Event>>records Fall At Buttonwillow

This past weekend was quite the busy one for me.

On Saturday I headed to the Formula Drift Tech Day at UTI in Rancho Cucamonga, and yesterday I drove up to Buttonwillow Raceway to check out the opening round of the 2010 Redline Time Attack season.

While the driver turnout at Buttonwillow could have been better, more than one record-setting lap would be recorded before the dust settled on Sunday evening.

I guess I'll jump right into the big news of the day.

The Sierra Sierra Evo has broken the Buttonwillow record held by the HKS CT230R since 2007 – sort of. During morning practice the David Empringham in the SSE car ran a 1:43.436, besting the CT230's record by nearly a tenth of a second.

However, because it was a practice run, the lap did not "officially" count, meaning SSE would make do with a 1:44.344  – set during the afternoon time attack session when it was much warmer. Still, it was more than enough to be the fastest of the day.

Chris Rado and the World Racing team were also out for blood. Running in the Super Modified FWD class, the Scion turned in an incredible 1:46.736, beating the car's previous record set last year. After speaking to Chris, he thought the car still had even more time to shave – further stretching the possibilities of what can be done with a front wheel drive car.

Unfortunatley though, it seemed as if a lot of the big names in the Super Modified class were nowhere to be seen. FX Motorsports, C-West, AMS, and Crawford were just a few of the favorites that were absent at Buttonwillow. Tough times I guess…

Of course the absence of the the veterans didn't mean there weren't plenty of other cool machines to check out. Conrad Grunewald brought out his new Camaro to run in the Drift Car class.

You just have to love a car that can perform "double duty" like this. Can't wait to see how Conrad and the 'Maro do at Long Beach in a couple weeks.

As usual, there were a wide variety of cars running in the Modified, Street, and the Enthusiast classes. For example, this lightly modded R35 GT-R came all the way down from the state of Washington to run.

Looking straight off the showroom floor, this new Cadillac CTS-V was running in the Enthusiast class. I don't think any of the other car running could rival the Caddy in terms of driver comfort…

This Hyundai Genesis Coupe was running in the Street RWD class, looking rather quick as it made its way around the track.

One thing I noticed was the abundance of European cars running in the various classes. There was everything from BMW's…

…to Minis…

…to an occasional Porsche. This 911 was driven by Formula Drift driver Carl Rydquist in the Modified RWD class.

If Hondas are your thing, then this event didn't disappoint. There were S2000's of every sort, ranging from bone stock models to turbocharged track monsters.

Not to mention plenty of traditional FF Hondas, like the Evasive Motorsports Civic Si sedan.

Even this Fit was getting in on the action. If I'm not mistaken, this a former show car, and is there anything cooler than seeing a show car being pushed out on the circuit?

Sticking with the Honda theme for a moment, this S2000 was built by J's Racing in Japan before being purchased by N1 Concepts in the SF Bay Area. N1 has had the car for a while now, and it's great to see it back on the track where it belongs.

Driven by Andre Hartanto, the JDM machine ran in the Super Modified RWD class.

Another familiar face out on the track – Kyle Mohan running his FC RX7 in the Drift Class.

Another one of the many Evos running in the event – this one driven by Rod Morley in ultra-competitive Modified AWD class.

That's it for now, but there's much more to come from the Redline Time Attack season opener at Buttonwillow.

Stay tuned.

-Mike Garrett

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1

that caddy has a nissan windshield banner...?

2

Nice rounded coverage with the usual attention to detail I've come to expect from Mr. Garrett. Great job Mike, Maybe I'll Catch you in Long Beach :)

3

Nice pics can imagine how exhausted you were after doing tech inspection all day all I wanted to do was sleep very nice though.

4

Congrats to SSE!!!

5

In for more coverage!



That black GTR is gorgeous!

6

Just like that SSE beat the "sacred" top lap time. craziness!

7

So does the Fit jay dub

8

Jay,



The Nissan banner was for the sponsor of the class, all cars competing had it.



9

jay dub the class is sponsored by fontana nissan so all the cars run the same windshield banner

10

ahhhhh that makes more sense, gotcha

11

awesome cars, one better than the other one.



