Things were hot and heavy at our recent Time Attack qualifiers in Willow Springs in sunny California. With the help of NASA, more than 160 cars registered for the very hot and windy event. Besides our Time Attack's new name, sunburn, and dehydration, here's what you missed out on: The huge battle between HG Motorsports' Mitusbishi Evo (driven by Dieter-Heinz Kijora), Crawford Performance's Subaru STI (driven by Russell Warr) and Evasive's Mitsubishi Evo (driven by Robert Walker). All were within tenths of a second of each other. HG Motorsports ran a 1:28.185, Crawford a 1:28.437 and Evasive a 1:28.530.
Stina Hubinette, wife of Sam and last month's cover model, showed up in Super Street's Dodge SRT4 and ran impressive times. So much so that she advanced to HPDE 3 and whooped a whole bunch of boys' butts. This time, luckily, my ass cheeks weren't one of them.
Chris Rado and his Super Lap Battle Scion tC, crack crew and gorgeously-conditioned hair were there. He clicked off some quick times in his FF, running only a second behind the AWD boys at 1:29.550.
Kure International debuted its S15 at our Super Lap Battle with Ernie Fixmer shaking down the car. They're looking to, ahem, cure the long standing Buttonwillow record.
Nakai from Tein tuned our project STI's suspension on the track. For his ultra-secret EDFC STI settings, send cash payments to either Elliott or myself. PayPal accepted.
Speaking of Tein, Phillip Chase from Tein drove his Evo, smoking Nadsy in our project STI like he was an Iranian terrorist. On Nadsy's behalf, the windshield was cracked during a Saturday test run (shhh, don't tell Subaru) and his manboob ballasts were weighing him down.
Our newly adopted editorial stepbrother, Peter Tarach from Modified, showed up to Willow Springs. Being his first exposure to Cali's desert climate, Petey's fair Canadian skin didn't fare so well.
Andy Hope, however, did do battle in a Password: JDM Honda Civic. He was looking good, even with fuel spewing from the gas tank. Petey and myself, however, had a hard time looking at all, with the fumes nearly blinding us.
Last but not least, what you definitely did not miss out on was the huge fire on Highway 14 that closed all southbound traffic back to LA.
Unlimited
1.Scott Bush (Team Relentless), Nissan 350Z; 1:31.17
2.VRT (Michael Alvarez owner), Nissan 350Z; 1:31.68
3.Jim Pierce (Janos Garaczi owner), Dodge SRT4; 1:34.17
Limited
1.Michael Bonanni (Team Relentless), Nissan 350Z; 1:31.95
2.VRT (Tanner Foust Driver), Nissan 350Z; 1:32.22
3.Ed Nazarian, Mitsubishi Evo 9; 1:35.92