This past weekend Crawford Performance and their 2008 WRX STI, piloted by drivers Tanner Foust and Russ Warr, earned a spot in the Super Lap Battle Finale ( November 11th).  Despite excessively high ambient temperatures and the even hotter Mojave Desert winds, the Skunkworks team was also able to pull off two 1st place wins at the Willow Springs Raceway event.

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

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