At the 2009 Super Lap Battle Finals held at Buttonwillow International Raceway, Crawford Performance''s franchise driver Tarzan Yamada placed second in the Unlimited AWD Class. In his first Super Lap Battle outing at Buttonwillow during the 2009 season, Yamada catapulted the car to a finish that was 3.38 seconds faster than his first place finish in March of 2009.
Yamada''s Crawford Performance Subaru STI housed a six-speed sequential dog box built by KAPS Transmissions and Crawford''s own 753 HP 2.7 liter Billet engine for this event. The powerhouse was tuned via a plug-in MOTEC engine management system running on E85 fuel. On the short straightaways at Buttonwillow, the car reached top speeds exceeding 140 miles per hour.
Track conditions over the two-day competition on Nov. 10th and 11th were nearly perfect, with Yamada running a 1:46.7 during practice rounds on Tuesday. His practice round performance - on used tires - was so strong it bested the car''s first place finish from earlier in the year.
Wednesday''s finals were met by a very cool morning, so the team opted to forgo the morning practice session and wait for the official Time Attack competitions held later in the day. In the first of the event''s three time attack sessions, Yamada raced to a 1:45.9, putting the Crawford Performance team in second place and just five-tenths behind team Sierra Sierras 1:45.4. With the track warmer for the second session, Yamada was caught up in traffic and only ran a 1:45.7 lap time while team Sierra Sierra had issues as well and only managed a 1:47xx.
In the final session, the competitor directly in front of Yamada caught on fire causing him to slow down. This happened during his flying lap when the tires were in perfect condition for the best possible time. The next lap was run on over heated tires which only netted a lap time of 1:45.5. This time was good enough to secure a second place finish in the unlimited AWD class but it was not a true example of what the car had in it that day.
The nail-biting competition in the Super Lap Battle Finals was tense and exciting all day, with team Sierra Sierra taking the win with a 1:45.0, only a half-second ahead of Tarzan in the Subaru-sponsored Crawford Performance Subaru STI.
The two day racing event turned out to be flawless for the Crawford team. The STI rolled out of the trailer, and with only two shock adjustments Tarzan called it good. That left tire changes and adding fuel as the only necessities for the rest of the two day event.
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