Subaru Crosstrek Desert Racer earns class win at Baja 500

The father/son team of Neal and Dusty Grabowski persevered through an especially tough Baja course that ensnared even some of the fastest competitors.

With its victory at the legendary Baja race and last year's win at the 2018 Vegas to Reno, the Crawford Performance/Grabowski Brothers Racing programme has now secured Class 5 victories at two of the four major U.S.A/Mexico desert racing events in less than 12 months.

Desert racing is known for being hard on vehicles, and this year's Baja 500 was no exception. The area near the start and finish of the event featured several silt beds, which slowed the early vehicles and led to backups and delays further down the field.

Driver Neal Grabowski pushed hard after clearing the start area, and with other competitors also experiencing problems in the rough conditions, managed to put the Crosstrek back in a strong position.

By the midway point of the 784km event, son Dusty had moved into the driver's seat and the team had built a substantial gap over the other Class 5 teams.

The remainder of the event was not without drama - following a competitor's tyre tracks a mere 24km from the finish, the Desert Racer team ended up taking a wrong turn and had to extract themselves from a ravine - but they were able to cross the finish line first in class after 16 hours of racing.