The victory marks the fifth consecutive record-breaking appearance for Subaru Motorsports USA at the historic New Hampshire event. While the team had spent the weekend acclimating to the 7.6-mile course, Sunday’s unpredictable mountain weather forced a high-stakes finale. Thick fog at the summit compelled organizers to truncate morning runs, leaving the afternoon ascent as the only window for drivers to secure a full-course time. Speed capitalized on the opening, leveraging the car’s aggressive aerodynamics and a bespoke set of Yokohama ADVAN A005 slick tires designed specifically for the climb’s intense, short-burst requirements.
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Scott Speed Shatters Mount Washington Hillclimb Record in Project Midnight
Scott Speed has rewritten the record books at the 2026 Paul Giblin Memorial Climb to the Clouds, piloting the specialized Subaru WRX: Project Midnight to the summit in 5:11.982. The blistering run shaved nearly 17 seconds off the previous benchmark, cementing a dominant performance on the fully-paved Mount Washington Auto Road.
Project Midnight, a lightweight machine engineered by Vermont SportsCar, proved perfectly suited to the transition from the mixed-surface conditions that defined previous records to the current paved layout. Speed, drawing on his background in Formula One and rallycross, described the run as a significant mental test, noting that the combination of variable visibility and the sheer speed of the ascent left little room for error. This performance effectively eclipses the 5:28.67 record set by Travis Pastrana in 2021, further establishing the Project Midnight WRX as the fastest iteration of the platform ever built by the manufacturer.
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