Redline Time Attack

This was just released today….

Redline: Time Attack! Series Announces Plans for 2009

13-Episode Redline: Time Attack! TV Show Announced

Los Angeles (November 3^rd, 2008) - The Redline: Time Attack! Series, the premiere time attack series in North America, is announcing their plans for the 2009 season. The series is coming off a very strong year in 2008, which saw a total of 7 races across the United States and solid growth in participation and spectator numbers. As the industry and enthusiast communities begin to transition into what many are calling a “renaissance” of road racing in North America, The Redline:Time Attack! Series is positioned to lead the way.

Several key announcements for the 2009 season are being made. These include the return of Performance Auto & Sound Magazine as an Official Media Partner of the series. PAS Mag will provide editorial coverage of every Redline event in 2009, as well as produce and distribute the official Series Program available to all spectators free of charge. PAS and Redline will work very closely together to grow the sport of Time Attack over the next couple of years, as PAS is onboard through the end of the 2010 season. A new addition to the series for 2009 as an Official Media Partner is DSport Magazine. DSport will offer editorial coverage of every Redline event in 2009 as well as include footage of Redline races on 3 of their DVDs in addition to producing a fan-copy of the Rule Book and Technical Guide. DSport has done an excellent job of covering Redline Time Attack races in the past, offering the “technical” coverage of the sport that is difficult to find anywhere else.

Being keenly aware of the significance of the Web to the latest generations of enthusiasts, Redline has taken the steps to improve their previously impressive amount of online coverage. Strengthened relationships with online powerhouses such as UrbanRacer.com, RiceBoyTV.com and Carbon8Mag.com will expose hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts to the quickly growing sport of Time Attack. A completely new and 100% re-designed RedlineTimeAttack.com website will be launched in the first part of the New Year. The new site will include Web 2.0 technologies and features in addition to message forums, video galleries, pod casts and community generated content.

Possibly the biggest news heading into the 2009 Season is the announcement of a 13-episode Redline:Time Attack! television program airing on DirecTV, Dish and most major cable provider networks. This is a HUGE development for the sport of Time Attack and Redline in particular. The television series will be produced by Crescent Moon Productions in a close working relationship with the staff at Redline. Footage from every Redline race as well as behind the scenes shop visits, interviews with leading racers & tuners and industry news will be featured on the episodes. Finally, the sport of Time Attack will receive the much needed television exposure it so deserves.

We will see a return of the Championship Points Race in 2009, with a total of 8 Championship races being held across the country. Unlimited Class teams will be given the opportunity to put money on the table and run for season ending Championship cash payouts of up to $25,000! Expect to see up to two “Dash for Cash” invitational events held alongside other premiere motorsports events as well. The wheel-to-wheel Super Session bonus rounds will also be making a return to 4 events next year. Redline was the first to incorporate the wheel-to-wheel racing aspect into Time Attack in North America, where it was received with great enthusiasm. Redline will also be teaming up with Live Sockets Entertainment to bring back the “Live Sockets Circuit Battles”, pairing top tuners from across the country in head-to-head Touge-style lapping battles.

The Complete 2009 Redline Time Attack Season Schedule

Buttonwillow Raceway, CA – March 28^th- 29^th

Willow Springs Raceway, CA – May 29^th- 30^th

Autobahn Country Club, IL – June 20^th- 21^st

Nashville Super Speedway – July 25^th- 26^th

Carolina Motorsports Park, SC – August 8^th-9^th

New Jersey Motorsports Park – August 30^th – 31^st

Spring Mountain Motorsports Park, NV September 26th-27^th

Auto Club Speedway, CA – November 14^th – 15^th

Redline will be releasing more information in the coming months via their new website. Expect to see announcements for each team opting to “franchise” with the series with full team profiles listed on the website. Redline will also bring lifestyle elements to many of the larger events in 2009 and are working on developing relationships with leading car show and entertainment organizers.

For more information on the Redline:Time Attack! Series, visit their website at www.RedlineTimeAttack.com or call 661-992-4384 or 661-992-2390

Here are the 2009 Redline Time Attack Class Rules, in Draft Format…

The rules are under final review this weekend…

http://www.RedlineTimeAttack.com/2009_draft_rules.doc

Congratulations to all of our Season Champions!

Below is the final points tallies.

Matt Andrews (Flyin Miata/ROBI Spec) and Tyler McQuarrie (CWest/Brian Crower/Hankook) will be Co-Grand Champions for this inaugural points race!

Street AWD - JC Meynet, Harman Motive Subaru STI

Street RWD - Allan Crocket, BDX Mustang

Street FWD - Michael Otsby, GTMotoring RSX-S

Mod AWD - James Elterman, Takata Subaru STI

Mod RWD - Matt Andrews, Flyin Miata/RobiSpec Miata

Mod FWD - Ross Miller, PTuning.com/Lustine Scion tC

Unlimited FWD - Chris Rado, World Racing Scion tC

Unlimited RWD - Tyler McQuarrie, CWest/Brian Crower/Hankook Honda S2000

Unlimited AWD - Luke Russell, TopSpeed/Carbonetic Subaru Impreza

Overall Street Class Champion - JC Meynet

Overall Modified Class Champion - Matt Andrews

Overall Unlimited Class Champion - Tyler McQuarrie

Co-Grand Champions - Matt Andrews & Tyler McQuarrie, each with a perfect 127 points on the season

vir-street-class-final-merge1

Here is a link to the final VIR Street Class time attack results…

Writeup to follow later today….

