Monthly Archives: July 2011

Follow A Dream Racing

Permatex/Follow A Dream Team Reaches Finals

Marstons Mills, MA – June 28, 2011- At the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached its first national event final of the season. Driver Todd Veney ran three consecutive 5.67s in the preliminary rounds of eliminations and a 5.69 in the final against second-generation driver Fred Hagen Jr., who got the win with a 5.57.

“It was another solid weekend for our team,” Blake said. “Everybody worked well together to overcome a few obstacles, and it was great to be back in the final round at a national event.” With the runner-up finish, Veney moved back into seventh place in the national Top Alcohol Funny Car standings.

Veney got around old rival John Anderika in the first round of eliminations, Canadian Paul Noakes in the quarterfinals, and, in the semifinals, John Bojec, settling a score from a close loss to Bojec in the Charlotte semifinals earlier this season. “It was disappointing to get to a final and not win it, but we did well to make it that far,” he said. “This was the first of three races in a row, and I’m really looking forward to heading back to Lebanon Valley this weekend.”

Last year, the Permatex/Follow A Dream team won the Lebanon Valley, N.Y., Lucas Oil Series race with low e.t. of all three rounds of eliminations. Following that event, Blake and the team will turn right back around to head west to Chicago for the JEGS Allstars race and the Route 66 Nationals.

Subaru Road Racing Team

Season’s Best Finish for Subaru Road Racing Team

Aquilante, Spaude 6th in Road America GRAND-AM race
 
While an extraordinary number of their competitors made high-risk moves and paid a price for impatience, Subaru Road Racing Team co-drivers Andrew Aquilante and Bret Spaude raced their Subaru Impreza WRX STi with the checkered flag as their goal, and reaped their reward.
 
Aquilante, Chester Springs, Pa., and Spaude, Bushnell, Fla., finished the team’s season’s best sixth place in the two-hour, 30-minute GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series on the venerable 4.048 mile Road America circuit near Elkhart Lake, Wis.
 
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.

Andrew Aquilante returned to the cockpit after a two-race absence. He relieved Spaude behind the wheel one-hour and six minutes into the race, in sixth place, temporarily picked up one position for laps 27- 35, settled into a safe run to the checkered flags while those around crashed with abandon.
 
“We worked all the full-course caution situations correctly, timed our one pit stop correctly, and got consistent race laps from Brett and AJ,” said Joe Aquilante, owner of Phoenix Performance Inc., in Phoenixville, Pa., where the SRRT cars are race-prepared.
 
“This was a very good result for the STI on a long horsepower track.  Both Bret and Andrew kept the car in the Top ten the entire race and the car ran flawlessly.  We are starting to see the results of the development effort and are looking forward to the last three races of the year!”
 
Added James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America, Inc., “I’m very pleased with our team’s result at Road America.”  “After a top 5 qualifying spot, both our WRX STI race car and the team performed well to secure such an encouraging result on a track which emphasizes power and torque.  SRRT is looking forward to taking this momentum forward into the Laguna Seca round of the series.”