After a solid finish coming away from the first round of the 2011 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series at Daytona International Speedway, the Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) is eager to build upon that result at Homestead-Miami Speedway which will host the next round on March 4-5.
At Homestead, SRRT co-drivers Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., and Bret Spaude, Bushnell, Fla., face a 2.3-mile combination banked oval speedway and twisting infield road course for the 2.5-hour race. Daytona’s road racing configuration length is 3.56 miles; the extra running room makes a Grand Sports class race lap at Daytona about 13 miles per hour faster than a Homestead lap.
“That’s a good equalizer for the 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI race car,” said Joe Aquilante, owner of Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa., where the team’s cars are built and tuned.
“Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system will help our car accelerate out of the corners, and since the banking is flatter, our handling advantage should come into play more,” he said.
“Even with our testing, we’re still tweaking the chassis and suspension settings after every practice session,” added Andrew Aquilante, who, along with team Crew Chief Kurt Omensetter, oversees the pre race prep of the 2011 WRX STI. “We’re in the mode where small changes can mean a lot in lap times and top speed, so we are focusing on details.”
Check us out in June Auto Enthusiast
Jim Moore has been using ARP in a killer Corvette rebuild. Check out this month’s installment.
ARP is Proud to be part of the Husqvarna MX2 Race ProgramBike
WOW!
Performance BMW
Yup, this is Cool!
Inside the Nascar office building in Daytona Beach. The design on the left is made from our Speed Nuts.
Daytona Wrap Up
Budweiser Shootout- Kurt Busch
Gatorade Duel 1- Kurt Busch
Gatorade Duel 2- Jeff Burton
Camping World Truck Series- Next Era Resources 250- Michael Waltrip
Nationwide Series- Drive4COPD 300- Tony Stewart
Sprint Cup- Daytona 500- Trevor Bayne
SRRT leaves Daytona Pleased
Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) drivers Andrew Aquilante and Bret Spaude took the first green flag of the 2011 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series season in 17th grid position within the 32-car Grand Sport field, but climbed to 13th by race finish after two-and-a-half hours of running on historic Daytona International Speedway.
Unlike the NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers who use only the 2.5-mile high-banked oval, the sports cars racing this weekend use a 3.56-mile combination of the oval and the infield road course.
Spaude, of Bushnell, Fla., qualified the 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI 17th quickest, and drove the first 29 laps of the 60-lap race, climbing as high as seventh place. He turned over the controls to co-driver Andrew Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., who left the pits in 15th place, then proceeded to work around six full-course caution sessions to earn his finishing spot.
The SRRT Subaru Impreza is race-prepared and tuned by Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa.
Team owner Joe Aquilante was enthused by the finish. “I would have liked to have seen the race end under green flag conditions,” he said, “for the sake of all the drivers who have worked so hard to get to where they were – especially our staff. Our new Impreza WRX STI was flawless all weekend, and our lap times reflected what we learned here three weeks ago in the pre-season testing. For us to come away with a 13th place at Daytona against V8-powered cars such as BMW M3s, Camaros and Mustangs, we’re pleased.
“Brett and AJ did an excellent driving job by not getting caught up in the mistakes made by other drivers,” Aquilante added.
James Han, Motorsports Marketing Manager for Subaru of America, Inc. added, “The 2011 4-door STI sports model has logged a solid result here at Daytona, and our driver’s average lap times were easily four-plus seconds quicker than at this same track last year. The team performed quick pit stops and driver changes plus our race strategy proved to be the correct one. And our Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system afforded us better handling and traction in the infield’s numerous turns than most other cars.”
Spaude steadily moved forward during his 29 laps behind the wheel, even though he had to temper his enthusiasm for seven laps of following behind the safety car in the races opening 10 laps. He had climbed to seventh place by the time he pitted.
Four subsequent safety car sessions prevented Andrew Aquilante from cracking the top 10 of the Grand Sports class running order.
“I have to hand it to Andrew, who was in charge of the building of this new car over the offseason, and to one of the real Phoenix Performance shop veterans, Kurt Omensetter, our Crew Chief. Our Subaru ran quicker today than it was in the pre-season testing,” added Joe Aquilante.
Vic Wood’s Nitro Nostalgia Funny Car
We’re excited to be part of lots of different cool projects.
Performance by Fisher/Team Dragon Racing Fuels
Team Dragon Racing Fuels Announces Most Aggressive Race Schedule in Recent Seasons
With twenty-eight races planned over a span of eight states and Canada, Kathy and Kevin Fisher and the newly formed “Team Dragon Racing Fuels” (www.teamdragonracingfuels.com) have assembled an outline for their 2011 season like no other in the team’s history of late.
In addition to the jam-packed schedule of national, divisional and big money bracket races, The Fisher’s are pleased to announce the major partnership with Lafayette, Indiana based, Dragon Racing Fuels.
