Time Attack 2006 Finals

Karl Troy's '91 Porsche 944 S2 - 1:42.326

Going back to the start of this wonderful country, different regions were constantly at battle - North vs South, East vs West - and while these battles may have started with important issues, they've since grown to epic proportions (bigger even than Biggie vs Tupac!). That's right, folks. We're talking Time Attack. Who's faster, the East Coast or the West Coast?

Seeing as we're a geocentric people, we always assume the things close to us are better. And since we spend most of our time on the West Coast, we sometimes feel our cars are faster, our food is better and our girls are prettier. And while we still think the latter two are true, the first comment couldn't be further from the truth.

At our inaugural Time Attack East Coast Finals at Road Atlanta on August 14, a eurotuner entry posted the fastest lap for the first time ever! An Unlimited FR/MR Class Porsche 997 driven by Cory Friedman won the event, beating out a fully-prepped JIC Unlimited FR/MR Nissan S15 Silvia representing our sister magazine Super Street and driven by Tanner Foust, fresh from his rally performance at X Games.

Another hard-fought battle was between Julian Lingerfelt in his '01 BMW M3 and Rob Morrison in his '93 NSX in the Limited FR/MR class. The M3 had nothing more than JIC Cross coilovers, Shark Injector software and some sticky tires, but it was able to come within 1.4sec of Rob's 'caged and supercharged NSX that put over 500hp to the wheels.

For those who assume it takes a lot to run in Time Attack, you need to look at Raffaello Ambrvero. He's 18 years old, drives a '87 Porsche 924S on a shoestring budget, but managed to run a respectable 1:56.182 lap.

Of course, all of these fast times couldn't be achieved without Jim Pantas and the folks at NASA who run our timing and on-track activities. Anybody in the Atlanta area interested in becoming the next Time Attack champion should sign up for NASA's regular events to get some track time before we return next year.

Not only did a European car win, but we managed to take six of the top 10 fastest lap times as well. To say we dominated is an understatement. And now that we've had a few paragraphs to celebrate our first win over our rice-burning competition, it's time to return to the East vs West debate.

How is it possible that on their first attempt, our East Coast readers are able to pull off a win, while our West Coast tuners are still getting spanked by Super Street's mutated 'fast 'n furious' commuter cars? Only time will tell, but the good news is our Time Attack West Coast finals have yet to happen and there are some pretty impressive entries from our sponsors Yokohama, Falken, Toyo, Maxxis, Tein and JIC, to name a few.

Cory Friedman's '06 997 GT3 Cup car - 1:30.071, Unlimited FR/MR and Overall Winner	Heikki Rinta-Koski's '05 CMC 7 - 1:43.476 in his Lotus 7 replica with a 1.8 Miata motor	Sean Israel's '97 BMW M3 - 1:43.888
Julian Lingerfelt's '01 BMW M3 - 1:39.885, second place Limited FR/MR	Michael Moore (not the movie director) and his '79 911 - 1:42.926	Michael Moore (yes, he had two cars, and no, still not the movie director), this time with a '99 Porsche Carrera - 1:48.497