Raced my friend again 4 times last night. He now has a full turboback catless exhaust and stage 2 ots cobb map. We did 2 rolls from 1st gear around 10-15 mph and I slowly pulled in 1st and 2nd gear. Once I hit 3rd gear, I jumped 1-1.5 cars and didn't look back. From a launch he had an advantage as we were on a road that had some small rocks and dirt. I didn't use LC and he gained a car on launch but I reeled him in in 3rd gear. Overall, I'm still not impressed with this generation WRX. I think they really need to get a protune or even bigger turbo to really open up their performance.
This is pretty much my exact experience as well.
Raced a '16 Stage II WRX this weekend twice from a roll and one launched.
He said he had Stage II cobb, and he had an exhaust, but not sure if he had anything else.
My gti is Eurodyne Stage II, Intake, TBE, Full Mount kit, RSR Clutch, h&r coilovers, etc.
Dynod a few weekends ago at 285hp/340tq for reference.
Both roll races started at 20-25 mph, 2nd gear. Quickly got about a car length on him by top of 2nd gear. 3rd & 4th easily pulled away. Both races I had about 3 car lengths on him.
Only did 1 launch race but similar result. He jumped out on me off the line with the awd, but caught him in 3rd gear and slowly walked away in 4th. Beat him by a little under a car length.
I wasn't impressed with the WRX either