Whilst much of the big hype may be on the international ADVAN Pro Class cars there will be some very hot competition in both the Open and Clubsprint classes this year with both classes at full capacity and with many of the nation’s top tuning houses stepping up to showcase their wares in a once a year, winner takes all no holds barred showdown.
Open Class
The Open Class at Yokohama World Time Attack 2011 will showcase the best of the Australian performance tuning industry with many workshops entering multicar teams and hiring professional drivers to get the absolute very best from their vehicle.
With teams coming from all over Australia we start with Brisbane-based powerhouse GT Autogarage who have entered a four car team of two R32 GTRs and two RX7s.
AVO from Melbourne have entered two cars with Clayton Sinclair returning in his WRX and Jason Clements to debut his highly publicised time attack VL Commodore with 600 odd kilowatts! Also from Melbourne Chasers Motorworks have entered a trio of hi powered Evos and Revzone have also entered a two car team of R33 GTR and an Evo. Sydney-based Pulse Racing will also have two cars present with rally ace and 2010 Open Class Champion, Steve Glenney driving the Pulse “Monster” WRX and former Australian formula 5000 champion, John Wright driving a Cosworth powered STi.
From Adelaide we have the reigning SA time attack champion and tuning guru Steve Knight in an Evo 6 and joining in him for the long trip over the Hay plain will be Simon “Pitbull” Podlewski in the insane 800 plus horsepower Team Toyo/ Morpowa 2JZ powered Silvia.
Also from the Silvia camp will be the stunning newly finished widebody RB26 powered S15 of Autotech engineering driven by Greg Boyle and the highly anticipated competition debut of the JET 200 200SX from the Motive DVD crew . Canberra based tuning house Ultimate Tunes have entered with 2010 placegetter Jason Hart in his highly developed WRX and from the left of field will be Dryden Motorsports in a crazy RB26 powered BMW!
Jason Wright will be returning in his Autotech/Process West backed WRX and Ric Shaw will be driving an MX5 for Sydney ECU specialist Adaptronic. Long time Superlap sponsor and brake specialist V-Sport have been busily preparing an Evo X in their Sydney workshop with a high powered stroker engine that will be driven by the highly experienced Rick Bates.
The car that helped kick off the time attack craze in Australia, the Hi Octane R32 GTR will be back in the hands of Russell Newman in the open class and now sports the same war paint as the Hi Octane R34 pro car thanks to support from Yokohama Australia . Turbosmart have put their RX7 on diet and given it a Pac Performance power up and it once again will be back in the hands of their production manager and part time racer Stewart Mahoney.
2010 Clubsprint Class champion Nik Kalis has also stepped up a class to play with the big boys and now has support from Hankook tyres making him a force to be reckoned with in his IS Motor Racing prepared wide body Evo 9.
Honda fans will not be disappointed either with Insight Motorsports entering a very high powered turbo S2000 and the Dr Honda Civic is now in the hands of a new owner who has made it even faster and both of these will be driven by time attack ace and all round nice guy John Boston. 101 Motorsports will also be towing down their crazy 2.6 litre Honda Civic from Queensland that is expected to make a big statement.
Drift Garage, Allstar Garage, Gleeson Motorsport and MacGregor Mechanical have also confirmed entry along with a long list of privateer entries, many of which are certainly capable of winning outright in particular the black RX7 of Adelaide based Chiropractor and weekend racer Brad Trenwith that is rumoured to have broken some track records in South Australia recently in testing and has also signed a tyre deal with Hankook for the event.
The privateer list also includes names like former Targa Tasmania class winner Benny Wooster in a R32 Skyline, Tasmanian Time attack champion Matthew Rogers in a Supra, pro tennis coach and time attack veteran Drew Reed in his crazy Evo 6, Superlap veteran John Bright in the R32 GTR and 2010 dark horse Wayne Sutton in a newly prepared S15 along with many many more.
Click here for full Entry List
Mahoney to the front!
World time attack is going to make it big or so I hope.
Great article and awesome cars.
Best of luck and I’ll be watching closely.