World Time Attack Challenge 2019
I’ve been a car guy for as long as i can remember, i think the first initiation into cars for most boys are hot wheels. Im 39 and i’m still buying them for my “kids”. What really got me into the car scene (and anime at the same time) was Initial D back in 2000. Didn’t take long for the Hachiroku to be my dream car, and now with the price of them it literally is a dream car as i don’t think i could ever justify spending 18-35k AUD on one.
This clearly sparked my curiosity for drifting and Japanese cars, which then got me into Best Motoring and Hot Version which is when i first came across Keiichi Tsuchiya. I would even watch them when there was no subtitles or voice overs.
Hot Version introduced me to Ken Nomura and his Blitz ER34. Long story short i bought my own ER34 4 door in 2007 and managed to see Ken drift he’s back in 2012 during a D1 Grand Prix event in Odaiba. These days i dont have the ER34 (which i miss) but rather a car i’ve wanted for a long time an MY15 Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
Up until this point i hadn’t been to many live Motorsport events, yes i had been to the Autosalon’s when they were around but that was mainly static cars. Only other thing was a couple of V8 Super Car events. In 2010 that all changed for me.
WTAC (World Time Attack Challenge) was initiated in 2010, and i can proudly say i’ve been to every event since. It’s the Motorsport event that i look forward to the most each year. The event gets better and bigger with each year as well.
If you don’t know anything about it, its basically 2 days of time attack racing which is split into various categories. So each driver is trying to put down the quickest lap over the 2 days. In between those heats are some drifting demos, drag races, show n shine and some bike demos amongst other things. You can see the full itinerary on the WTAC site.
What i love about WTAC is the fact i get to see a lot of the big names ive seen in so many of those Best Motoring and Hot Version videos in person like Keiichi Tsuchiya, Manabu Orido, Tarzan Yamada and Nobuteru Taniguchi. Along with some famous cars like the RE-Amemiya GT-300 RX-7, Mazda 767b and Skaife’s Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R.
Last year the winner was Barton Mawer in his Porsche 968 with a time of 1:19.8250, its crazy to think that the fastest a V8 Super Car can go around this track is a 1.29.8424, thats 10 seconds slower!
This years event was no exception, and didn’t disappoint. Congratulations to Barton Mawer in his Porsche 968 who again won the event with a 1:19.2770 besting his time from last year by 0.00.6000 or a second.
Check out some images from the show and shine:
Here are some of the images from the Time Attack:
I also decided to take my Contax S2b with me and a roll of expired Fujifilm Superia Reala 100 which i shot at ISO 25 just in case as i wasnt sure how old it was. Here are some of the shots from that roll (probably some of my faves from the event).
If you haven’t been to a WTAC event yet put it in your calendar for 2020, maybe even enter your car in the show and shine, what the hell why not the time attack?
Thanks for visiting.
* Title graphic done by Ari Lobos.