What Is Super Lap Battle?
Back in April 2004, the editors of Super Street and Sport Compact Car decided to put together an event under the name "Time Attack", which later on was renamed Super Lap Battle (SLB). Drag racing is mainly dependent on an engine build up and its performance. Restricted road racing can either give the advantage to the driver or chassis build up. Drifting is not racing but more like skilled car control by a driver. SLB is the ultimate test for a tuner, combining all areas of car setup. It is about getting the best setup of engine, suspension, brakes, aerodynamics and tires to work in harmony to get the single fastest lap time possible. This event is a time trial based contest similar to most race organizations qualifying sessions. Although numerous competitors are on track at the same time, they are not going 'fender to fender', or trying to get to the finish line before one another. Cars go on track and compete to see who can get the fastest single lap time
At the time of conception, in 2004, the track of choice became Buttonwillow Raceway with their clockwise 13 configuration. For the first time ever, an event was able to bring out the top tuners in the USA and Japan to compete head to head on the road course. Signal Auto's R34 GTR pulled off the fastest time of the day with a 1:54. Later in the same year we held another event in November where Japan's infamous Sun Auto Cyber Evo driven by Tarzan Yamada set a long-standing record of 1:48.906. In 2007, HKS brought out their CT230R Evo piloted by Nobuteru 'No One Better' Taniguchi who shattered the old record with a time of 1:43.523. This is the same HKS Evo that holds the record at the renowned Tsukuba Time Attack. Tarzan came back in 2008 with the Cusco/Tomei WRX winning the event, but came in short of breaking the HKS record with a lap time of 1:44.372.
Race Classifications
To keep the racing fair, cars are divided into three different classes based on rules on chassis build up and tire rating. Those three classes are then divided up into three classes this time based on their drive train layout.
| STREET CLASS |
LIMITED CLASS |
UNLIMITED CLASS |
| AWD |
AWD |
AWD |
| FR |
FR |
FR |
| FF |
FF |
FF |
AWD - Cars with All-Wheel-Drive drive trains.
FR (MR/RR) - All rear-wheel-driven cars including
FR (Front-engine Rear-wheel-drive), MR (Mid-engine Rear-wheel-drive) and RR (Rear-engine Rear-wheel-drive).
FF - All cars with a front-wheel-driven drive train; (Front-engine Front-wheel-drive).
Street Class - Registered road-going cars
retaining full interior and using tires with a UTQG rating of 180 or higher.
Limited Class - Cars with OEM glass, full interior (minus pieces for a roll bar or rollcage), and using tires with a UTQG rating of 100 or higher.
Unlimited Class - The only rules are use of a production vehicle and tires legal for use on public
highways in either the US, Japan, or Europe. Racing slicks are not allowed.
Key Points
• Our event brings out the top teams from the US and all over the world.
• The race is not just for Japanese manufactured cars. European and domestics (without push rod engines) are also welcomed. GM even put together a purpose built Cobalt Time Attack car just to compete in our event. (They had the Unlimited FF record, until it was broken this year by Chris Rado and the World Scion tC.)
• Fast times at Buttonwillow for Unlimited Class cars are 1:50s and below
• Fast times at Buttonwillow for Limited FR and AWD class cars are 1:54 and below, FF is 1:58s
• Fast times at Buttonwillow for a Street class car are 2:00 and under, FF 2:03 and under
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