperformance.net.
Media Contact:
Dave Arnold
arnold communications
607.562.2165
dave.arnold@verizon.net