Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana blasted past the former record time of teammate David Higgins to a blazing 5:44.72 run up Mount Washington last weekend. After setting his previous record in 2011, viewers begged to see the in-car video of his full run. Red Bull delivered. This time, Subaru has released an in-car video of his entire record-breaking run up the New Hampshire mountain just days after it happened.
The entire event seemed to belong to Pastrana this year. He was the fastest in practice on day one, which took place on the top half of the auto road, as well as on day two on the bottom half of the road. He was in good spirits when we spoke with him the night before when he said he would set the new record. It was all but certain that Subaru would break through the six-minute barrier set by their driver, David Higgins, in 2014, with a run of 6:09.09. This year, Subaru's cars had nearly twice as much horsepower, thanks to the Global Rallycross-based engine, than what the team's stage rally cars usually have.
The only question was whether it would be Pastrana or Higgins setting the new record. Sadly, we don't know how Higgins would have done on a full run up the mountain since he crashed at the Cragway turn during his first run and was out of the event.
Pastrana broke Higgins' record on his first run with a 5:46.28, but that record would only stand for a matter of hours until he broke it again on his second run. Interestingly, he clocked in at "only" 110 miles per hour at the speed trap on this run, as opposed to 115 MPH during his first run. Higgins hit the trap at 116 MPH on his first run before crashing. As amazing as Pastrana's accomplishment is, his lower trap speed shows that there's still some room for improvement on his already fast time. It would also be interesting to see what Higgins could do with a full run in his identical 600-horsepower Subaru. He has already vowed to return to Mt. Washington for the 2020 event to find out.