SCC: Watkins Glen: Subaru Road Racing Team race notes

Subaru Racing Team Drivers Climb Points Charts; Aquilante, Skavnes now third in Driver Championship points -

Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) co-drivers Andrew Aquilante and Kristian Skavnes vaulted to third place in the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge series Driver Championship points today, following a fourth place finish at Watkins Glen International.

The duo races a Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B. Subaru is one of nine car manufacturers who go head-to-head on the race tracks in the series' Street-Tuner class.

"Of course we'd like to have finished higher," said team owner Joe Aquilante, "but we led the race, and the Subaru was still capable of turning laps that were faster than our qualifying speeds late into the race."

Joe Aquilante owns the Phoenixville, Pa.-based SRRT Phoenix outfit which prepares the team's Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B race car and serves as factory race partner for Subaru of America, Inc. This is SRRT's third season racing the Subaru. The team won KONI Challenge races in 2007 at Lime Rock and both 2007-08 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The car races in the Street Tuner class, the larger of the two classes in the series.

Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., qualified the #111 Subaru 5th quickest with a 93.220mph effort. By lap 31, even on a damp track, the 21-year old was able to lap the 3.4-mile road course close to 7/10ths of a second quicker than he had qualified, moving to as high as second place before turning the wheel over to co-driver Kristian Skavnes, Sparta, N.J., for the run to the finish.

"The race was two-and-a-half hours," said Aquilante, "which meant we'd have to pit twice for gas since we can only go 68 minutes on a tank of gas at race speeds. But there were enough situations to bring out the safety car during my stint, which slowed down the pace, that we were able to run 34 laps, which got us past halfway in terms of time. That enabled Kris to race to the finish and not worry about fuel."

"In fact," Skavnes noted, "the best chance I had to use Subaru's Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system was on lap 50 just after I'd taken the lead. I slid off the track but kept my foot in the throttle and after a pretty wild ride parallel to the track, was able to return back onto the racing surface." The off-road excursion, however, dropped him to fifth place, but he regained fourth with five minutes to go.

The race was televised and will air on SPEED TV June 14 at 2p ET.

The team's next race is June 19-21 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

"Mid-Ohio has traditionally been a race course where our team has seen consistent success," said James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America, Inc. "We've won there in 2007 on a dry track and 2008 in a sudden downpour."

-credit: srrt