Wrapping Up Summer with Subiefest 2015

• September 24, 2015
• Story By
  Byron Yoshida

Subarus as far as the eye can see! This is one event Subie-fanatics wait all year long for and there’s probably no better place for Subiefest to hold their event than Auto Club Speedway (ACS) in Fontana, CA. Heading into its 10th year, Subiefest has garnered the attention of auto enthusiasts, vendors, professional race teams and none other than Subaru North America itself. Try to name another Subaru event that houses an AutoX event along and a track day and a car show... all while keeping it family oriented. What makes Subiefest unique is the ability for auto enthusiasts to see, engage with, and even ride with AutoX or Time Attack racers - the only thing that you might say is missing would be a Rally Cross track. A first for this event, Subaru of North America hopped on board to display their rare STI car collection. 15 of the cars were presented at Global Rally Cross and the remaining 15 were shown at this year’s Subiefest. For those that were able to attend, they were able to see the mythical unicorns, like this right-handed drive 1998 22B STi. With only 400 in the world, this was definitely a site to see! Unicorn #2, more commonly known as the S206 WRX STi NBR Challenge Package with only 300 in the world. To balance out the playing field, this year’s car show competition separated 140 car entries between the vendors and auto enthusiasts. Bringing the star power, Subaru Rally Cross drivers Bucky Lasek and Sverre Isachsen made a guest appearance. SoCal Subaru Secret Society (S4) spearheaded the ever-growing exhaust competition. With its popularity, they divided contenders into two categories; NA and Turbo. Stay tuned for an upcoming video on this crowd-pleaser! The Yimi Sport booth continues to be one of the largest fan attractions at Subiefest. You might have even spotted Mark Jager’s 2006 STi in the latest Fast and Furious 7 during the Race Warz scene. To highlight the new HyperBlue 2016 STi and BRZ, Subaru hosted a Cool Zone with ice cold towels to keep spectators out of the heat. I had the pleasure of catching my ride along with Ken Kasitz and had a blast! The video doesn’t do his driving skills any justice, but as a measure, Ken took overall Enthusiast AWD the day after during Redline Time Attack Round 6. Watch the video below of how that went down (due to time constraints I sped up the full track video, but it added in some fun squeaky voices... enjoy!): Another festival under wraps, what a great way to end summer (catch last year's coverage here)! Congrats to the Subaru community for making this the largest Subiefest ever with more than 8800 spectators!

Check out the gallery below for more Subaru festivities from Subiefest 2015: