14 year old Auston Harris competed in the 2005 25 Hours of Thunderhill, co-driving the #66 ART/EXS/TCD/CandD/JustRacing.com 2005 Subaru WRX STi.entry with Car and Driver Editor-in-Chief Csaba Csere, Dave McEntee (ALMS), Gary Sheehan (Grand-Am), Marco Romani (BMW CCA Club Racing), and Dale Sievwright (USTCC).  

After 25 hours the team brought the car home in third place overall and in class. Auston, who had never driven an all wheel drive car much less a turbo charged car before Friday announced his arrival to the team by setting the teams quickest lap of the day during his 20 laps of familiarization testing. Auston drove a total of four hours in two stints.  The first stint was from 2:30 pm until 5:00 pm on Saturday while the second as from 11:30pm until 1:00am.  

Throughout both stints Auston demonstrated his skill by turning consistently quick lap times.  He turned his fastest race lap during his second stint, in the dark. Car and Driver through their web site, CarAndDriver.com maintained a log of the event with periodic updates. 

A quote from one of the logs reads: “... And it’s also distinguished by a teen-aged driver. Still 10 days away from his 15th birthday and unable to drive on public roads, Auston Harris is nevertheless a veteran racer and one of the quicker of the four who share the car with our man Csere.”

Auston competed in 2003 and 2004 in karting, moving to a CT-Motorsport  Formula Renault 1600 in the Formula TR in 2005 where he captured third place in the 18 race series and rising to the top step of the podium of his last race completed. 

In 2005 Auston also captured the Northern California NASA SpecE30 series championship.  AutoArt  supported Autson’s efforts throughout the year.