Tyler McQuarrie solved many problems to win the overall in the CWest Honda S2000. (Bill Wood photo) » More Photos
The zen of motorsports returns this weekend with the opening of the Formula Drift season on the streets of Long Beach. It means the enlightenment, meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition of motor racing appears in a hail of sensational smoke and speed, starting Friday.
Now, I admit to wearing a Kool-Aid drift drip, but lurking in the Tuner wings is something that could make far more sense to the mainstream American racing consciousness. It’s called Time Attack, a shower of speed, grip and adjustment on the fly – things mainstream American race fans expect when they go to a race.
Those who remember when things from Japan – where Time Attack was born – were far less erotically designed and mechanically dependable understand it is a form of the old Solo I where people raced as fast as they could in competition against a clock instead of another fender. In another space and time Solo I people secreted themselves to a race track when the quest for speed overcame the Solo II cones and parking lots.
A number of drift people cross over to the Time Attack world, especially Tyler McQuarrie who won the Redline Time Attack season opener at Buttonwillow Raceway two weeks ago. Tyler made the JIC/Hankook Porsche famous in drifting and Time Attack last season, but at Buttonwillow he was in an unlimited class Honda S2000 that was nearly all carbon fiber with a huge wing. It’s the way they roll in Time Attack.
"We were just chasing it all day,” Tyler told me from Mexico, where he went to chill and celebrate. What they chased during Saturday practice sessions was an apparent overheating problem caused by the S2000’s turbo. The crew could only get a couple laps before the engine overheated, forcing the car back to the pits. “Then we came to the conclusion the gauge was just off. So we went for it." This, too, is the way they roll in Time Attack!
"We threw (Hankook) tires at it until we found the right combination." McQuarrie’s driving skill and some frantic wrenching by his crew on Sunday helped push the CWest/Brian Crower S2000 to the unexpected unlimited RWD and overall win with a time of 1:48.829. The Buttonwillow Time Attack record of 1:43.523 is a grail chase set last year by HKS' Racing Performer CT230R Circuit Time Attack Car driven by Nobuteru Taniguchi.
The object of the sport is to tune, twist and tweak on your production-based car all weekend, aiming for that one perfect lap on Sunday afternoon. If that lap stands up to the incessant scrutiny of the clock, you can win your class. There are classes for stock cars that people drive to the track and classes for unlimited cars that people haul to the track with trailers full of supportive resources and crew.
It was a form of Time Attack at GT Live two years ago when Tarzan Yamada pushed the internationally iconic Cyber Evo to a lap around Phoenix International Raceway that was better than seven Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes and all the Rolex GT cars in the state.
Billy Johnson’s Acura NSX is as radical as they get. (Bill Wood photo) » More Photos
Joining Tyler in the Time Attack Big Dog den is a youngster named Billy Johnson who tests for Mazda, won a series high four ST races in Grand-Am’s KONI Challenge last year (he finished second in the championship) and coaches and wins in the current Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup. Did I say he also beats the clock in Time Attack? Not bad for a 21-year-old.
“In wheel-to-wheel racing, you can have a lot of variables that have an impact on the numbers,” Johnson told me at Buttonwillow. In the background his crew was sadly packing up their Factor X/Exedy Clutch unlimited (and that’s putting it mildly!) Acura NSX with its blown engine. He ultimately would drive for another crew on Sunday and finish third in the unlimited class.
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“In Time Attack or time specific competitions, you try to put everything on the table -- against the clock -- taking out all those other variables,” he added.
It’s the perfect environment for manufacturers and the auto aftermarket looking for ways to prove their parts, pieces and finished showroom products at a reduced cost in a less-damaging environment.
And don’t think Johnson is some Fast and the Furious wannabe afraid of wheel-to-wheel competition. He’s won national shifter kart championships and in 2003 advanced to the Red Bull Driver Search semi-finals. A year later he finished fourth in points in Formula BMW USA. Watching him win in the KONI Challenge is personal proof of his wheel-to-wheel track cred.
“Drifting is an art form, like figure skating,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with that. It takes a lot of talent. It’s a great entertaining sport.” In fact I’ve seen him look wistfully at a drifting competition, wishing he could get in the show.
“But if you’re looking for pure performance, squeezing as much power, handling and grip out of a car for production numbers like 0-to-60 times and skid pad Gs, (Time Attack) is definitely a great testing ground for development of automotive vehicles,” Johnson continued.
When you compare grandstands at a drift event like this weekend’s at Long Beach to the grandstands at a Time Attack like two weeks ago in Buttonwillow, however, you see why manufacturers and auto makers are drifting. There’ll be more fans in one grandstand at Long Beach than will be on the entire grounds at a Time Attack.
Time Attack is for production-based cars, but the Saturday track time might find even historics out for a go! (Bill Wood photo) » More Photos
There are many reasons why, such as Time Attack’s lack of star power and something even more esoteric. In this form of motorsport, the stars are just as likely to be the cars and the shops that created them. Still, without stars, it’s a passionless sky.
For example, Tuner beast Mark Daddio – often described as the world’s greatest autocross driver – and the unlimited AWD AMS EVO 8 he punished the field with last year, were missing from Buttonwillow. It was a huge hole in the field and a problem that must be resolved before Time Attack can match drifting’s believability as a national Tuner platform.
Johnson and I mused about how that might happen, including the dream of setting up a franchised, super class where teams buy in and promise to be at every event to create star power and marquee value for Time Attack promoters. It would also help that the super class competitors would be competing for their own money! Solving the pregnant chicken argument of stars and promotion might bring myopic manufacturers into the Time Attack tent and, thereby, grow the sport.
A mantra of all sports promotion says “you have to convince people that it matters who wins and loses the event.” I always say it’s the difference between the Globetrotters and the NBA. Both utilize the same skill sets but one outcome is far more important, right?
Drifting resolved the issue by limiting and spacing the events so the same people could be there every time the gates opened. With that immediate star power, the fans came to see the smoke and drama dragging the sponsors along right behind them. Thus a sport was born.
Time Attack is where drifting was as it appeared on the U.S. consciousness six years ago. It has passionate fans and limitless possibilities. Its next steps will determine if it will lead, follow or get out of drifting’s way, disappearing in its smoke. It will take some tweaking, tuning and twisting on the basic format… but that’s the way they roll in Time Attack.
