SCC: Trois-Rivieres: Subaru Road Racing Team preview

Subaru Factory Team Racers Cross into Canada Intent on Retaining Grand-Am KONI Series Lead
- Season's Only Street Race is Crucial -

The five Drivers' Championship points lead held by Subaru Road Racing Team co-drivers Chuck Hemmingson and Kris Skavnes will be under serious threat this weekend when the two American road racing aces square off against a field of competitors in the Street Tuner class eager to make an impression at the single street race of the 2008 Grand-Am KONI schedule.

Round seven of the KONI Challenge road racing series and its most populous division, the trendy Street Tuner cars, will be featured this Saturday on the 1.52-mile Le Circuit Trois-Rivières, Quebec layout east of Montreal.

Hemmingson, West Des Moines, Ia., and teammate Skavnes, Sparta, N.J., share a five-point lead over two other competitors currently tied for 2nd in Drivers' points, currently making it a three-way manufacturer battle.

The pair of ICY/Phoenix Racing-prepared Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B race cars have logged consistent results this season, including two race wins, which have attributed to the team's drivers of car #111 enjoying their points lead in the KONI Challenge series competition. Both Hemmingson and Skavnes will be racing for the Subaru Road Racing Team this weekend.

The second Subaru (#141) will be raced by Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., and David Rosenblum, Langhorne, Pa. Rosenblum partners Joe Aquilante in the ownership and management of ICY/Phoenix Racing.

The much anticipated race will, however, be the first time that the team will have raced their Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B cars on the Trois-Rivières circuit.

"The layout at Trois-Rivières is unique," noted Skavnes. "It's part fairgrounds access roads, part city streets, including the only turn on any major track in the world where you make a left turn traveling beneath a stone municipal archway at an intersection. Passing an equal competitor on this track can be a multi-lap effort here, and if you haven't completed a pass in time, you're now rushing into the next 90-degree turn way too fast."

Noted James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America, Inc., "Our team competed a limited race schedule of six events in 2007. This year we're working towards making all 10, and we've had to learn how to best apply the core strengths inherent in our Subaru Legacy race cars to a variety of course layouts -- ultra-fast places like Daytona to closed public roads like Trois-Rivières -- some of which we've never run before in our cars. I'm pleased to see how well the team has adapted and risen to each challenge."

Qualifying at Trois-Rivières is Saturday at breakfast time, with the one hour, 45 minute race taking the green flag at 1:30pm.

-credit: srrt