SCC: Mid-Ohio: Subaru Road Racing Team preview

Subaru Road Racing Team Returns to Site of Grand-Am KONI Challenge Win

Buoyed by its second place finish last Saturday at Mosport International Raceway, the Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) now looks forward with enthusiasm to the fourth round of the 2008 Grand-Am KONI Challenge series, this Sunday, at the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Lexington, Ohio.

It was at Mid-Ohio last June where SRRT drivers Kris Skaves and Chuck Hemmingson scored the second win for the team in their Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B sedan.

Last weekend, Skavnes, Sparta, N.J., and Hemmingson, Des Moines, Ia., finished less than one second shy of a Street Tuner class win in Canada.

"Racing success can usually be attributed to a number of factors, and the same goes for the less-than-successful days," said team co-principal Joe Aquilante. "Last weekend we spent three days developing both of our cars after every testing and practice session and got them to the point where the challenge then fell onto the shoulders of our pit crew. They did their job, Kris and Chuck did theirs, and our two Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B sedans were as strong as we could ask for."

Facing a race at Mid-Ohio is an experience the entire Subaru Road Racing Team looks forward to, not just because of their 2007 season win. "Both Chuck and I raced Subarus at Mid-Ohio under ICY/Phoenix in the SCCA Runoffs when that event was held there, and Joe [Aquilante] has built 15 cars that have earned Runoffs titles on that track. There's nothing to get used to at Mid-Ohio. It's like home. We can just get down to the business of fine-tuning the car to optimize performance for that track."

The team's second Subaru will be raced by Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., who turned 21 years of age on June 16, and by Dave Rosenblum, Langhorne, Pa., both driver and co-principal with Joe Aquilante.

Motorsports Marketing Manager for Subaru of America Inc., James Han, praised the team's teamwork and versatility of the Legacy platform. "All the knowledge learned on and off the race track is shared openly between the crews of both cars. Knowing that our spec.B race cars are performance capable to contend for race wins given the variety of race courses on the Grand-Am calendar is a tremendous reflection on the base platform."

Han adds, "The fact that the very cars we race are built just hours away at our Subaru Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA) facility along with other Subaru models such as the Outback and Tribeca certainly makes Mid-Ohio extra special for us. We're proud of the products that SIA builds and excited to campaign our Legacy race cars for the many SIA guests we anticipate will be attending the race."

-credit: srrt