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Back to August 2011 Motorsports News Archive
| 11-08-2011 at 09:00: World Time Attack Stars Break Barrier | |
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The former Indy Lights star broke the barrier for the American Sierra Sierra Enterprises team, setting a time of 1 minute 29.020 seconds in his Hankook Ventus TD-shod Mitsubishi Evo. The lap was more than a second faster than the V8 Supercar lap record at Eastern Creek of 1:30.187, which was set on full slick racing tyres. Late in the event the Japanese Unlimited Works Cyber Evo team went even quicker – driver Tarzan Yamada pushing his Mitsubishi to 1:28.851. In the very last run of the event, Empringham made a do-or-die attempt to beat Yamada’s time, only to break the Evo’s gearbox on his flying lap. “It’s really disappointing, we had everything aligned and I think we could have got the Cyber Evo at the end,” said Empringham. “This is the best time attack event in the world now. Everyone talks about Tsukuba in Japan, but this is the pinnacle event.” Third in the Pro Class went to another Japanese driver, Mitsuhiro Kinoshita, in the Hankook Garage Revolution RX-7 on 1:30.50. Hankook-tyred cars dominated WTAC, the rules of which stipulated street-legal treaded tyres. Nicholas Kalis won the Open Class competition for less modified cars, lapping his Mitsubishi Evo in a best time of 1:34.826 – nine tenths of a second faster than Simon Podlenski in a Nissan Silvia, both on Hankook Ventus TD tyres. The Club Sprint class for near-standard road cars was won by Marek Tomaszewski in a Nissan R35 GT-R, who lapped in 1:42.491 on Hankook Ventus R-S3 road-spec track tyres. Almost 10,000 people attended the two days of the World Time Attack Challenge, which was in its second year at the ‘Creek. Fans jammed the open-access pits and paddock to get a closer look at the 107 competing cars and displays, such as Hankook’s Superdome where gaming consoles were running the latest version of the hugely popular Need for Speed series, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. Hankook was the naming sponsor of the hotly contested Open Class at WTAC, and marketing manager Jose Angeles said the event had successfully launched the company’s range of motorsport tyres in Australia. “The buzz in pit lane during World Time Attack was that Hankook was the tyre to have if you wanted to be competitive,” said Angeles. “We had numerous teams switch from other brands of tyre mid-event and approach us for a set of Hankooks, which says everything really.” |
Canadian David Empringham has become the first driver to break the magic one-and-a-half minute mark at Sydney’s Eastern Creek International Raceway on street-legal tyres while racing at the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC).^ Back to top ^
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