APR does it again, Baas and Hurley finally take a win

The same weekend that I was busy slangin' parts at Waterfest 15, the guys from the APR Motorsport team were heading into battle in the Koni Challenge Street Tuner class at Barber Motorsports Park in their home state of Alabama. The team was on a streak, with the 181 picking up wins at the previous two rounds at Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio, but the 171 car had yet to put a notch in the old gun barrel, despite being in prime postion more than once.

All that was finally to change at Barber, with Ian Baas holding off the hard-charging 111 Subaru Legacy of Andrew Aquilante during the first half of the race, and Josh Hurley finishing up strong, finally scoring a victory. I had a chance to speak with Baas at Waterfest, the very next day after his win, as he had flown up with Stephen from APR to check out the festivities. He was obviously enthused, and said he really had to work to hold off the Subaru for the first half of the race. Apparently the track really did not suit the APR Mk5 GTI, as the Glen and Mid-Ohio did, and it was a hard-fought, and much deserved (in my opinion) victory.

There are three races left to the season, and with the last three going to APR, you can bet that Grand-Am (the sanctioning body for the Koni Challenge) will impose some penalties to try and even things out between the GTI's and the rest of the field. More weight? Probably, although Grand-Am monitors boost response on the engines very closely, and I wouldn't be surprised if they took a pound or two of boost instead. Either way, with the success that APR has finally found for Volkswagen and themselves in the series, you can bet that sheer optimism and determination might be enough to carry them through to at least one more win this year.

Me personally, I can't wait to see the new Mk6 GTI race cars...I'd assume that VW has already delivered a few down to Auburn to get a jump on the 2010 season right?

_WRS