Redline Punches Time in the Face

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

It looks like time attack has grown up into a recognized motorsport – of sorts. This is one car and one driver against the clock on a dedicated circuit where the fastest lap wins. Period. The Super Lap Battle finals held at Buttonwillow Raceway Park may the biggest time attack of the season featuring the world’s fastest cars but the Redline Time Attack has grown into the preeminent North American series in this segment. The best part about the RTA is the wide-variety of cars in the field with everything from purpose-built attackers of time to daily drivers. At Willow Springs International Raceway for the second round of the 2009 Redline Time Attack Series record times were falling faster than Bruno could drop his bum on Eminem’s mug. Hit the jump to see the times.


Check the eyes. These eyes have all of the power of a Chuck Norris stare down. Now Billy Johnson may be the nicest guy in person, but in the car he’s an entirely different animal. With some very hot track temps and a somewhat substantial headwind on the big track’s long front straight Billy clicked off a remarkable 1:18.555 in the FX Motorsports NSX, which was good for first in Unlimited RWD as well as first overall. Billy and the team also took the overall win with a 1:45.516 at the first round of the 2009 RTA season on Buttonwillow’s race 13 CW configuration where the NSX suffered mechanical issues. As the FX crew gets this old, er classic NSX dialed we could see a new Buttonwillow record.

Got Aero? This interesting looking Scion tC could only belong to the always interesting Chris Rado. I have to admit that I’m not down with the look of Rado’s reverse Chaparral 2F front wing, which was dubbed the “fwing” by DC Chavez (patent pending). But then what do I know about racecar engineering. Not much apparently as Rado’s 1:22.623 (first in U-FWD and fifth fastest for the day) is absolutely unheard of in a FWD. As the WORLD Racing team develops this car Rado should have no problem dismantling John Heinricy’s long-standing FWD Buttonwillow record of 1:51.318 in a Cobalt SS.

Last season the C-West/BC S2000 ran strong throughout the year. This season the cute little carbon JDM AP1 has been afflicted with head gasket issues. In two consecutive time attack weekends at Willow Springs driver Tyler McQuarrie ran a grand total of 5 too-hot-for-the-F20 laps. At Redline Tyler’s first lap out of the box netted a 1:22 for the fastest lap of the day and a new record. And in the first round on Sunday in only his second lap of the weekend Tyler clicked off a 1:20.838, which at the time bettered his own TA record until Billy Johnson recorded a 1:20.1 in the same session before taking it up another notch with the 1:18. If the team can keep the motor together long enough to give Tyler more than one lap at a time I know this car is capable of even quicker times.

This Evo8 from Sierra Sierra Enterprises is one of the most sophisticated time attackers this side of the HKS CT230R (ironically also a Evo VIII). SSE is flush with Silicon Valley cheddar and the team comes from a Formula Atlantic background. Money plus open wheel expertise equals great success. The build on this car was the talk of the weekend. How sick is it? I have no idea, but my boy Eric Hsu does, since he helped build this beast. With very little test time Formula Atlantic driver Jonathan Bomarito put the car on top of the U-AWD standings with a 1:20.454. Other than the massive expense poured into the build the biggest difference between the SSE Evo and FX NSX is the development time. This Evo is green and not in a tree-hugging patchouli-smelling way. This car will soon be scrapping with the NSX for time attack supremacy.

Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada is the timeless attacker of time. He’s been in this game for twenty years and while you may not dig his new flat iron coif dig this – Tarzan held the first time attack record in North America at Buttonwillow in the infamous Signal Auto R34 GT-R. Then he topped himself with a 1:48.906 in the Sun Auto Cyber Evo. Most recently he came within tenths of Nobuteru NOB Taniguchi’s HKS CT230R Evo record with a 1:44.372 in his Team Tarzan Subaru Impreza WRX. While that Cusco-liveried 2007 WRX languishes in a Tomei warehouse in Southern California Tarzan piloted the Crawford Performance 2009 STI. Last season saw Tanner Foust split drives with Tarzan in this car. For 2009 the car is still under development and the team went green (in the most PC-way) with a switch to E85 – much like Ken Block’s new Gymkhana joint. The Big E boost may have helped the original monkey man drive to a respectable second in U-AWD with a 1:22.097. Crawford and Tarzan should be able to squeeze much more from this new Focus, er Subaru in the coming events.

I actually saw this Fontana Nissan 350Z a couple years ago when Jackson Stewart was building it for Grand Am GS competition. Since that time the meticulously fabricated chassis has been enlisted into Time Attack duty. The engine, which was heavily mandated for Grand Am rules, was tossed in favor of a Cosworth-built 3.8 liter lump. This was the only car at Willow running sub 1:24s with a naturally aspirated set-up. Mike Cronin Jr. took the Z to a 1:23.846 for third in U-RWD.

The GST Impreza is a miracle of home-grown engineering. Gary Sheehan managed to net a 1:23.141 for a third in U-AWD. On another note it’s nice to see GST get some help in the sponsorship department from Hankook Tire. In the tuning world – much like drifting – there’s a growing arms race for tire domination. However, the battle field is not a uniform one. The Super Lap rules dictate that the cars must run on DOT-approved tires – R-compounds being the selection of choice in the top ranks. But Redline allows for slicks, which could make for the inclusion of the dreaded asterisk on the time attack record books. From what I can tell the SSE Evo, C-West S2000, Crawford STI, WORLD Racing tC, and GST Impreza are on R-compound Ventus Z214s while the FX NSX runs on Yokohama Advan A005 slicks. During it’s record run the HKS CT230R Evo was fitted with Yokohama Advan A048 R-compound rubber. It will be interesting to see how the forum fanboys debate the differential times between slicks and R-compounds and how the teams on slicks deal with the change in mechanical grip when forced to run DOT rubber.

Rado’s fwing (DC Chavez TM) may not crack under pressure but it’s always great to see records get broken. As the development continues with this new crop of cars the rest of Redline Time Attack season looks to rewrite the books and the Super Lap Battle finals should also see some new kings crowned. I just hope the Source Interlinkers don’t ban me from Buttonwillow this year (a clerical error, I’m sure). And if you want your pictures to move with less words here are a couple of videos from the event. One from StreetFire and another from Redline. Enjoy.