Yesterday you saw a few shots from last weekend's Redline Time Attack season opener at Buttonwillow Raceway, but I'm sure a lot of you were curious about the results from the first big US time attack competition of 2009.
Shall we have a look?
Before we get started, a quick refresher of the classes is in order.
Like most time attack series around the world, Redline has three main classes which are determined by the level of car modification. As it's name suggests, the street class consists of lightly modified cars, many of which are driven to and from the events. Next up is the modified class which allows for more changes, and lastly the unlimited class, which is home to heavily modified entries like the BC C-West S2000. From there, the cars are further divided by drivetrain layout (AWD, rear drive, or front drive).
First up, the results from the street class-
In the Street front wheel-drive class, the fastest car was this turbocharged Mazda3 driven by Dino Kadokawa. It's best lap time was a 2:00.552, which is an impressive time for a street-going front wheel driver. The Bergenholtz brothers who you've read about often here on Speedhunters, were involved with this new entry for '09.
The Street Class rear-drive champion was Manly Kao in this tough looking Lotus Elise with a best time of 1:58.872. A very nice showing for the little Elise in a class that's dominated by always-dangerous Honda S2000's.
The Street AWD winner was this Evo8 driven by Jeremy Toye. It's lap time of 1:58.651 was also enough to beat out the Elise by a few tenths for the overall victory in the Street Class. You can't really call an Evo with a GT wing a "sleeper", but this car runs MUCH faster than its looks would suggest…
Now moving on to the Modified Class-
The Modified front-drive winner was the Sportcar Motion EG Civic, with a scorching lap time of 1:55.809. Never underestimate the capability of a well-tuned Civic in the hands of a talented driver…
At the top of the Modified rear-drive class was the Alvaka 949 Racing C5 Corvette Z06, driven by Charles Ng. Charles was able to pilot the thundering 'Vette to a best lap time of 1:56.421.
The Modified AWD winner was Ryan Gates in the Evo X that I mentioned in yesterday's post. This car is without a doubt one of the fastest Evo X's in the United States, and Ryan proved it by running a 1:55.221 – fast enough to claim the overall Modified Class title for this event.
Now to wrap up with the Modified Class-
The winner in Unlimited front-drive was Frank Yeung in the HPS Racing DC2 Integra with a 1:58.717 lap time. Although it was a nice run, it was still a couple seconds off the pace of the Sportcar Motion EG Civic in the Modified Class, which was the fastest FF car at this event.
The fastest in Unlimited AWD was the Crawford Performance STI, driven by none other than Tarzan Yamada. With a time of 1:48.883, this has to be one of the fastest new-body Impreza time attack cars in the world. I wonder how it would run against the tuned GRB's in Japan?
Competition was tight in the Unlimted rear-drive class, whose entry list included Mike Cronin Jr. this new 350Z campaigned by Fontana Nissan. During the morning practice the Z was running down into in the 1:48 range…
…but it's day would come to an early end after an engine failure. I'll be looking forward to seeing how this car does next time.
The BC C-West S2000 driven by Tyler McQuarrie has become one of the most feared cars in stateside time attack. Would it's best lap of 1:47.992 be good enough to claim the Unlimited rear-drive title?
Nope, the fastest wasn't the S200, that title went to the FX Motorsports Development NSX driven by Billy Johnson. The team had a fantastic day, delivering an amazing lap time of 1:45.516, which was good for both the Unlmited rear-drive win and the overall fastest of the event. With a little more tweaking, this car could easily be within reach of cars like the HKS CT230R and the Team Tarzan Impreza. I can't wait to see how the NSX does during the rest of the year!
Congrats to Billy and the FX Motorsports team for an awesome performance!
I'll be back tomorrow with a little more from the Redline Time Attack at Buttonwillow.