Subaru Motorsports USA driver Scott Speed has set a new overall record on the Mount Washington Auto Road, winning the 2026 Paul Giblin Memorial Climb to the Clouds in the Subaru WRX: Project Midnight with a 5:11.982 run. The time beats Travis Pastrana’s previous benchmark of 5:28.67 from 2021, set in the 862-horsepower Airslayer STI.

Pastrana’s run came on a mixed-surface version of the 7.6-mile course. The Mount Washington Auto Road is now fully paved, posing a different challenge and suiting Project Midnight’s tarmac-focused hillclimb setup. According to Subaru Motorsports USA, Speed cut the existing record by 16.688 seconds in Sunday’s decisive run.

Fog, One Shot, New Record

Teams spent Friday and Saturday making half-course practice runs before lining up for two full attempts on Sunday. As competitors prepared, thick fog rolled over the upper mountain, forcing organizers to shorten the morning run and move the finish to mid-mountain, leaving only the afternoon for a full-course time.

Speed’s full run in the afternoon was his first complete ascent of the entire road all weekend, with the record resting on a single clean climb. “After I saw the time, it feels awesome!” Speed said. “I’m glad to be able to throw down a time that was so much faster than any of us expected…This was a big mental challenge for me.”

He underlined how tight the weather window was for the attempt. “With us going last, you can wait until it looks clear at the top and it still might not matter, because it takes five minutes to get there,” Speed added. “This was the only time I ran the full mountain this weekend, and a lot of things had to go right.”

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Source: Subaru

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Project Midnight And Its Tire Setup

The record continues the run of Subaru specials at Climb to the Clouds, with Subaru Motorsports USA now holding the overall mark in each of its five appearances at the event. Pastrana’s Airslayer STI previously headlined the program, including its appearance at Goodwood and in Gymkhana-style video projects built around his car.

Project Midnight itself debuted at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Built by Vermont SportsCar, the Subaru WRX-based race car combines extreme weight reduction, advanced aerodynamics, and a highly developed SUBARU BOXER engine, paired with Speed’s background in Formula One, rallycross, and time-attack competition. Subaru Motorsports USA describes it as the quickest and fastest WRX race car the team has constructed.

A major element in the record run was the tire package from Yokohama Tire. The company developed bespoke options for this attempt, and Speed selected the Yokohama ADVAN A005 slick, which uses a compound from Yokohama’s road-racing slick platform. The tires are designed to reach peak grip quickly and maintain it over the short, intense climb, prioritizing maximum grip and confidence over wear on the 7.6-mile ascent.

Motor1’s Take: Subaru’s WRX Project Midnight, Speed’s blend of circuit and rallycraft, and Yokohama’s quick-warming ADVAN A005 slicks lined up with a tiny weather window to deliver 5:11.982 on the fully paved Mount Washington course, so the next move is on rival teams and tire makers who want a piece of this record.