“I don’t think I’ve been this excited for our team and pumped for a season since we first began,” said Kathy, driver of the team’s 8.90 dragster. “We have been working closely with Chuck [Newton] and Kevin [Majewski] of Dragon Racing Fuels for the past season and a half and we couldn’t be more elated to see our relationship continue to grow.”
“Boy, do we have a ton of great things planned for this year in conjunction with Dragon Racing Fuels,” continued Fisher. “Some are already underway, including the ‘Fueling Your Passion Contest’ while many more rather interesting ones are yet to be announced.”
MPMC Conference
Nearly a hundred Motorsports Manufacturers are set up at the MPMC conference for media this week. ARP is attending as well.
We can make any place into a nice show booth.
The Bryan Fuller/Steve Strope poster we did for PRI looks much better than hotel art!
SRRT is Ready for Daytona
Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) drivers Andrew Aquilante and Bret Spaude are looking forward to the opening of the 2011 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series. The first major professional auto race of the season will take the green flag at 1:30PM ET on Friday, Jan. 28 at Daytona International Speedway.
The SRRT drivers will be one of 31 teams entered in the Grand Sports class race for the 2 1/2-hour race on the newly-reconstructed 3.56-mile combination oval and infield road course at Daytona Beach, Fla.
Racing a Grand Sports class 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI race-prepared and tuned by Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa., co-drivers Andrew Aquilante of Chester Springs, Pa., and Bret Spaude, of Bushnell, Fla., recently spent a weekend at Daytona, getting the feel of their newly-rebuilt Subaru, and becoming accustomed to the new racing surface on the oval portion of the world-famous race track.
“The new track surface was excellent, with the transitions from oval to the infield portions being much smoother.” Spaude said. “I loved the new 2011 STI right from the start. The handling is phenomenal!!
Andrew Aquilante added, “This new smoother surface on the oval makes a huge difference; the unsettling bumps are gone. And the 2011 4-door STI sports improved aerodynamics which should come into play much better for a track like Daytona!! In the infield, which was not repaved, we’ll have some mechanical advantage from our Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system. The car is very balanced”
“Moving up to the Grand Sports class last year was a big jump for us,” said team owner Joe Aquilante, “but we have learned a lot. Our pre-season testing at Homestead and Daytona was promising with excellent progress. In addition, we have made some team changes, with Andrew also assuming the responsibility of Car Builder, coordinating and assembling the new car along with Kurt Omensetter, our Crew Chief. The entire team has been working very diligently applying all of the lessons we learned”
James Han, Motorsports Marketing Manager for Subaru of America, Inc. added, “We’re looking forward to kicking-off a solid 2011 Grand-Am campaign at Daytona. The team performed the bulk of development work last year plus the off-season, and I’m confident that we’re on the right path towards maximizing the performance benefits from our Subaru core technologies in the Subaru symmetrical AWD system and boxer engine. It’s natural for every team on the grid to experience some butterflies at the first race of each season. With our racing debut of the 4-door model of the Subaru WRX STI, this year’s Daytona is no different.”
Subaru Road Racing Team Looks Good for 2011
Yep, you guessed it- this one was buried in my inbox also.
The Subaru Road Racing Team completed a successful test at Homestead Florida on Nov 30 and Dec 1, 2010, fielding a brand new 2011 STI prepared to Grand American Grand Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge specs. The team competes in the Grand Sports Class, against V-8 powered BMW M3’s, Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros and Dodge Challenger. In addition, the class includes Porsche 997’s and Caymens.
23 year old Team drivers Bret Spaude and Andrew Aquilante put the team’s new 2011 Impreza WRX STI through its initial shakedown and then high speed runs, with spectacular success!! “The car ran flawlessly” Aquilante commented “and as we dialed in the handling, it kept getting faster and more competitive” Ultimately, Aquilante set the fastest time of all of the Grand Sports cars, with Spaude and team engineering manager John Heinricy not far behind in their turns behind the wheel..
The new STI is based on the 2011 4 door model.
Welcome to Matt Lennen
2010 was a great year of racing, I was able to break the record for the fastest full weight automatic Supra, and have one of the most consistent cars in every race I’ve been to. I look forward to working with ARP over the 2011 racing season. With their help I will be able to set even more records with my 95 Toyota Supra and plan on breaking class records for NSCRA’s True Street.
Showtime Funny Car
Nigel Hoskinson pops in to tell us-
Just a short note to say that as in previous years the Showtime FC will be on display in the Engineering section on Thursday and Friday (thank you to Tony Tobias) and on the Santa Pod stand in the public section over the weekend.
SEMA-PMS-IMIS-PRI- oh my!
It has been a busy 8 weeks for us, like most folks in the performance industry. While trade shows are an enormous amount of work (and catch-up when we get home), we love seeing our customers on the road. Our booths looked great, in large part thanks to our customers and partners. We love seeing what you do with our product. Thank you for making us look so good.
Professional Motorsport Show, Cologne Germany
IMIS, Indianapolis Indiana
PRI, Orlando FL
Dirt Knights on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
Auto racing is the most popular spectator sport in America, and the hottest spectator sport in the world is hottest in the dirt.
