[News] Autosport Development's Dane Moxlow finished first in SCCA amateur race debut at Mid-Ohio

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Contact:
Karin Risko, Crystal Bay Communications
karinrisko@crystalbaycommunications.com
734 642-5712

Autosport Development’s Dane Moxlow finished first in
SCCA race debut at Mid-Ohio

Trenton, MI – July 12, 2006 – The weekend of July 1st
and 2nd was significant for Grosse Ile’s Dane Moxlow.
In addition to celebrating his 18th birthday, Moxlow
entered his first two Sports Car Club of America
(SCCA) amateur auto races and celebrated his first
win. 
Moxlow began the weekend piloting the Saker SVS GTA in
the A Sport Racer (ASR) class. Sakers are Subaru
powered sports racers similar to Daytona Prototypes.
Originally designed in New Zealand, Sakers are custom
built in the United States at Autosport Development’s
Trenton, Michigan facility. The sports racers weigh
less than 1700 pounds and can exceed 400 hp. 
During the second lap of qualifying, a driveline
malfunction left the Saker without any drive power,
forcing Moxlow to quit the race. His luck improved in
the afternoon when he took the No. 20 Trenton
Forging/PR Machine Works 2006 Pontiac GTO on track for
the Improved Touring Everything (ITE) series.
While qualifying for the afternoon’s race, the GTO
proved to be the fastest car in that group on track.
In fact, the car was so fast that the chief steward
wanted to speak with Moxlow and advise him to be
careful when passing the slower cars and to drive a
safe race. The chief steward expected Moxlow to be a
much older and experienced driver. 
“You should’ve seen the look in his eyes when he came
up and met Dane who just turned 18 that day,” said
Chris Trapp, AD crew chief. “It was great!”
Moxlow earned his first pole position and looked
forward to a great race.
“I really don’t know who was more nervous,” said
Trapp. “Dane, the crew or his mother and father!” 
Unfortunately, before the race, Trapp forgot to inform
Moxlow that he needed to go directly out onto the
track on the first lap instead of up pit lane as he
did on test days and during qualifying.
Moxlow was penalized for driving up pit lane and had
to go from starting in the pole position to starting
last or 36th place. The setback didn’t deter Moxlow,
and he drove hard.  After 11 laps, he passed every car
and took the lead.  The race ended with Moxlow passing
ten cars once, 12 cars twice and six cars three times.

“Once again Dane showed a great ability in his
judgment on track and a very high level of maturity
for someone that just had his first race in one of the
most powerful North American road racing cars,” said
Trapp. 
“His driving skills were talked about not only by
other competitors, but also by SCCA officials. We look
forward to having Dane drive again, and I don’t
believe it will be that far away.”

Autosport Development competes in the SPEED World
Challenge GT Series recently named “the most
competitive road racing series in the world” by Racer
magazine. In 2005, driver Stu Hayner, finished the
season seventh in points, a huge feat considering the
team had no factory support from any major automotive
manufacturers. As the first team to develop GTO road
racers, Autosport Development’s expertise is in demand
by other teams now fielding these cars. The race shop
is also involved in prototype and racecar development,
preparation, fabrication, assembly, carbon fiber work
as well as automotive manufacturing.  For more
information, visit www.autosportdevelopment.com. 

The Sports Car Club of America is a 60,000-member
not-for-profit motorsports organization featuring over
2,000 amateur and professional motor sports events
each year. True grassroots motor sports participation
remains the backbone of the club as 110 regional
chapters conduct the vast majority of the club's
events. For more information, visit www.scca.com.

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