Subaru Motorsports USA driver Scott Speed set a new overall record at the 2026 Paul Giblin Memorial Climb to the Clouds last month, taking victory in the Subaru WRX: Project Midnight with a time of 5:11.982 on the Mount Washington Auto Road.
The record adds another chapter to Subaru Motorsports USA’s history on North America’s oldest hillclimb, where Travis Pastrana set the previous overall benchmark of 5:28.67 in 2021 at the wheel of the 862-hp Airslayer STI. Where that run came on a mixed-surface version of the 7.6-mile course, the now fully paved Mount Washington Auto Road presented a different challenge—one ideally suited to Project Midnight’s focused tarmac-hillclimb design, according to a press release.
Speed and the Subaru Motorsports USA crew built toward the record throughout the weekend. Following two days of half-course runs on Friday and Saturday, competitors were set for two full runs up the mountain on Sunday. However, as teams prepared for their first runs, a thick fog engulfed the upper mountain.
Organizers made the call to shorten the first run and move the finish to mid-mountain, leaving the afternoon ascent as the field’s sole opportunity to record a full-course time, the release notes. When the opportunity came, Speed delivered, using Project Midnight’s purpose-built combination of power, aerodynamics and grip to claim the overall victory and lower the record 16.688 seconds.
“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. It was so exciting. I pumped my fist at the finish line, and I don’t normally do that.”
Team Effort
The record-breaking run was powered in part by partner Yokohama Tire, which developed bespoke tire options specifically for Project Midnight’s Mount Washington record attempt. Speed selected the Yokohama ADVAN A005 slick for the event, which uses a compound built from the company’s road-racing slick platform. With wear less of a concern on the relatively short 7.6-mile run, the focus was on immediate response, confidence and maximum grip from launch to summit, according to the release.
That the run came in uncertain weather only added to the drama.
“With us going last, you can wait until it looks clear at the top and it still might not matter, because it takes 5 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. Huge thanks to Subaru, everyone at Mount Washington for putting on this event, and obviously our partner Yokohama for bringing a special tire for us.”
The result continued Project Midnight’s streak as one of Subaru Motorsports USA’s most specialized performance machines. Debuting at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Vermont SportsCar-built Subaru WRX was created as the quickest and fastest WRX race car ever built by Subaru Motorsports USA.
With Speed’s run, Subaru Motorsports USA continued its recent string of quality runs at Climb to the Clouds, setting the overall record for the fifth time in five appearances.
