World Time Attack Wrap up

Yokohama's World Time Attack Challenge is one of the most anticipated events of the year for our crew here at PerformanceGarage. In 2012 we were blown away by the record-breaking speed of Warren Luff in Nemo Racing's Evo. Everyone was on edge wondering whether it would go even quicker or be knocked off the top spot in 2013.

Nemo's closest Rival last year was the Tilton Interiors Evo driven by Garth Walden. It's possible Garth has done more laps of Sydney Motorsport Park than anyone else on earth, so seeing him up on the top spot of the podium this year was a brilliant moment. He piloted the Tilton Evo to a remarkable best of 1:24.855, breaking the record from last year and winning by a significant margin over MCA Suspension's S13 in second with 1:27.367.

WTAC introduced a new 'Pro Am' category this year for non-professional drivers with cars built to the Pro Class rules. It was a closely contested category eventually taken out by Mick Sigsworth in the Evo above with a time of 1:30.957.

Open Class this year was incredible competitive with the top three finishers within one second of each other. BC Automotive were eventual winners, their R32 GT-R producing its best in the later stages of competition. Dean Lillie was driving and managed to wrestle the Nissan around in 1:31.798.

We were amazed by the speed of Clubsprint Class, well and truly hot on the heels of the classes above it. Jason Wright drove to victory in the Process West STI managing 1:39.247, almost two seconds quicker than BYP Racing in second place. On the podium Jason said, "We're pushing 450kW in that car, and that's the best thing about time attack racing there's no restrictions on horsepower!"

Japanese time attack teams were strongly represented, lead by none other than Under Suzuki, the current record holder for time attack at Tsukuba.

Suzuki-san's S15 had seen some aero upgrades since last year and he managed to go quicker than ever at 1:27.958 but it was only good enough for fourth, equal best with his result in 2012.

Motorsport legend Nobuteru Taniguchi took the wheel of Top Fuel/Voltex's S2000RR once more and gave it all he had. An engine failure on Friday put them behind the eight ball but working through the night saw them back out on Saturday running last year's motor. Unfortunately it wasn't their year and the car was retired before its potential could be realised, although fifth in Pro Class is a very respectable result.

As we've seen in other years, Taniguchi -san also drove RE Amemiya's 'Hurricane' RX-7. Upgrades were numerous compared to the machine they brought out last year, but the results didn't reflect it with the car finishing sixth and not managing to go quicker than its PB from last year.

'Tarzan' Yamada is a massive crowd favourite at WTAC having attended every event at SMP and winning two of them. He was here with Team Esprit and their Super GT-inspired NSX.

Having never raced on the circuit before there was a lot of setup required for Esprit's NSX. Tarzan commented on the car saying that it had far more horsepower than his other winning cars (around 800hp) but it was very unstable in the corners. It proved an untamable beast,  Tarzan fought it to a 1:30.255 but was disappointed to finish there.

Side attractions were legion none more entertaining than the Flying 500. Running up the main straight in reverse a crew of straight-line performers took up the challenge of highest terminal speed. Aaron's Evo IX from Mick's Motorsport ran fastest chalking up 252km/h to its name.

Interstate contenders included Mercury Motorsport and their crowd-pleasing, 1000hp+ R34 GT-R. They finished in third slipping and sliding their way through the chequered flag.

Motul hosted the Turbo Legends exhibition featuring a slew of historic race cars. The sound of these machines gunning down Brabham Straight was magic.

Crowds were out in force. From our point of view it looked like the biggest turn out to date, and with good reason as this event continues to get bigger and better.

International guests don't come more exciting than the MADBUL quad-rotor RX-7 and 'Mad' Mike Whiddett. He's been a mainstay of WTAC and one of the best things about it.

The paddock was littered with incredible rides but possibly our favourite was this magnificent thing. How often do you see an F40 in the flesh? We were weak at the knees.

Like we were saying, there was eye candy for everyone no matter what you're into. If you were there let us know what you thought in the comments below.