It would be great to see a special on the GTR from the first picture, or even to see a bigger pic

12

Correction:

Sierra Sierra EVO did 1:43.22 on Saturday which didn't count but 1:43.436 on Sunday does count as official lap time. 1:43.436 doesn't count to win the event BUT it is an official track record lap time.

13

Hey Mike did you hear that OnStar called the driver of the CTS-V because they thought the car got into an accident because it cornered so hard?

14

^^^ I thought only lap times ran during the "time attack hot laps" can be deemed official track records?



That is what I have heard from the past.

15

I'm no Honda fan boy but that FIT (Jazz in Australia) looks dope! What offset is that FD Civic running on the front wheels above it?

16

first pic as desktop pleaseee!!!!

17

the N1 Concepts J's S2K is driven by Andre Hartanto....is he indonesian???

18

SSE FTW !!! Finally.... :) :) :)

19

Aren't nearly all the entries/"big names" that werent in attendance supposed to be on their way to Australia for a World Time Attack Challenge or some jazz like that? If they're not there already, one would assume prepping and saving their cars for that event was more important.

20

RE: Teams heading to Australia.



Both Chris Rado's World Racing team and FX Motorsports Development are backing out of the event in Australia. I believe both teams took a nice long look at the pros and cons of going down there, and it simply did not make sense in the end. This means that North American fans of Time Attack will be seeing both teams' cars at Redline Time Attack events this year.



And now that Sierra Sierra has broken the record set by HKS in 2007, frankly, the Japanese, Australians and UK teams need to come to the United States to prove they are faster. And, they need to come run on more than just one track proving they are the fastest team/car overall, not just at one particular track (Buttonwillow,Tsukuba, etc).



It certainly was a disappointment not seeing teams like AMS, Crawford, C-West, etc. I hope to see the teams later this year at some point.



Hats off to Sierra Sierra, World Racing, Berk Technology and the other teams that set new track records this past weekend!

21

would love to know what engine setup Grunewalds Camaro is running now, plus the BMW Z4 Coupe?? is that a 3.0si or the 2.0 version - still.. good intro and coverage!

22

That first (white and blue) GTR is something! I definetely hope to see some otther pics of it. Nice coverage.

23

what!? worldracing backed out? god this runined my month, i was loooking forward to the awd tc

24

Alright, time for some more scenes from the 2010 season opener of the Redline Time Attack series at Buttonwillow Raceway. As you saw in the last post, while some of the familiar faces of the scene were missing, the teams that did come out were as focused

25

Are all cars running on street legal tyres still? I thought Redline events could now use slicks? If so it would be nice to know which cars are running what kind of tyre on this and future features as that would make a huge difference to times :) Anyone know?

26

SSE was running Hankook C91 tires which are street legal DOT slicks because of having tread grooves and a harder compound than slicks...these are faster than the semi slicks you guys run like a048 and re55, but full slicks are faster still.

27

Shouts out to Cobb!

28

As we close out the month of March, things couldn't be any busier. I'll soon be heading to Las Vegas to check out the "Viva Las Vegas" rod and custom show, and after that it'll be a whirlwind of activity as we head into Formula Drift

29

awesome write up Mike!

30

Nikolas

I would really appreciate it if you did some more research before you write such false statements. Whilst I can not speak for World Racing, at this stage I can certainly tell you that, despite what rumors may exist, as far as I am concerned that both FX Motor sport and Sierra Sierra will both be coming to Eastern Creek in Sydney in May to take on THE FASTEST cars competing from both Japan and Australia with a show like we have not seen before on this planet. Next time you organize the sponsor dollars and put your money where your mouth is LIKE WE HAVE and pay to ship OUR CARS to your country LIKE I AM, I can tell you pal WE WILL BE THERE IN A HEARTBEAT!!!! I await your invitation!

Ian Baker

CEO

Superlap Australia

31

Just a note, was there helping with the drivers development program, so of course was talking to lots of the racers. The Caddie which still had paper plates on it had a funny thing happen. As he was lapping in practice on Sunday, "Onstar" called.



"Have you been in an accident?- So this dude has a helmet on, windows down going 100 trying to answer- hope he didnt say - no Im just racing my new Caddie!"

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