Spaude, Heinricy Hustle Subaru Imprexa WRX STI to Season’s Best Finish

- Round 5 of 10 - 2011 GRAND-AM Continental Tire series- Lime Rock Park -

Phoenixville, PA. – May 28, 2011

The Subaru Road Racing team finished a hard fought 11th in today’s GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series race at Lime Rock Park, Conn., after starting second and surviving several on track incidents with other Grand Sports competitors.

The driving was shared by Bret Spaude, Bushnell, Fla., and veteran John Heinricy, Royal Oak, Mich. Spaude drove the first 54 laps, or one hour, of the 142-lap race, turning the fastest race lap among the early runners and running as high as second place inside a knot of BMWs and Mustangs.

Heinricy, normally the team’s technical director, raced the Subaru for the first time, as a replacement for regular driver Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., who is recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in a practice session two weeks ago.

The Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) prepares and races a 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4-door model in the series for Subaru of America, Inc.

“Our Subaru ran the best it has ever run, validating the development work we have put into it over the last several months.” said Joe Aquilante, owner of Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa., where the team’s cars are prepared.

“Both Bret and John were able to record front row lap times in practice and qualifying, and Bret did a 94.690mph lap in qualifying to give us a front row start,” Aquilante added.

The early race went well, with Bret running in second place, but on lap 18, a trailing BMW driver hit Bret hard in the right door, damaging the door and dropping Bret back to 4th. Aquilante commented “We pitted Bret on lap 54 for gas, to repair the door and to put John Heinricy behind the wheel. For the rest of the race, John was able to run with the leaders, unfortunately we ended up a lap down due to the crash repair pit stops. The car ran really strong today, setting fastest lap of the race and repeatedly coming through the pack after cautions. We were all very pleased with the strength of the STI!”

“I’ve never raced an all-wheel drive car,” said Heinricy. “It takes a lap to get used to what it can do for you, and Lime Rock was really a good track to show the advantages of Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive capabilities.”

“A top five finish was well within our reach this weekend if not for the unfortunate on-track incidents which adversely affected our race result,” commented James Han, Motorsports Marketing Manager for Subaru of America, Inc.

“The team really stuck in there to finish 11th and made a superb effort to help showcase both the performance capabilities and resiliency of our Subaru Impreza WRX STI even such rough fender-to-fender racing.”

The next race is this weekend on the world-famous Watkins Glen International road course near Watkins Glen. N.Y.

Practice sessions on the 3.4-mile Watkins Glen track are Thursday morning, with qualifying that afternoon. The 2 ½-hour race, sixth of 10 on the season, green-flags Friday at 6pm.

Sponsors for SRRT include Subaru Of America, Inc., Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Subaru Performance Tuning (SPT), Hawk Brakes, Ron Davis Racing Radiators, Automotive Racing Products, VAC Motorsports, Rockland Standard Gear, Ecutek, Lista, Rotary Lifts, Cusco, Carbonetic, Hella, and Perrin.

About SRRT Phoenix LLC

SRRT Phoenix LLC represents Subaru of America Inc.’s  road racing effort in the 10-round GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series and is owned and managed by Joe Aquilante of Phoenix Performance, LLC. The team’s 32,000 sq. ft. facility is in Phoenixville, Pa., 40 miles west of Philadelphia, PA. Team drivers Andrew Aquilante and Bret Spaude race a Subaru Impreza WRX STI in the Grand Sport class.

For more information about the team and the cars, call Joe Aquilante at (610) 482-0141.  Fans can visit the team’s website at www.srrtphoenix.com and the Phoenix Performance website at www.phoenixperformance.net

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