SUBARU ROAD RACING TEAM 2007 CAMPAIGN

IN THE LEGACY 2.5 GT SPEC.B, SUBARU HAS ONE OF THE MOST COMPETENT SPORTS SEDANS IN THE WORLD AND DECIDED TO SHOW WHAT IT COULD DO ON ROAD-RACING TRACKS.

When we last checked in with the Subaru Road Racing Team, it had just completed 2006 by winning the SCCA Touring 2 Championship for the second year in a row and debuted a Legacy 2.5 GT wagon in the 2006 Grand Am Cup Series. Where has SRRT gone in 2007?

Back to the track! But this year the team campaigns the Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B sedan, with its turbocharged 2.5-liter Boxer engine, SI-DRIVE, and 6-speed manual transmission. The spec.B also has considerable preparation by the team that put together back-to-back championships in the SCCA T2 series in 2005 and 2006 with Impreza WRX STIs. Now it has made the move to the Legacy platform.

The spec.B is an impressive street machine, and too often overlooked by enthusiasts. To anyone seeking power, control, handling – everything you’d want in a fun-to-drive automobile – this sports sedan is special.

That’s what the team out of the ICY Racing/Phoenix Engineering stables thought. It had proven what the WRX STI could do, and the team wanted another challenge. The concept of campaigning the Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B filled that need.

Today, the team takes to the field in the ST Class of the Grand-Am Koni Challenge Series (replacing last year’s Grand Am Cup) with a pair of Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B racecars.

PREPARATION

The cars competing in the ST Class are not stock cars (although far more stock than another well-known series’ “stock cars”). The Grand-Am sanctioning body allows varying degrees of modifications for each make, having to do with weight and standard engine output.

For the Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B, the team was able to do a significant amount of preparation. The body was stripped of undercoating and other sealants, leaving it bare, painted metal. It was like a body-in-white. The roof with its moonroof was replaced by a full metal one, for safety reasons.

Inside, any unnecessary items such as seats, carpeting, headliner, door panels, and trim were ripped out and replaced by a racing seat and full roll cage. Many of the components under the dashboard were removed, too.

Under the hood, the engine had to remain stock, with factory turbocharger and other parts of the air intake system. Even the exhaust was regulated to be stock – so the cars don’t even sound like racecars. In some ways, they’re too quiet.

Certain chassis systems were allowed to be upgraded, including shocks and some of the other suspension components.

All this work took place over six months at the team’s home base in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. At the beginning of the year, SRRT moved into a brand-new 5,000-square foot building on the premises, and it has access to Phoenix Engineering’s alignment equipment and 4-wheel dynamometer.

TESTING

By mid-March, the team was ready to test the two new spec.B racecars. Although the weather wasn’t perfect for the two test days at BeaveRun Motorsports Complex in western Pennsylvania, the team learned enough to feel confident about the cars’ competitiveness. They were ready for the first of six Koni Challenge races in which the team was to compete for 2007 – Homestead-Miami Speedway in mid-April.

Testing pointed to a number of areas in the cars requiring attention prior to the first race, including tires, suspension settings, control units, fuel economy, and brakes. All in all, team members were elated about the cars.

THE TEAM

All three Subaru Road Racing Team drivers from 2006 were ready to go for 2007. These included team principal Dave Rosenblum, 2005 and 2006 SCCA T2 champion Chuck Hemmingson, and 2005 and 2006 SCCA T2 runner-up Kristian Skavnes.

However, having two racecars requires fielding two drivers each for Grand-Am road racing. Hemmingson and Skavnes were to pair off in car #111, and Rosenblum tapped his friend Le Mans and prototype sportscar champion Davey Jones to co-drive #141. Jones also joined the other three drivers for testing at BeaveRun.

These racers have decades of experience and racing knowledge between them. The four men give Subaru every opportunity for success throughout the season.

“I posed the challenge to the team last year to finish each race in the top 10,” said James Han from SOA, “and they came through. After a partial season under our belts, I’m confident in the resources we have in place and competitiveness of the Legacy platform to perform even better this year.”

SEASON UPDATE

At the time of releasing this issue to the printer, SRRT has run in three races in the Koni Challenge season – Homestead-Miami (Florida, April 13-15), Laguna Seca (California, May 16-18), and Lime Rock (Connecticut, May 25-26).

HOMESTEAD-MIAMI

The team was impressive in its debut of the Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B sedans. Hemmingson drove a pole-winning qualifying session in #111, then led the first half-hour of the race. Timing for caution periods and mandatory driver changes threw off the positioning of the two cars. Still, they both finished in the top 10 – Hemmingson/Skavnes with a 6th in #111 and Rosenblum/Jones with an 8th in #141.
Results: #111 – 6th; #141 – 8th

LAGUNA SECA

Quick in practice, the cars qualified lower on the grid than expected. Hemmingson and Rosenblum drove to the front of the pack before changing drivers. However, hopes for a podium were dashed by a flat tire suffered by Kristian Skavnes in #111 and a stop-and-go penalty assessed on #141.

Even so, Davy Jones’ run to 4th place captured everyone’s attention. Jones brought the #141 Legacy spec.B to within just a couple car lengths of a podium finish. In doing so, he set fastest race lap and broke the existing lap record for ST Class as well. In the end, #141 finished 4th and #111 finished 11th.
Results: #141 – 4th; #111 – 11th

LIME ROCK

A year after entering the Grand Am series, Subaru scored its first victory in the Memorial Day weekend event at Lime Rock Park. After qualifying 5th and 21st, all four drivers drove a hard race that paid off. Despite both of its drivers being bumped off the track and dodging fluids from blown engines in other cars, #141 climbed to 12th by end of race. Hemmingson/Skavnes had better fortune, however, with Hemmingson taking #111 to 4th prior to driver change, and Skavnes taking the lead with 15 minutes to go – setting fast race lap in the process.
Results: #111 – 1st; #141 – 12th

THE REST OF THE SEASON

Tune in – literally. By the time you read this, other races on the SRRT schedule will be history. But you can check out what happened there by going to the new Drive Performance Web site (www.driveperformance.subaru.com) and consulting the editor’s blog. It will keep you current, and the site will link you to others for more team information!