Over the past couple of hours, the temperature in Sydney's west dropped dramatically as ominous clouds rolled over the Eastern Creek Raceway. In the pitlane, a storm was also brewing with the Cyber Evo team asking the scrutineers to check if the Sierra Sierra team was running Nitrous. But was it all mind games?
Cyber Evo opted to sit out the session that SSE ran a 1:29.024, which ended up being seven tenths faster than the Japanese team. A few people in the pits reckon the Cyber team may have been sand bagging.
The afternoon session was halted momentarily when the Scorch Racing team suffered another transmission failure, leaving the all-carbon S15 stranded on track.
The Scorch S15 is currently in the pits with its transmission being pulled out.
As soon as the session resumed, Tarzan Yamada laid down a vicious lap time of 1:28.851, bettering SSE by almost two tenths of a second.
Just minutes after the Cyber Evo pulled into the pits, light rain started to fall. It was only a brief sprinkling though, although the threat of more rains hangs, quite literally, over us. According the Bureau of Meteorology however, no more rain is expected in this area.
Hopping straight out of the car, Tarzan and the Unlimited Works crew posed for Video Option.
It was all smiles in their garage…
…It was hard to tell what was going on in SSE's pit though.
But Matt was able to sneak a shot in.
The Garage Revolution RX-7 had to abort its flying lap because of the red flag, and currently sits in third with a 1:31.240.
Is it game over? Have Cyber and the Unlimited Works crew done enough to win WTAC? Dino has just spoken with the team, and they advised the turbo was damaged during Tarzan's all-out lap. They think they can continue, but may only be able to do another single lap…
There's still time for SSE and the other Pro Class competitors to top the timing sheets.
- Charles Kha
Photos by Matt Malcolm and Charles Kha
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
The drama continues.
COME ON SSE !!!
Went to the event today, great turn out, cars all round were amazing, went speedhunter hunting and bumped into Casey and Dino, really nice guys and I got some stickers! Keep up the great work Speedhunters!
Seems like some foul play by the Cyber team... -_- Go SSE! Also rooting for Scorch to get back out there and tear it up.
They lost my respect with that BS protest.
http://ameblo.jp/unlimitedworks/entry-10977043558.html
cyberevos unlimitedworks blog says theyre running non-commercially available WTAC specific tires...
so can SSE protest the cyberevo?
Didn't realise it was this close between the two and the 'dramatics' in the pits, awesome stuff. Pretty risky tactic to sandbag with today's 'heavy clouds' and the light sprinkle.
Congrats to Cyber and bloody good job SSE for breathing down on their necks, cant wait for next years WTAC already.
Oh they were complaining about SSEs car!! Please! Look at F1. The minute you start hiding your car and being super secret is the minute your competitors lose their ability to trust what you're doing. This is a turn in the wrong direction for time attack. The open friendly atmosphere where teams give each other parts and help out each other may be coming to an end (I hope not though). Look for more espionage in the future and the amount of money spent reaching incredible levels. Remember how fun drifting became FD and D1 drama? More of the same here.
then why the covers on team SSE?!?
That protest was not just mind games. It takes time to babysit the scrutineers & prove the car is legal - time that could be spent working on the car. In a way it's a compliment to the SSE crew, but Cyber certainly didn't gain any fans by trying to play dirty.
"They lost my respect with that BS protest." <-This.
Who gives a shit about the BS?? Cyber Evo won full stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@worker bee - thats so true
Japan FTW!!!
Basically, the Japs can't make power like the Americans and Aussies can and they just cant sort out how a car can go that fast when they spent a lot of effort without making that kind of power.
There were a lot of dirty tricks coming from cyber team. 295 advans would be a bit quicker, cyber had them to test months back but you cant get them in AUS until two weeks before??
Your a race team, thats well and good, do what you got to win, but this wasnt like that. When Cyber needed help last year, it was aussies out there getting parts and lending a hand to get them to win.
Revolution has a superGT car except with heaps more power and not nearly as fast? They should be embarrassed for all that money they spent and dont forget panspeed, out there running lap after lap just off of them but on 10% of the budget? Revolution is more like devolution.
You got to look up to Panspeed and Scorch, those guys are much more the real deal. Pan speed was out there running 32 all day long lap after lap, no drama, no mind games, good guys building a fast car and playing clean.
Aussie teams were trying to better their times in the last session and couldn't because SSE, Revolution and Cyber are out there patrolling the track and blocking everyone so nobody can better times in last session?
This is Time Attack... who went the fastest? Cyber Evo. The protest was not a full on protest, more of them merely saying "I think SSE has nitrous" since they were being so secretive in the pits. There was no officials inspecting the vehicle, SSE did not lose any track time due to the "protest". It was more of a mind game than anything, it made SSE think that they had it in the bag.... and when they were least expecting it.... they hit them with the truth.
oT the guys who are crying about it the protest saying it was unfair, compare the 2 cars. SSE has so much more money and technological advancements(Custom billet upright, 4way dampers, EPS, pectel controlled transfer case, in cabin adjustable sway bars... etc etc) over Cyber and they still lost, they really never had a chance.... it shows you that you can throw all the money you want at a car and what is comes down to is the overall balance/setup.
SSE what a team with very bad sportsman ship they should be disqualified.!
openly admitting to blocking the GT auto R35 ...
Great photos and write up of the event. Had the pleasure of chatting to some of you photographers out there during the weekend (Matt i think it was). Keep up the great work.