SCC: Daytona: ICY/Phoenix Racing Thursday report

Subaru Factory Team Confident for Daytona

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania - January 24, 2008 - Joe Aquilante and Dave Rosenblum, partners of ICY/Phoenix Racing which runs the Subaru Legacy 2.5GT Spec.B Sedans competing in Friday's Grand-Am KONI Challenge series road race at Daytona International Speedway, feel the in-race improvements their cars can show could lead to a visit to the winner's circle.

"I know we can go faster than we qualified today," said Aquilante, of Phoenixville, Pa. "We tested here in early January and were faster then."

Aquilante's business partner Rosenblum, of Langhorne, Pa., qualified the Subaru Road Racing Team's #141 entry faster of the two team cars, with a 97.264 mph average speed for a lap of the 3.56-mile combination high-speed banked oval and infield road course that makes up the Daytona configuration.

Teammate Chuck Hemmingson, driving the #111 Subaru, was only a tick slower at 97.179mph. Both speeds are two miles per hour off the pole position. Rosenblum will take the green flag 21st in the Street Tuner class field of well over 40 entries; Hemmingson's car, co-driven by Kris Skavnes of Sparta, N.J., will start 22nd. Twenty-year old Andrew Aquilante will be Rosenblum's co-driver.

"Maybe I could have gone faster but I made a driver error and grazed the tire wall with the left side," said Rosenblum. "I think there's a magnet with the Subaru name on it buried somewhere in those tires because Chuck did the same thing in practice -- same place on the track, same tires."

"The Subaru Spec.B feels mechanically-solid," added Hemmingson. "A minor adjustment to the suspension settings may be all we need to be closer to the front.

"Testing earlier in the year definitely helped us," noted James Han of Subaru of America, Inc. "The drivers feel very confident about tomorrow's race."

-credit: icy/pr