While lying in bed, uncomfortable as hell and fully-clothed, the thought of the track cars kept running through my mind. When my girlfriend leaned over to ask me a question I realized I wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping. After agreement Veronica turned to confirm with Charles how his situation was. "Charles" she asked "are you... itchy?" we laughed, "I never should have come here!" Hilarity ensued. Aside from the semi-trucks that sounded like jumbo-jets doing touch-and-gos, that's the last thing I remembered before I dosed off. I woke up some three hours later to the sound of fully-built time attack cars firing up in the parking lot. Before my eyes could open I announced sleepily "race...cars!"
After I woke up I went outside our motel room and watched the teams preparing the cars for the day's event in the parking lot. As part of a stipulation for the street class, the cars have to be started and driven from the motel to the racetrack. It gets very cold out in the desert and my hoodie combined with a flannel and a jacket wasn't enough to keep my teeth from chattering. Meanwhile some guys on one of the race teams, probably from somewhere up north, were prepping a car in nothing more than a tee shirt and shorts. Once everyone else was ready to go we made a stop by Starbucks and then headed over to the speedway.
Once in the gates there were racecars as far as you could see. The trend this year seemed to be EVOs, STIs and S2000s. There were also some interesting makes like a Lotus, two Porsches and even a Mercedes. But you could tell that anyone that was really serious about setting some records was piloting one of the aforementioned three. I'd like to fill everyone in on what, exactly, Super Lap Battle is. SLB falls into a category of automotive racing commonly referred to as "time attack." In time attack events drivers are competing for one goal, the fastest single lap of the day (or weekend etc. depending on the event.) In this case, the fastest recorded lap during hot sessions on the final day is what counts. The cars are broken down into categories based upon drivetrain configuration and level of modifications. But being that this is the final event the teams had to qualify or receive a special invite to get here.
The majority of the field participated in qualifying rounds in other parts of the country to receive a ticket to finals. I would also like to point out that even if you aren't in Southern California, there is a chance that your town may have a SLB qualifying event. Furthermore spectators aren't charged a fee to go and watch any SLB qualifier and the finals are free of charge as well. What does that mean for you? Well, besides bearing witness to what is possibly the best free automotive spectacle of our time, it would at least get you out of the house for the weekend. We make this event happen to help bring our community together and we strongly encourage people to attend these events. If you haven't attended a Super Lap event yet don't worry, I had never been to one prior to the finals myself, but I can tell you after going to this one it certainly won't be my last.
The action on track was pretty much non-stop. With all the big names out on the track it was time to make history. The big buzz was about the Cusco STI driven by Tarzan Yamada that had it's sights set on the track record held by HKS/Taniguchi which was set at last year's Super Lap Finals. The arguments for each car having the potential to go faster were constantly being thrown around. The HKS car was lighter, but was driving on grooved tires with stock suspension geometry. The Cusco car had modified pickup points and racing slicks on its side. The cars were basically evenly matched as far as power output. The remaining factor on everyone's mind, was that NOB had only driven the course once, while Tarzan has become very familiar with it. A new track record was imminently possible.