Subaru-Cobb Racing: What on Earth Happened?
Chapter One: The Bathurst Time Attack
“Oh chute, that’s the wall! Sorry guys!”
It’s been night in Australia for a while now, and a lone car thunders around one of the Seven Wonders of Racing. It’s a purple Subaru, and it’s driver is the American we all have grown to love (or maybe hate), GRM Bandit. Buy what is he doing on track? And why is he driving at night? Well, that’s a good question. There is an answer though, and it may shock you.
“I just wanted some night shots of the car. I don’t see a lot of people racing at night, especially not around normal circuits. So I took the car out and did a few laps. I probably upset some of the other teams in the garage, but the shots were awesome.”
#59 Subaru-Cobb Racing WRX STi of GRM Bandit thundering along the top of Mount Panorama.
But this was just the beginning of the Cobb Racing Team’s woes at the mountain. Early into the night, the #59 had lost a wheel in the brutal downhill of Mount Panorama. This caused a minor accident, but destroyed the front end of the #59 car, damaged the intercooler, and bent the chassis. Luckily for Bandit, he didn’t make the same mistake as NES S4 Round 10 Race 2 and actually brought a spare car. This one however, hadn’t had the proper wrap on. From this test session on, Bandit would be returning to the blue #35 WRX STi.
A few days later, Bandit was able to jump into another time attack session. Instead of ending in tears, the American was able to set a blistering lap time of 2:11.868. After coming into the pits, he gave a statement to a film member.
“That was fun! The car is scaring the living **** outta me coming into T4, and down the mountain, but still mighty fun.”
Chapter Two: Qualifying
“Chute, I gotta go with group one... Oi! You! Gloves, helmet, I gotta qualify!”
Qualifying is never the strong suit of a sprint racer. At least that’s what GRM Bandit would have said racing the #3 Corvette Racing C7.R in Endureon IMSA. The atmosphere was tense in the Subaru-Cobb Racing garage. Teammate Mika was called to Japan to race in the ISGT (congrats on your P1 bud!), and Bandit lost his Ralliart-Cobb Racing driver because of a timing conflict (this is only the third time the American had done this too). Exiting the pits, GRM Bandit was last, and he expected a P5 at best, WaikeCU, CrazyJohn_25, and JoeOfTheFire posting impressive laptimes in FP3.
“I had been posting 2:13’s all morning. Needless to say I thought I was going to be waaay down the order. But I was pleasantly surprised when I clocked in with a 2:12.5 or whatever. That set me up quite well with a P4 start.”
But the race weekend only got better for the lone Subaru.
Chapter Three: The Curse of the Mountain
“Fuh, that’s the wall. Sorry guys, I’ll try to limp it home.”
It’s definitely not the media’s place to spoil anything, but Bandit had a terrible race. He started in P4, jumped up to P2, and dropped back from then on. His pace issue was only compounded by heavy front tire wear and damage obtained from the track walls. After the race, Bandit stormed off into his trailer and refused to give an interview for the media.
All in all, was Subaru-Cobb Racing a failure? We don’t really know. Well just have to wait and see for the next GR.4 event (not Desert Duel, GRM Bandit has already signed with Oreca Team Viper). Until next time, I’m not GRM Bandit and this hasn’t been the NES Articles, but rather this has been A Ghost in the Garage, and I’m going back to the nether. Good night everybody!
