There isn’t much to be found in the small town of Byron, Illinois, but if you’re in the mood for lots of power and clouds of white smoke, they’ve got you covered. Just peaking over the treeline in the distance, a nearby nuclear power plant serves as a fitting backdrop for the Byron Dragway. In it’s second year, the Annual Subaru Nationals is well on its way to becoming a major destination on the calendar for Subaru enthusiasts in North America. Cars made the long trek from every corner of the country, representing areas ranging from Texas, Florida, and even Alaska, with a healthy amount of local “talent” to fill in the roster.

1/4 MILE DRAG RACING:

The feature event of the day was heads up drag racing for cash payouts with 4 classes based on turbo setup: Stock Turbo, Stock Location Upgraded, Rotated, and Unlimited.  Also, new to this year, was a 5th class designated for Host/Sponsor Grudge Racing with the only payout coming in the form of bragging rights.

The format made it possible for racers on any budget to participate and set up some exciting competition regardless of power, but still left plenty of opportunity for some of the big dogs to flex their metallic muscle.

CLASS RESULTS:

Stock Turbo – The entry level class ironically offered the largest range of participants with nearly two decades worth of Subaru’s from current chassis VA cars all the way back to the 90’s GC’s.

You would think that for Hector Garcia and his COBB Flex Fuel powered 2016 WRX, setting a personal best of 12.4 at 109 and being handed a nice check for winning first place in the stock turbo class would probably be the best highlights of his Saturday….but you’d be wrong…he also got ENGAGED!!!  #hectoriswinning

Stock Location – Darius Warne in his JrTuned 2011 STi has been a consistent performer in the Subaru drag racing community. He’s made us proud by even setting some records in the past with our COBB 20g turbo. But naturally, tuning cars is all about finding that next thing to do. So Darius has gone even bigger with his stock location turbo setup and drove to first place with a best time of 10.5 at 136mph.

Rotated- If not for the not so subtle window in the hood showing off a nice shiny turbo upgrade, Tom Barbosa’s 06 STi would make for one hell of a sleeper. With OEM BBS wheels, a clean interior, and hardly a sticker to be found, there isn’t much to hint that this pretty Aspen White Hawkeye is capable of running the 1/4 mile in the 9’s!

Unlimited- The unlimited class only brought 4 cars to the table, but the class seemed prime for some of the most intense battles of the day. Despite a somewhat anti-climactic finale, the class delivered some of the fastest runs of the event.

The class ultimately came down to a battle between two GD chassis STi’s, both running COBB Flex Fuel, tuned by JrTuned, and stuffed full of parts and wrench time from IAG and Prime Motoring.

CJ Synak returned as the defending champ with his “V8 Bait” car and seemed well on his way to defending his title after running a 9.1 in qualifying. Later in the afternoon, Nate Wielkiewicz posted a solid 9.7 at 145 to prove he had the chops to make things interesting if CJ wasn’t able to make a clean pass in the finals. When both cars staged at the end of the day, the table was set for a good ole showdown, but sadly, due to some mechanical concerns from higher than normal coolant temps, the “V8 Bait” never left the line and allowed Nate to cruise to a well earned class victory in his first, and maybe only, event of 2017. Not a bad way to end the year!

Host/Sponsor – First and foremost, lets give a special shout out to Jen at JrTuned for organizing and managing a great day of friendly competition!

A mixed bag of drama and success defined the day for most of the title sponsors and shops that helped make the event possible. You may have noticed a trend so far, all four class winners sported custom tuning from JrTuned with support from IAG, Prime Motoring, and P&L Motorsports, with COBB Accessports and our proprietary Flex Fuel kits!

Exhibition Racing – Paul and his team at P&L Motorsports, just a short drive from the strip, wanted to make sure they defended their home turf and did just that by setting the fastest pass of the day. It took a few runs to dial things in but eventually they blistered the pavement, passing the quarter in 8.576 at 168.22.

Also, in spite of some clutch slipping problems preventing aggressive launches. Prime Motoring was still about to set a new FA20 WRX record for 1/4 Mile MPH at 123.38.

IAG Performance, Off-The-Line Perormance, 515 Racing, Zion Designs, and AWD Tuning also teamed up to add lots of depth to the “Host Class” and the vendor area and brought several shop built cars for display and for racing to entertain the crowd with some friendly grudge matches between sessions.

With roughly three times the spectators and racers in 2017, compared to the inaugural event the year before, Subaru Nationals was a great success and looks to continue growing for years to come. If you think you have a quick Subie and missed out this year…we’ll see you in 2018!