Spaude and the Subaru Road Racing Team Score First Top-10 of the Season
P1 Groupe driver Bret Spaude along with co-driver Andrew Aquilante drove their #35 Subaru Impreza WRX STI to a sixth place finish in Grand Sport Class in Friday’s GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Race at the famed Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Spaude and the Subaru Road Racing Team showed up to Road America with a strong car right from the start. After each practice session the #35 was shown in the in the Top-5 of the fastest practice speeds in the Grand Sport Class. When it came time for qualifying Spaude was called upon to put a solid and fast lap on the board and he delivered. The fast lap times continued when the Subaru was clocked fifth quick and would start in row three.
Spaude started the race behind the wheel and ran a consistent stint as was the plan to turn over the car to his co-driver in the Top-10. He kept the car in the Top-10 all of his stint before turning the car over to co-driver Andrew Aquilante who was making his first start back from injury this weekend. Aquilante continued where Spaude left off, and at the end of the race the Subaru Road Racing Team could celebrate their first Top-10 of the season coming across the line in sixth place.
An excited Spaude exudes; “This was a great race for us. We qualified strong in fifth and ran a very clean race to get our season best of sixth. Our car lacked the top speed of the Mustang’s and Camaro’s but through all of the tight twisty stuff the STI all wheel drive stepped up to the plate and kept us moving forward. Our pit strategy was perfect.
We pitted just as a yellow came out and we gained a few spots the easy way, under yellow. All the yellows in the 2nd half of the race helped out quite a bit as well. Andrew drove a great race for his first race back since his accident a few weeks ago. Hopefully other tracks like New Jersey, our home track, and Mid-Ohio will favor our race car.”
“Looking ahead to Laguna has a new level of anticipation! Doing as well as we did at Road America can hopefully translate to a great run again there, and cracking into the Top-5.” Bret continues; “Never having been there in a Subaru will make it a little more interesting, but nothing we can’t handle.”
After Road America, the Subaru Road Racing Team is 17th in the Team Championship Points Standings for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series.
The next scheduled race for Bret will be July 9th on the 2.238-mile, 11-turn, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seka in Salinas, CA. This race can be on SPEED Channel on July 17th at 1pm. All Times Eastern.