RYAN WINCHESTER SIGNED TO DRIVE WITH POVOLEDO AT AUSTIN

Compass360 Racing's World Challenge star tapped to replace injured David Thilenius

(Mason City, Iowa) -- Thanks to a strong debut season in the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car season in 2012, where he took third in the Driver's Championship and helped to deliver Honda the Manufacturer's crown, Iowa's Ryan Winchester has been engaged by his Compass360 Racing team to drive with Aaron Povoledo at the next Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge round at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. 

Winchester will stand in for regular team driver David Thilenius who was injured in a massive shunt at the Grand-Am season opener at Daytona International Speedway on January 25th. Thilenius sustained six broken ribs after his #74 Pixxcars.com Honda Civic Si hit a retaining wall at over 100mph.

Dave's recovery is progressing very well and he expects to be back in a C360R Honda in April. While the Compass360 team works to build a new #74, Winchester will handle opening driver duties in the #77 Pixxcars.com car.

"We're excited to have Ryan join our Grand-Am squad after his stand-out rookie season in World Challenge," remarked Team Principal Karl Thomson. "He's proved to be a really good shoe, and we're confident he'll qualify up front and deliver the car to Aaron in good shape and in a good position."

Povoledo was similarly optimistic. "From a championship perspective, we need some strong results over the next few races. I saw how well Ryan did in World Challenge and know he'll be a great co-driver while Dave is working to be physically ready to race again."

After a strong start to the CTSCC season which saw three of C360R's Hondas in the top eight at Daytona including a solid third place podium finish for the #75 of Kyle Gimple and Ryan Eversley, while fielding a series-high five cars at a single race, the team looks to have one of the strongest driver and car packages in 2013.

The Austin round of Grand-Am's CSTCC series takes place Feb 28-Mar 2, with the Saturday race being broadcast on SPEED March 9th, 2013 at 4pm. Find all the details at http://www.grand-am.com/events.aspx?eid=3476&sid=2.