With every passing year it seems the gap between SEMA and the Super Lap Battle (SLB) finals on the following Wednesday get closer and closer. Just when you think you can relax (and detox), you find yourself driving into the middle of the desert where filthy hotels, crappy food and fast cars await. When the sun comes up in the distance, race fuel stench fills the air and the sound of engines firing to life surround you—it’s suddenly all worth it.
If you’ve somehow managed to live under a rock and never heard of Super Lap Battle before, I’ll break it down in a nutshell. It’s America’s original time attack series, time attack being a fastest-lap timed competition running modified street cars—not full-on sanctioned racers. The right combination of car, tuning and driver are what wins here and although budget is at play, and often times the class winners aren’t the best funded but rather the most clever and skilled.
In years gone by, the SLB finals have played host to some of the most impressive, not to mention quick, time attack cars in the world. Seeing cars and tempers pushed to the limit has become expected, but this year had a unique feel. To choose one word to describe this year’s event it would be relaxed. As the industry and time attack scene have evolved much of the shit talking and heated rivalries have been replaced by good-vibes and camaraderie. Everyone is working towards the same goal—going as fast as possible.
I showed up the day before SLB to watch practice and test my own daily driver (which you can read about in the Spring 2012 issue of Project Car). I could tell watching cars like the FXMD NSX smash around my EG with the greatest of ease that there would be records getting broken the next day. When Wednesday morning finally rolled around, the weather forecast was perfect, and when combined with relatively traffic free run groups, this was the ideal recipe for fast lap times. 2011 was going to be the stage for a very interesting shift in the time attack movement.
Since the inception of Super Lap in 2004, an Unlimited AWD car has always held the overall record at Buttonwillow. In an interesting change of pace, there were only two UAWD cars on hand this year to back up the record but the boys from FX Motorsports Development have been putting in serious work developing their NSX and they were the favorite for the overall win—but would they break the previous record of 1:41.046 set by Sierra Sierra and become the first ever RWD record-holder?
During testing and practice the team looked to be on pace for a record setting day but ran into a few hiccups along the way. But FX wasn’t the only team with their sights set on a new record. After a disappointing 2010 season, Chris Rado and his World Racing team ditched the AWD project and brought out their new Unlimited FF 2011 Scion tC monster with the goal of knocking down their own best, and current class record of 1:49.703. Not only were the guys able to beat that time, they smashed it into oblivion by over 2 seconds with a new record of 1:47.394! Unless these guys come back with an even crazier tC I don’t think this time will ever be beaten.
Sportcar Motion’s Loi Song and driver Tim Kuo were back to recapture the Limited FF flag they lost to FXMD last year. Their previous best time was set with Tim behind the wheel of a K-series EG back in 2008, which was the last time SCM and Tim went to battle in this class. For 2011, the boys brought out a newly-improved Integra Type R (which competed in our first FF Battle), which up to this point had never been driven in competition by Tim. After one session it was clear that the pair were working beautifully together and by the end of the day Sportcar Motion laid down a very impressive 1:54.789, good enough for the win and a new record.