The streets of Long Beach will see the Subaru Impreza WRX STI on April
7, 2006, and no not just cruising the Long Beach streets but running at
top speed on the straights, not far from the Queen Mary, taking tight
corners and a hairpin as Gary Sheehan races around attempting to place
ESX Motorsports' debut in the SCCA SPEED World Challenge on the podium.
Easy Street Motorsports will enter the GT Championship this year, their
first race will be at the Long Beach Grand Prix near the team's home
base in Valencia, California.
"We're fortunate to launch the team at our home race," said team owner
Ali Afshar. "We know the huge potential of the Impreza WRX STI, and we
hope that it will develop into a front runner."
Even though the team will miss the first two venues, they look forward
to their debut race and the rest of the events on the 2006 calendar.
Afshar's team had success with the NHRA drag-racing series with the
Impreza and now he and team manager Marshall Pruett will take on a new
challenge.
"We've seen much success with the Subaru Impreza WRX STI winning 10 NHRA
Championship 'Wally's', and we look forward to taking ESX and Subaru
into battle against the world's best in the SPEED GT series," commented
Afshar.
Long Beach will not be Sheehan's first time at driving the WRX STI, he
competed in the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill last December. With Pruett
overseeing the operation, Sheehan and his co-drivers came home third in
the world's longest endurance race.
"Ali and Easy Street have been phenomenal supporters of my driving, and
I'm glad we can put our combined Subaru experience together to race in
SPEED World Challenge," said Sheehan.
Sheehan's ties to Subaru made him a natural choice as he has competed in
road racing, both NASA and SCCA, driving the marque's brands.
"I raced and won in an all-wheel drive Subaru Impreza WRX in a different
touring car series between 2001-2003, and fell in love with the car,"
added Sheehan. "I can't wait for the first practice session at Long
Beach to begin."
