The team traveled to Willow Springs Raceway, noted as the “ Fastest Road in the West”, to compete in the two-day regional NASA (National Auto Sports Association) event. The decision to do so way two fold. One; to qualify for the renowned Super Lap Battle finale in November Two; dial–in the new WRX STI chassis for high speed scenarios. What better way to accomplish two distinct goals then to have two different drivers, Russ Warr and Tanner Foust.
Saturday was spent with Russ Warr, the local “shoe”, behind the wheel of the Crawford 2008 WRX STI. The focus was to run a fast enough time to qualify the car for Super Lap Battle. Running in the NASA Time Trial TTU class & fighting temperatures as high as 97 degrees and 36mph wind gusts, Russ did what was asked and secured a qualifying spot for the Crawford WRX STI with a lap time of 1:27.0. As it would happen, that time stood for the remainder of the day and earned the Crawford 2008 WRX STI its first official 1st place win.
Not to be out done, X-Games gold medalist, stunt driver and Top Gear TV show host Tanner Foust, finished his Formula Drift competition in Las Vegas at 2:20 am, caught a few winks and then made the 3.5hr drive to make the 8:30am track session on Sunday. After all the set-up changes were said and done, Tanner decided to put a “fun” lap together (see HD Video). “This car drives like it’s on rails”, exclaimed Tanner. “I just had to have some fun with it our there. I can’t wait to drive it at CA Speedway next weekend!” His “fun” lap of 1:27.2 was able to secure another 1st place victory for the 2008 Crawford WRX STI.
Overall, the weekend was a complete success. There was great driving, superb knowledge gained, all objectives were completed, the 2008 Crawford WRX STI earned her first wins, and the 2008 Crawford Blue STI got some decent laps in (1:43.4). What topped it off however was that there were several die hard fans that made the drive to the desert and braved the obscene weather conditions just to check out the new Orange 2008 WRX STI on the track. As excited as they were, it seemed that they were even happier to see the stock 08 Blue STI out there chasing down the Porsches!
Thank you to all the Crawford Skunkworks Partners and Supporters. We eagerly look forward to the remainder of our Time Attack season. Be sure to check us out at the Auto Club Speedway (Formerly CA Speedway) event in Fontana CA (July 19-20) when we run a portion of the Nascar Oval.
Long live the Fraternity of STI !
Images: http://www.crawfordperformance.com/news/db_imgview.cgi?linkID=50
HD Video: http://www.crawfordperformance.com/videos/browse?movieid=89
Crawford Skunkworks Partners
Subaru of America, Inc.
Hankook Tire
TEIN USA
Torco Race Fuels
NGK Spark Plugs
Crawford Skunkworks Supporters
MOTUL
Garrett Turbos
RECARO
JE Pistons
The DriveShaft Shop
Contact:
Chris Escamilla – Crawford Performance
4168 Avenida De La Plata Ste. 116
Oceanside, CA 92056
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
760.631.2927
More about Super Lap Battle
*Super Lap (alternatively known as Tuner Battles or Time Attack) originated in Japan as a proving ground for street tuned cars built at a large budget by highly respected tuning companies. As a result of the quick rise in popularity, tuners developed cars specifically to beat the competition. Drivers are allocated three laps in a final event run: warm-up, timed and cool-down. Ultimately, the competitor setting the quickest timed lap is crowned Champion.
For USA Super Lap, there are four qualifying rounds across the nation. For each class (Unlimited, Limited and Street), the top three fastest cars for the weekend are given entrance into the invite-only November Super Lap Battle finals (9 total from each qualifier).
Qualifying rounds are run with their respective regional NASA chapter and all entrance fees/registration are handled through the NASA website (www.nasaproracing.com). The final event is where the best time attack cars give it their all to see how fast they can go around Buttonwillow's #13CW configuration.
