– Words: Jason Hanif. Photos: MJ Digital.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen many Time Attack cars constantly evolving with advancing development and quicker lap times. Late last month, the boundaries were pushed and records broken once again at the second annual NSW Time Attack event which took place at Wakefield Park Raceway.
We were out on the track to witness record breaking times for day two of racing that began with a foggy start, which quickly cleared for some fast paced action.
NSW Time Attack has a grass-roots concept attached to it, focusing on the racing, drivers and teams solely. Live streaming was available for viewers to follow at home, which we’ve attached a link to at the bottom of this article. For now, here’s a quick recap of what went down at this years event.
One of the above mentioned evolving cars we’ve seen over the years is Nik Kalis’ Evo. It’s now sporting visible exterior changes with rumours that this design change also extends into the under-carriage of the chassis.
Being a 2011 open class World Time Attack Challenge winner, the race is on for Nik Kalis to re-claim his title, a goal we’re sure he’s eager to reach.
Super quick! BYP Racing’s Benny and Jimmy had two Honda’s competing at this years event, this DC2R and their daily S2000. This Integra is the fastest FWD we’ve ever seen yet. During the top ten shoot-out Benny stopped the clocks with a 0:58.990 second lap, landing them a third place outright.
Another quick FWD was JDMYard’s DC5 Integra. Driver, Adam Casmiri along with Zi, Yonas and the crew landed a 0:61.79 at the event. Zi from JDMYard tells us “We had alignment issues on the first day and spent most of the day trying to fix it, we had broken rods and the camber bolts were coming loose. We fixed that issue for the second day but it then blew a turbo gasket.”
“Recording over nineteen laps with 1:02 or lower during the weekend was a true testament to both the quality and craftsmanship of the car”, Zi explains.
The pro class Pulse Racing Evo had set a 0:58.56 second lap time on the Saturday of the event, so come Sunday morning the race against time was on to go one better!
This series two MC Towing RX-7 first caught our attention late last year. It’s a garage build by Matt Cole who had first built it as a drag car. After running a 10.70 down the strip, it was transformed into this Time Attack package.
Matt’s car was getting progressively quicker with each session, which ended with a lap time of 0:61.75. This is a build we’ll be keeping our eyes on!
You’re looking at Australia’s fastest R31 here, also known as ‘Grumble Bee’. A 1:05.237 lap time gave this Skyline the new title, and we expect that there’s more to come. “There was more in the car, the brakes were still not great and the gearbox was refusing to go into fifth gear”, says owner James. “Expect to see even faster times in the near future!”
Back to Nik’s Evo, which set a new personal best around Wakefield Park joining the sub-sixty second club on the Saturday of racing.
The Royal Purple Oil Star’s new time was a blistering 0:59.80! His eyes are on the prize for October’s World Time Attack Challenge.
Issues with the splitter forced Nik and the team to retire early for this years NSW Time Attack. There’s no doubt that they’ll be back out on Wakefield Park at the next chance available.
Here’s another car we’ve seen evolve over the years. Steve Ka’s R34 GT-R has had a few teething issues in the past, but it’s looking extremely quick and competitive this year.
Steve and the team landed a 0:60.60 lap on the day and admit that it’s not the time they were chasing. “It’s a decent time for the conditions in that session. We had an oil fire due to a oil line from the dry sump coming into contact with the exhaust manifold”, says Powertune Australia. They’ll be back at it again this Friday at round two of Nulon Nationals.
This is Owen Cutbush’s classic Celica. Avid T-LD followers will remember this car from last years Showcased. Owen took out the classic class and posted thirty-first overall.
It’s amazing to see how closely competitive these cars have become, with three cars alone breaking into the 58-second category!
In saying that, with World Time Attack Challenge only just over three months away, Time Attack fever is in full effect and there’s no doubt that teams will be excelling development and getting in as much testing time as possible.
Lachlan Granger was on fire (not literally) with a 0:60.07 in the Powerkart Raceway/Notaras Motorsport Evo VIII.
Event co-ordinator, John Boston has been quoted as being thrilled with the level of competition across the weekend. “Everyone had an absolute ball and the times at the front of the field were very fast, but at the same time it was close and competitive”, Boston said.
It’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to get more coverage of this years event, which was due to media restrictions. We’ll be back out at Wakefield Park this Friday for the second round of Nulon Nationals though, so stay tuned for that.
We love Patrick Garvan’s Evolution Motorsport Porsche 944 which was pictured in the opening of this article (in fact, there’s a build article of it on the way). His 944, driven by Paul Mckinnon placed second outright and first outright in its open class with a lap time of 0:58.59.
In the end, it was the Pulse Racing Evo that dominated this years NSW Time Attack. Paul Mckinnon drove the Pulse Evo (alongside the Porsche 944) and set a scorching 0:58.56 second lap on the Saturday of racing, only 0:00.03 seconds quicker than Patrick’s open class Porsche! For a full video stream of NSW Time Attack, click this link.
Great read!