Daytona Beach, Fla. – January 23, 2009

The Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) opened its 2009 Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge series racing season with a strong second place finish Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

Both SRRT teammates, Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., and Kris Skavnes, Sparta, N.J., drove well enough to lead the race during their respective stints. Aquilante qualified the #111 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B on the pole in a field of 32 other Street Tuner competitors and led the first 29 laps.

Skavnes came back through the field after a strategic fuel stop and regained the lead late in the race in a scintillating show of driving that showcased the Subaru symmetrical AWD system on a slick track from oil and debris.

After being passed by a fellow competitor, relegating Skavnes to second, an untimely full-course caution due to a crashed car on-track with less than five minutes to go prevented the Subaru factory driver from making a final challenge for the race win.

“I believe Kris could have re-taken the lead,” said Joe Aquilante, owner of the Phoenixville, Pa.-based Phoenix Racing team which built the team’s Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B race car and operates SRRT.

“After Andrew qualified our car on the pole and led the first 29 laps of the race, we changed drivers during our first pit stop. Kris drove a masterful race and moved from fourth position into the lead within four laps. We had the car and showed the teamwork during pit stops to take the lead and win today’s race, but it just wasn’t meant to be,” Aquilante said.”

Since the 2008 racing season ended last October, the team had been hard at work testing and developing its Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B race car in preparation for this year’s racing in the Street Tuner class of the 2009 KONI Sports Car Challenge series.

“As a factory road racing team, SRRT always strives to fulfill a certain level of expectation based on attaining positive race results and reinforcing our Subaru performance message”, said James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America, Inc.

“The ST class in the KONI series is a highly competitive environment with multiple auto brands and models represented. The team’s results today really reaffirm the competitiveness of our Legacy platform against some strong competition and Subaru Road Racing Team’s execution to a well-thought out plan.

Friday’s race will be televised by Speed TV to air at a later date.

Sponsors for SRRT include Subaru Of America, Inc., Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Subaru Performance Tuning (SPT), Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc., Automotive Racing Products, Hawk Brakes, Quarter Master, Ecutek, Racing Radios, Lista, Rotary Lifts, Cusco, Carbonetic, Mac Tools, Hella, Perrin, and Vedalo HD.

About SRRT Phoenix Racing
SRRT Phoenix LLC represents Subaru of America’s road racing efforts in the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge and is owned and managed by Joe Aquilante of Phoenix Performance, Inc. The team’s 4000 sq. ft. facility is in Phoenixville, Pa., 40 miles west of Philadelphia, PA. Team drivers Kristian Skavnes and Andrew Aquilante race a Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B. in the Street Tuner class. For more information about the team and the cars, call Joe Aquilante at (610) 482-0141.

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Subaru Road Racing Team 2nd in Daytona racing season-opener

Photo Caption: Andrew Aquilante and Kris Skavnes drove the Subaru Road Racing Team’s #111 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT spec.B. to a strong second place Friday at Daytona International Speedway in the Fresh From Florida 200 Grand-Am Koni Challenge race.

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