The Tracks of Time Attack

What tracks come to mind when you think of Time Attack?

Each type of motorsport has its signature race tracks whether it’s Le Mans or Nurburgring for endurance or Bathurst for the V8 Supercars. So what are the signature tracks of Time Attack? Let’s start with the track where it all began…

Tsukuba Circuit is widely regarded as the birthplace of the tuner-style time attack that we know and love with the Annual Revspeed Super Battle. The event quickly turned into fierce competition between Japan tuning houses, who developed purpose-built tuner cars specifically for the track.

The track itself is located in Shimotsuma, Ibraki Prefecture, Japan and runs events pretty much every week. The track is a varied mix with a tight cornering section on the infield where grip and cornering are the key. This then progresses onto the 430 metre back straight, where speeds exceed 200 km/h and into the sweeping final corner, where the top-end performance, aerodynamics and high speed stability become more important to get the best times.

Top Time attack cars consistently break the 60 second mark for lap times with the current lap record of 53.589 being set by Nob Taniguchi in the HKS CT230R in 2007.

With all the coverage of the Revspeed Super battle by Japanese motorsport media, the sport of Time Attack soon filtered over the Pacific to the USA. This spawned the Redline Time Attack series, with the Buttonwillow Raceway quickly becoming the premier track of the event.

Located in central California, Buttonwillow is a much longer track than Tsukuba (around 5km at Buttonwillow vs just over 2km for Tsukuba), however the average speed is a bit quicker.Similar to the 60 sec mark at Tsukuba, anything quicker than 1 .50.00 at Buttonwillow is generally considered to be very quick.

The current lap record of a blistering 1:41.046 is held by David Empringham in the Sierra Sierra Enterprises EVO, set in 2010 at the Super lap Battle Finals. One of the key differences between the American Time Attack series and the Japanese and Australian events is the differences in tyre compound rules, with slicks being legal under USA rules, rather than being limited to R-compound tyres.

Time Attack in Australia came from humble beginnings, with the original Superlap events being held in 2008 at Oran Park. But the event soon outgrew the track and moved to the international class Eastern Creek Raceway. The event also evolved to include a invitational PRO class, with international competitors spurring the local teams to up their game. You only have to compare the cars from the 2008 event to this years lineup to see how much the sport has matured in Australia.

Eastern Creek lies smack bang in the middle of Tsukuba and Buttonwillow in both length and lap times. It’s a 3.93km long track, with laps of under 1:40.00 considered very quick. The track is fast with flowing turns which follow around landscaped hills. The long straight can see speeds of more than 250km/h which carries on into the fast and wide first corner which can see speeds exceeding 200km/h. Aerodynamics and high speed stability are crucial through this section of Eastern Creek Raceway, but braking and cornering is also very important through the slower sections of the track.

The current lap record of 1:30.5870 is held by Tarzan Yamada who set it in the legendary Cyber Evo. With more international teams coming to Eastern Creek in 2011, and the local teams upping their game, Eastern Creek has now well and truly become one of the signature tracks of Time Attack internationally, as well as locally.