Tuner Racing - Time Attack Finals! - Events Time Attack

Yes, we did it! All those JDM junkies are curling up in bed having nightmares about our German speed demons lapping them on the track. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but for Time Attack '06 organized by et and our li'l sis magazine Super Street, we stole the show with three class wins, including Overall Champion.

For the third consecutive year, we visited Buttonwillow Raceway north of Los Angeles. The three-mile course offers a variety of hairpin turns and long straight-aways for drivers of all types. The venue has remained constant so that times might be compared year after year.

If you haven't heard of Time Attack before that's understandable because it's not a European-practiced event. The idea started in Japan where you take a street-tuned car with DOT tires and race it around a track. The goal is to achieve the fastest lap time possible - a bit like race qualifying. Time Attack is only judged on the best lap time, so a competitor need go all out only once.

Because the competition is diverse - cars from Nissan Skylines to Acura Integras to BMW M3s are involved - six classes were created to level the playing field. It starts with two main classes: Limited and Unlimited. Limited cars must be legally registered with license tags. They must also run DOT tires with a UTQG rating of over 100. Anything lower is considered slicks and would bump them into the Unlimited group. The Unlimited class basically has no rules, except the car can't have a pushrod engine larger than a flat-six. From these two main groups, the cars are further divided into Front, Rear and All-Wheel Drive class.

With only ten Euros competing in a field of 70 cars, the odds were against us. Yet despite the numbers, three of our cars won their class, which included GMG Racing's World Challenge GT Cup Porsche 996 GT3, GMG Racing's Porsche GT2 and 034 Motorsport's World Challenge Mk4 Jetta.

Driver James Sofronas of GMG Racing ventured to Time Attack fresh after finishing the World Challenge GT Series in eighth place - Time Attack isn't a normal event for the team but they wanted to support the growth of road racing.

James ran a lap in the GT3 and nearly beat the course record. His efforts clinched the fastest time of the day and also won the Unlimited Rear-Wheel Drive class.

At the end of the day, one of the Japanese tuners offered GMG Racing $1000 to go out again. Apparently, the team claimed its car was still being tuned and was running low boost settings during the competition. Having already packed up and won the event, GMG rightly declined the offer.

Posting the second win for et was GMG again. This time the tuner ran its '03 Porsche GT2 project car. Tuned as a weekend warrior, the engine features custom KKK turbochargers, GIAC software, GMG intake and exhaust manifolds and a Cargraphic exhaust system. To improve its drivability, it uses Moton Club Sport adjustable dampers, Eibach springs and magnesium wheels. To our amazement, the car came out on the top in the Limited Rear-Wheel Drive class, defeating a Honda S2000 by 3sec! James Sofronas was the wheelman, earning him a second award at the event.

Claiming the third et victory was 034 Motorsport's Christian Miller and his World Challenge Mk4 Jetta (see p66).He ousted his nearest opponent by just 0.001sec. "It was nice to be one of the bigger fish in the pond," he admitted."The win at Time Attack was a wonderful feeling and a great end to the season, especially since Hasport beat me last year with its supercharged K24 Acura Integra. But this year was a different story..."

Due to the unexpected Euro success, the whiny import guys have been stirring trouble and some disappointing news has reached us. It appears that any racecar recognized by a motorsport sanctioning body will be prevented from competing - so no more World Challenge cars, such as our Porsche and Jetta. Having taken second best for the last two years, we're astonished at the decisions. But it appears the rules are being changed because we beat them at their own game.

It's argued that the expensive racecars discourage people from entering their tuned road cars. However, we insist that the time and money spent on 800hp Mitsubishi Evos and 1000hp Skylines is the same as a team might spend for World Challenge.

Nonetheless, with three wins in the bag the Euro community has succeeded at Time Attack '06, a significant improvement from the previous two years. We're glad to be back on track and showing the motorsport community we are fast and first.

If you haven't already, pop open a cold one and celebrate. Cheers to GMG Racing and 034 Motorsport!

For complete results and more photos of crying imports, visit www.eurotuner.com.