After a dissapointing 2008 season, the FX Motorsports Development team (formerly Factor-X) had to know that this year was make or break.  (Hopefully a lot less break!)  And on Sunday at Buttonwillow, they certainly did what they had to do.  With Billy Johnson at the controls of the Unlimited Class Acura NSX, the team was able to capture the overall grand champion of the first round of the 2009 Redline Time Attack with a blistering lap of 1:45.516.  While it wasn’t a track record…. it very might have been, had the weather been more cooperative.

Sunday’s air temperatures were significantly lower than the heat that was found on Saturday, but the cause of that cool air was the wind.  The National Weather Service reported sustained wind speeds between 20 and 30mph in the area, and gusts as high as 40mph.  Making matters worse was the prevailing direction North to South, which gave drivers a hefty crosswind to deal with while on the front straight and the back turns and bus stop.  Watching the cars, you could see very clearly the effect the winds had, as cars appeared to shimmy through the bus stop more than usual.

Rounding out the overall classes, Modified went to Ryan Gates in his Gates311.com / AMS / JRZ Suspension Evo X with a 1.55.221 and Buddy Club Street Class went to Jeremy Toye in his Reese Tuning / RobiSpec Evo8 with a 1.58.651. 

For the rest of the classes: Tarzan Yamada won the Unlimted AWD in the Crawford Performance STi with a 1:48.883.  Frank Yeung took top honors in Unlimited FWD in the HPS Racing Acura Integra coming in at 1:58.717.  Tim Kuo drove the Sport Car Motion Civic to a Modified FWD win with a 1:55.800 lap and Charles NG in the Alvaka / Nitto / 949 Racing Z06 turned a 1:56.421 to win Modified RWD.  Dino Tadokawa was able to get to the two-minute mark in the Buddy Club Street FWD division in his Mazdaspeed/Playstation/Yokohama Mazda 3 with a 2:00.552, and Manly Kao in the APR / Toyo / TrackHQ.com Elise that was allegedly broken was able to manage a 1:58.872 to win Buddy Club Street RWD.

Congrats to all the winners!  For all the times and participants check out Redline Time Attack