final-time-attack-results

The Street Class competition definitely surpassed my expectations for the weekend, with a total of 5 cars setting faster lap times than the lap record set in 2007.  After the 1st time attack session on Saturday, the running order was:

1.  Steven Rankins     53.423   AWD   Boxer 4 Racing, Continental Tires   STI

2. Douglas Wind       53.690   FWD     Continental Tires   SRT-4

3. Alex Sharanevych   53.706   AWD     Slick Motorsports   EVO

4.  Jake Namer           54.135     AWD       STI

5.  Frank Abbato        54.511     AWD      STI

6.   Thomas Hiromoto    55.102    RWD   Fuji Racing     Miata

So the top five cars were within about 1 second of each other. I had a feeling the drivers would step it up on Sunday, with an additional 1.5 hours of practice time and the final time attack session of the weekend.  Everyone was in store for some extra excitement come Sunday afternoon.

Jake Namer was able to slot into the 5th place overall with a 53.395 in his STI. 4th place overall went to Steven Rankins who ran a 53.260…. 3rd went to Alex Sharanevych with a 53.138…. 2nd overall went to Douglas Wind with a 53.106… and the surprise of all surprises was Thomas Hiromoto in the Fuji Racing Miata with a 52.957!  Thomas is the first and only driver to crack the 53 second barrier, and that’s with a 170whp Miata running 205 all the way around! You should have seen Thomas chucking the car into turn one, getting the car sideways (which you have to do to make turn 1 quick…)  Boy it was fun to watch!  So each of the top five drivers were able to improve their lap times, and each were able to run faster than last year’s overall winner in the process. The bar has definitely been raised!

Parity is also what we had… with a RWD car winning.. and FWD car taking 2nd  and an AWD car taking 3rd….all separated by .18 seconds!  Granted, this track leveled the playing field in ways that many tracks do not, with most cars not even getting out of 3rd gear. I truly wish we had more tracks like this, that did not overly favor power for instance, but rewarded very well balanced, very well driven cars…..

I’d love to see what Mod and Unl class cars could run on this track and to see if the parity would carry over to the more highly modified cars…

I’ll post the lap time results soon…

It’s been a VERY long day and weekend for us.  I’ll post another update Monday afternoon for Mod and Unlimited…    And YES….. MUCH MORE DRAMA TO COME!!!!! 

The first round of the Redline Time Attack competition this weekend has been completed. There were a few cars that experienced some issues, either directly prior to the time attack round or during the competition. James Elterman was unable to report to Grid due to a busted drive shaft. He’s since been on a mission to source a replacement part and get the car repaired in time for morning practice and tomorrow’s time attack round. A Series Championship is on the line for James here at this event.

Scott Bush, in the BC Racing G35 was forced to pull off course after completing his first timed lap. Not exactly sure what went wrong with the car, but Scott will have to put a strong lap together in tomorrow’s TA session, otherwise he’ll find himself off the podium at this event. Top Speed suffered another cracked intake manifold, but they’ve since repaired the manifold and are shooting for the track record tomorrow. CWest/BC was dealing with some engine issues and have the car on the local dyno to get the bugs worked out. They’ll need to get the car in order to have a shot at winning this event, they’re currently 3 seconds back from the leader, Top Speed.

Street Class competition is intense this year, with the top 5 cars separated by less than a second in time. Doug Wind sits in 2nd place overall in Street by .2 of a second. We’ll see if he can vault to the lead in tomorrow’s session.

Click the link for the times.

mod_unl-time-attack-1

Attached are the VIR Practice times from this morning.

Time Attack round 1 will take place at roughly 11:30am this morning.   I’ll post full results from the first TA session following its completion…

saturday-practice

Virginia International Raceway is as beautiful today as it ever has been. We’ve been blessed with absolutely GORGEOUS weather, with high temps in the low to mid 70’s today and a perfectly sunny sky. Our only practice session of the day went off without a hitch. With our practice session being one continuous block of nearly two hours, teams had to manage their time on and off the track.

Fast time of the day so far goes to Tarzan Yamada in the Crawford Performance STI with a 2:02.795 followed by Luke Russell in the Top Speed Subaru with a 2:04.531. Fast Mod Class cars are Don Hill in his Honda Civic with a 2:17.060, Burak Tuglu in a Corvette Z06 at 2:11.450. Street Class guys don’t begin their event until Saturday at 8am on the 1.1 mile Patriot Course. Odd’s on favorite in Mod-AWD, James Elterman, in the Takata STI, didn’t make it to the track today for practice, but he will be here tomorrow, chasing after the Series Championship.

The CWest/BrianCrower S2000 arrived this morning having safely completed its trek from California. Tyler McQuarrie and the crew have not arrived to the track yet, so we have no practice times recorded for them. From having spoken with both Brian Crower and the team at Top Speed, the standing Redline Time Attack track record appears to be in jeopardy… AMS Performance holds the current RTA record with a 1:57.976 lap from last year. I believe both the CWest/BC S2000 and Top Speed car are capable of 1:55’s…. But can either of them dip into the 54’s? That remains to the be seen….

I’ll have another updated tomorrow following our morning practice session including the lap times.