No sooner had I wrapped up my coverage from the SEMA Show when it was time to load up the camera gear and hit the road once more yesterday morning. This time the destination would be another early November tradition for us – the Super Lap Battle Finals at Buttonwillow Raceway.

Source Interlink has held this event for years now. It’s the original Time Attack event in the United States and its always been one of my favorites to shoot. The atmosphere is low key and it’s all about going fast. It’s a stark contrast to the crowds and partying at SEMA a week earlier.

While it’s clear that a soft economy is still limiting the number of teams particiating in this event, the ones that did come out were there for business.

It’s a busy week for Chris Rado and his World Racing team. The boys ran the FWing tC2 over the weekend in NASA competition at Buttonwillow, stuck around for Super Lap and are now heading north to run at the GTA event at Infineon Raceway. Needless to say, the tC dominated the Unlimited FF class.

The real story of the day though, was the FXMD NSX. With Tyler McQuarrie lending his driving talents, the NSX set a new Buttonwillow track record with an insanely fast 1:40.981 lap. This puts the NSX in front of Time Attack heavyweights Sierra Sierra Enterprise. Hats off to the FXMD crew!

Crawford Performance brought out their Time Attack STI with Tarzan Yamada behind the wheel, but mechanical issues kept the car from turning many laps.

Tarzan also put in some work driving the sexy Platteforme Ag E46 M3.

In my eye, one of the funnest cars to watch was the Spec Clutch S14, running in the Limited RWD class.

There was just something about the way the fully built SR came alive under boost…

It’s always cool to see fast S-chassis cars in action, and this one delivered.

One of the day’s other notable performers was the Apollo Performance Ford Focus, which broke the two minute barrier in the Street FF class with a 1:59.086 lap. Surely it’s a testament to the potential of the Focus chassis.

I know I’m strange, but I always enjoy checking out random cars in the paddock just as much as the on-track activity. Among my finds this year was this tidy NA Miata on 14×7 RPF1s.

E46 M3 + suspension and TE37s = flawless combination.

Also spotted this IS-F sitting on 20″ SP1s.

Very aggressive. Looks like its wearing a Wald kit if I’m not mistaken.

Each year Evasive Motorsport brings their Voltex’d Evo out, looking for faster laps in the Limited AWD class. This year they finished top of their class with a 1:49.124.

Evasive also brought out the famous blue S2000, which took the top spot in the Street RWD class.

On the subject of S2000s, here’s another cool street machine that was sitting in the pits.

Here Ryan Gates pilots his Evo X through the esses. If there’s one thing Buttonwillow is good for, it’s a fine place to hone your panning skills.

You might remember the DC Sports STI from our SEMA coverage. No show queen here.

The guts of Rado’s tC2.

Back with more Super Lap action from Buttonwillow tomorrow.

-Mike Garrett

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