Sydney Motorsport Park played host once more to the 2017 Australian World Time Attack Challenge on the October weekend of 13 and 14. With a huge following and the anticipation of faster times from 2016’s event, the 2017 event did not disappoint.
As Spekture’s staff photographer, I ventured trackside to witness this year’s contestants battle it out, each driver in search of just one perfect lap.
Held over two days, the World Time Attack Challenge has now become one of Australia’s most popular and most diverse motorsport events. Time attack racing is a time trial event, rather than a motor “race”. Each vehicle is timed through circuits of the track, typically over a single lap and inclusive of a preliminary circuit, then run the timed laps following up with a cool-down lap.
Commencing in Australis back in 2008, the world Time Attack Challenge has now grown into one of the world’s biggest time attack events. The international World Time Attack event has been held at Sydney Motorsport Park, Australia since 2010 attracting the fastest time attack racing teams from around the globe to compete.
With around 130 entries across 6 classes, the weekend provided plenty of action both on and off track with something for every motorsport fan to be excited about.
Many of the teams and drivers had anticipated rain at some point across the two days. The majority of teams looked to ‘bank’ laps on Saturday in anticipation of the forecast rain. As luck would have it, the rain held off enabling the cars to run on still, yet cool conditions, assisting the cars and engines to perform at their optimum.
2016 winner and Supercar driver Tim Slade set a cracking pace early in the Hammerhead Silvia, posting a benchmark time of 1:20.97 (some 2 seconds quicker than last year’s time of 1:22.19) in the first Pro Class session of the day, ensuring all the other teams were playing catch-up. Despite their best efforts Slade’s time was never bettered, with Barton Mawer and the RP928 team tuning their Porsche 968 within half a second. Veteran and Fan favourite a “Under” Suzuki finished the event in third place, his Nissan S15 Silvia just under a second slower than Slade’s fastest.
Slade’s MCA Hammerhead Silvia has now taken the top spot twice – A third win at the 2018 event would see team and driver match the efforts of 2013, 2014 & 2015 winner Garth Walden in his legendary Mitsubishi Evo.
Class winners included;
V-Sport Clubsprint Class – Jordan Cox (Team Raptor / IS Motor Racing Mitsubishi Evo 9) – 1:36.839
Link Open Class – Adam Casmiri (JDMYard / Hardrace Honda Civic) – 1:27.562
Motul Pro-Am Class – Robert Nguyen (101 Motorsport Honda CRX) – 1:26.276
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