Event>>redline Buttonwillow Winners

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.

Redline Time Attack

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1

I thought that pushrod engines weren't allowed in Time Attack. What's that Corvette doing out there? Not that I mind, of course.

2

Where was the defending Modified AWD Champion Takara STi?

3

Sorry. Miss spelling. Where was the defending Modified AWD Champion TAKATA STi? Go Green!

4

lol Sean i wouldn't balk *too* much at the LS6, they can be quite potent ;)

5

Congrats to Sportcar Mption's EG's win and fast times!

6

I hate to draw conclusions but....a EG6 with a K24/20 engine beats a Vette Z06, and almost a EVO X?......haha.....that's epic !

7

Ya I thought Push rod engines were not allowed in Redline time attack. Maybe It's Super Lap Battle, or maybe he bribed the judges with mountain dew.

8

WOW did not expect to see the NSX come out on top. Awesome.

9

Loving that 350Z, but i'm a little bias towards the nissans. Sux it ran into issues, dont know if it could have given that NSX a run tho, thats an impressive time.

10

Way to go FX!! Great to see an NSX on top.

11

that Fontana Z is ill!

13

20 years old and it still kicks asses, NSX's are the shit.

14

hats off the tim, loi, sportcar motion crew for putting togethor that bad ass eg. killin it!

15

Mike-Any pics of the red GTR tooling around the track

16

Gates Car is awesome, miss the look without the stickers tho...

17

Failed to mention that the Factor X NSX set that time on it's first hot lap and then retired for the rest of the event.

18

Redline has always allowed pushrod engines, flat-6 engines and engines with more than 8 cylinders... :-)



19

Cool, nice write up and great shots.



The EG6 did amazing.



A lot don't find FF fun, but it shows they can still perform.

20

Wow!! an EG over achieving...again, those civics are the ultimate giant killers.

21

That the heavily modified Honda with a fully built race engine beat a run-of-the-mill T1 Vette is not a great surprise. T1 cars are basically stock. Stock engine, stock springs, stock trans, stock diff, stock brakes etc. This particular Z06 has a crate motor, single adjustable Penske's and big wheels. We added the wing and baby canards for Sunday and that's it. It's a $30K car, cheap by mod rwd standards. Pretty sure if we had as much prep as the Honda, we would have gone "a little" faster :)



Anyway, we're proud to have been a part of the event and done well. Makes us want to build a car just for the class...

22

It was great to see the Corvette out there.



It had almost nothing by way of modifications, just some good basic race prep. With a front splitter, new springs and shocks, a cam and/or blower that car can improve several seconds in Modified.

23

Re: The FX NSX...



They had a "fantastic day" in that they set the winning time... but wasn't that on the first hot lap? Then they blew a trans/motor and had to retire?

24

I am pretty sure the SCM EG is alot cheaper to build then 30k. ;)

25

Was out at the event on Saturday and by the looks of things. RT is doing a great job of getting competitors out to the events! The sport is definitely is growing so fast! Nice work Nikolas and the rest at RTA! We (WORLD Racing) can't wait to get out there and be running the revamped fwd tC!!!!

26

This was an extremely fun event despite all the crazy track conditions. Loi and I have some plans to switch chassis for 2009 and so we left the EG unchanged from Super Lap Battle. Didn't bother to re-align the car, didn't bother to add any modifications, and we didn't get new tires in time for the event. The only thing we did was cut the muffler off because I like to hear the N/A VTEC Scream. Its music to my ears :). I am not one to call times, but I do see an improvement over 1:55.809 with fresh tires and a new alignment specification.



The car is pretty cheap too! Alot of the things were home made so that we were able to cut costs on but here are the essentials:

-Chassis $2000

-Tein SRC Shocks $2400

-Engine mods including block $5500

-Tranny $900

-LSD $700

-Home Depot Splitter $25

-Ebay Wing $50

-Skunk2 Camber adjusters $150

-ECU Tuning $900

-Recaro Bucket Seat $1000



Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw84VuetW_0





27

The SCM EG time posted is very impressive, but that car and the Corvette are really two very different cars.



I don't think the SCM EG could last through a three hour race at Buttonwillow in August at 110 degree temperatures. The T1 Corvette can do that with just tire changes and fuel. Then the next weekend it can do it again with just rotors, pads and fluids changed.



Strip the Corvette down, take away the race sanctioning organization limitations on mods and weight, take off all the weight in big radiator, Accusump, auxillary engine, tranny and diff oil coolers not needed for a few laps in a time attack and the car can go much faster.

28

apples to oranges trying to compare a corvette to a civic.



The civic was faster than a lot of cars, not JUST the corvette. Props to a well setup FF car...it is what it is and it ran what it ran. Congratulations. It's nice to see someone try so hard to resist the laws of physics and beat an stock vette.



29

What does it matter where the Corvette can run better than the Civic?



All that matter at this moment in time, is the times it but down at Buttonwillow.

30

Any chassis can beat any other one on a given day and set of conditions. I've driven corvettes. nice cars. not my cup of tea. I've driven Hondas in Enduro events, and they are great as well. I'm not so sure that EG hatch wouldn't last a 3 hour race though. Its really basic. Big difference is it wouldn't fit into a "stock" race class if that is your thing...



look forward to seeing you guys at Big Willow. I hope that the vette shows up there. :)

31

You are right Gee. The Civic ran great and the driver did a great job. Kudos to both.



I did not mean to take anything away from that team. They did an amazing job, put down a great lap time, won the overall... they got the job done when they needed to do so. Any appearance on my part to take anything away from them was not intended.





32

The fact of the matter is that once, or maybe twice, you or someone you know saw a car swerve. Then you pull up beside that car and– of course! – they’ re on the phone. So, now in your mind, and everyone else who’ s witnessed something similar, cell phones

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