SCC: Mosport: Subaru Road Racing Team preview

Subaru Team Looks to Use Legacy Sedan's Advantages at Mosport's Grand-Am KONI Challenge Race

The second round of three Grand-Am KONI Challenge series races in four weekends happens this Saturday on Mosport International Raceway east of Toronto, Can., and the Subaru Road Racing Team prepared by ICY/Phoenix is happy about that.

There was no mistaking the enthusiasm in the voice of team driver Kris Skavnes when he said, "Mosport has the potential to be a really good track for the Subaru Legacy. In auto racing, there's a term 'horses for courses,' and mechanically, that's what we have this weekend."

Skavnes, of Sparta, N.J., cited the four-cylinder "boxer" engine in the Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B sedans, the car's standard all-wheel drive system and Subaru's inherent dependability. The Subaru races in the KONI series' Street Tuner class.

"The engine's turbocharger will help us on Mosport's long, uphill back straight, and the fact the engine is mounted horizontal and not vertical, will make the Subaru more stable on the fast, sweeping curves," he added. "If it rains, we'll have an advantage with the all-wheel drive system."

Skavnes, who qualified on the pole at his first Mosport start in 1986, shares the team's #111 Legacy with Chuck Hemmingson, Des Moines, Ia. The identical #141 Legacy is shared by 20-year Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., and Don Knowles, Pittsboro, N.C., who has three Mosport wins in 24-hour road races among his 13 races at the track since 1982.

"We feel good any time we get to a track where the inherent advantages of the high-performance version of the Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B can be used -- the lower center-of-gravity for the turbocharged boxer engine configuration, and the all-wheel drive," noted James Han, who oversees the SRRT program for Subaru of America, Inc.

-credit: srrt