With no less than 20,000 men and women competing nationwide on any given weekend, the open-wheel dirt modified is by far the most popular and most widely-used style of race car circling America’s dirt tracks today.
And on Sunday nights, racing fans around the world will have the best seat in the house – the one in their living room.
The long-awaited debut of Dirt Knights – the dirt track racing docu-drama television series – appeared Sunday night at 6 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Central on the VERSUS cable network, with a relay on thursdays at 4:00pm central, the resonse has been INCREDIBLE!
Dirt Knights is an on-going dramatic series of one-hour programs that will air twice a week for 13 weeks with each episode reaching more than 75 million households.
VERSUS is the fastest growing cable sports network in the nation, is broadcast in high-definition and can be seen nationally on DirecTV (channel 603), Dish Network (channel 151) and regionally on most cable systems, including Mediacom and Time Warner.
For the first time on television, the high-octane lifestyle of the tireless touring titans behind the wheel of a USMTS Modified will be revealed as Dirt Knights captures the on- and off-track excitement at more than two dozen events, including every race during the Hunt for the USMTS National Championship.
As thrilling as these drivers’ lives are on the track, the life they lead off the track is just as intense. They eat dirt and drive hard late into the evening then try to unwind the only way they know how: at 100 mph. An all-night road trip follows and, if they’re lucky, a couple hours of sleep before they reach the next patch of dirt.
For the first time, that high-octane lifestyle will be revealed in high definition.
USMTS drivers Corey Dripps, Ryan Gustin, Al Hejna, Dereck Ramirez, Mike Spaulding and Jon Tesch are the Dirt Knights. While life has taken them in unique directions, all of them have one thing in common: a hunger for the checkered flag. Night after night from town to town, the Knights seek out a life of danger and on-the-edge-thrills.
“This is a project that has been in the works for more than two years now,” said Dripps. “For some, racing is a hobby and for others it’s how we make our living, but either way, we all love and respect this sport. We hope that people will tune in and be entertained, but at the same time we want to convey what the racing life is really all about.”
The life of an American dirt track racer is not one that many could endure, but for the Dirt Knights it’s the only life worth living, and through the Dirt Knights television series on VERSUS, we all get to go along for the wild ride.
Filming of Dirt Knights began in June and continued through September, capturing the action as the drivers battle in the Hunt for the USMTS National Championship.
“We’re going to be an excellent addition to their Sunday night schedule of programming,” said Spaulding. “It’s the perfect time for the millions of dirt track racers and fans to tune in and catch our unique brand of hard-charging, dirt track racing. And it wouldn’t be the Dirt Knights without a little good old-fashioned off-track antics.
“We couldn’t be more excited than to have the opportunity to work with VERSUS,” said Dirt Knights’ Mike Spaulding. “They are the leader in action sports coverage and have done a fantastic job covering the Izod IndyCar Series.”
Visit www.dirtknights.com on the World Wide Web for more information or to view the trailer. Also look for Dirt Knights on Facebook and Twitter.
Brianna Leigh Blintzler Crosses Over
Just wanted to let you know Brianna made her cross over passes in the Jr. Comp car for her Quarter Mile License on Saturday at Speedworld!
Pass #1 / Moderate Pass — 11.1458 @ 117.22 mph
Pass #2 / Full Pass — 9.7287 @ 135.24 mph
Pass #3 / Full Pass — 9.7309 @ 134.33 mph
The air temps were in the mid 40’s to mid 50’s. The track was mediocre at best. Brianna ended up manually shifting the car because of the track conditions.
Kruseman Year End Wrap-Up
Note- this one is another late entry on my part. Blame it on the shows or just me being lame. ARP is proud to be a part of Kruseman Motorsports.
Hairston Year End (late on my part)
Wow, please accept my apology. The chaos of the SEMA/IMIS/PRI shows made this one fall off the radar. Thanks to the Hairston team for keeping us in the loop and best of luck in 2011.
(November 2010) – Clint “The Milkman” Hairston has won the 2010 Pacific Street Car Association Pro Street World Championship driving the Hairston Motorsports and Racing Jerry Bickel built 2007 GTO powered by a Duttweiler Performance 377 CID twin turbocharged small block Chevy.
Hairston finished the season with a 75 point lead over John Scialpi’s beautiful blown 57 Chevy. “John was really coming on strong in the second half of the season but we got the job done based our strong first half of the season performance,” commented Clint. “We are really excited about next year because Duttweiler has just finished our new engine which should be up on power over our old reliable 377 engine. I think 5 second runs will happen in 2011,” Hairston further stated.
Hairston currently holds the Pacific Street Car Association (PSCA) Pro Street National E.T. (6.084) and MPH (239.44) records and the West Coast Hot Rod Association (WCHRA) National Speed record (240.77 mph).
Dirt Knights Premieres 1/2/11 on Versus
Looking for racing on TV? Check this out on Versus. ARP is proud to be a part of this exciting program.
