The dust may have settled at Sydney Motorsport Park after last weekend’s Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge, but given the closeness of competition throughout the ranks, you can bet that teams will already be strategising for their return in 2015. But close doesn’t even begin to describe how the battle for the podium played out in the top-tier Pro Class, with everything coming down to the Superlap Shootout session on Saturday evening. Thanks to MotiveDVD and SVG, there’s great in-car vision to be able to relive those epic final moments…
1st: Garth Walden / Tilton Interiors Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX – 1:24.8412
Garth Walden successfully defended Tilton Interiors’ record-smashing 2013 WTAC title (and set a new tin-top record around Sydney Motorsport Park in the process), but only by the slightest of margins and on his very last lap. Can this Evo be beaten?
2nd: Under Suzuki / Scorch Racing Nissan Silvia S15 – 1:24.8800
I don’t think anyone wants the WTAC title more than Japan’s Under Suzuki, and he came so close to realising that long-time dream when he ran his quickest ever lap around the 4.5km circuit on his last attempt. The final margin between the Tilton Evo and Suzuki-san’s Scorch Racing Silvia – just 0.038 seconds!
3rd: Shane Van Gisbergen / MCA Suspension Nissan Silvia S13 – 1:25.7090
V8 Supercar driver Shane Van Gisbergen took up the drive of MCA Suspension’s ‘Hammerhead’ Silvia this year, and pushed Suzuki-san right to the end. In fact, before the Scorch Racing car ran its final 1:24.8800 lap, Van Gisbergen was holding down second place – albeit with just a 0.01 second buffer.
It does not get any closer than this! The 2015 World Time Attack Challenge is going to be very interesting indeed…
Brad Lord
brad@speedhunters.com
Tin-Top Tango: Five Interesting Cars From WTAC
Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge
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a few thoughts:
1. Damn I love turbo sounds.
2. Seeing a recapack speedo almost makes me regret not buying one.
3. I need some PUMA driving gloves (those are gonna go on the next wish list- X-mas!)
4. I suddenly feel the need to watch Sebastian Loeb's Pikes Peek run now.
As a previous 180SX owner, it's great to see a couple of RWD S-Chassis Nissans getting close to taking out an AWD Evo
It was cool to get to see Van Gisbergen's footwork under breaking, took me back to watching the old Hot Version Touge videos. Looks like a blast to go flat out through that first turn!
You know what I see. Not taking anything away from the Tilton guys, in fact a bit of praise for such a clean looking lap, but I recon Under Suzuki had a few spots where he lost a little time. With a cleaner lap I think he could have pipped them this year
2bAUS That's motorsport for you.
I had a buddy once lose a drag race by .001. He said it came down to the difference of a frog fart. I asked him "wtf are you talking about?" His reply: "Some frog farted at the finish line and slowed me down."
Yup, Under was the victim of a frog fart.
I cued the videos at the same point side by side and watched them about 10 times. They are so close it's pretty much impossible to even tell the difference except for one key part:
In one of the right handers towards the end of the lap you will see Under Suzuki lose traction for a fraction of a second. He counter steers lightning quick and recovers the loss. At the end of the video the finish line comes up what looks like a mere 2 feet or so sooner for the Tilton EVO car.
At this level of competition that amount of time could be chalked up to that momentary thousandth of a second where the Under Suzuki car had to recover. Of course this is just a speculation I'm making and without seeing the telemetry of both runs it's impossible to say for sure. Unbelievable how close these guys race.
While I don't think AWD has any definitive always winning advantage on a track over RWD (I'm not a GT-R fanboy or an STi / EVO worshipper) I do think that it might be easier on the driver to control than the S15 when on the limit. They both clearly have their cars setup extremely well and are extraordinarily dialed in behind the wheel so maybe it all comes down to the driver in the end.
Holy shit. You can SEE the downforce in Suzuki's video at :52 (1:06 youtube time).
@Chris Here's the actual video comparison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVc3VAM3Js
@optical Very cool. It's clear the Tilton car wins over Suzuki due to it's power advantage. Suzuki had higher cornering speed in several corners.
But the PMQ Evo is IMHO the quickest car. With more power I'm sure it would have won outright.
GustafB What are the power differences between the two cars? I still didn't see any indication onto the long straight that the EVO was completely gaining on the S15 like it had at 50whp advantage or something.
Suzuki car had the corner speed in a couple sections for sure. Hard to say without seeing telemetry.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=292692757586139
Tilton had a large HP advantage. the very fact that they are just as fast at the end of the straight with an AWD shows that, plus a little bird told me that they were spitting coolant after every hot lap. Scorch S15 can run that pace for a while without threatening the engine. Built like dragster vs built like circuit car.