Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge 2019 has been run and won!

It was another huge show at Sydney Motorsport Park for WTAC’s 10th year. We have a new champion and a new quickest ever WTAC lap record!

Superlap Shootout took place in testing conditions, with a strong headwind and scattered showers giving all competitors an extra degree of difficulty as they pushed to find time over one last flying lap.

Barton Mawer stepped out of the RP968 Porsche 968 following a fraught last gasp effort, which saw him dip into the 1:19s again but ultimately fall short of extending his Pro Class lap record.

“I was finally flat through turn one, so I was certainly hopeful to go quicker, and we wound up everything to do it, but the conditions weren’t really there. Still, we’re very happy to win,” he said.

“When Rod [Pobestek] had the vision [for RP968] initially, the idea was to break the outright [track] record. Some people scoffed, but we’re so close now! It’s a credit to Australian engineering. We really can do some good work here.”

The only front-runner to go quicker in the Shootout was Brad Shiels in the XTREME GT-R, who was beaming in pit lane having sealed GCG Open Class victory.

“The team worked so hard for this,” said Shiels. “We had the boost up as far as it would go. We saved a set of tyres for that lap and it was just ‘hold on’. It was pretty loose!“

There was an emotional response from the team in the garage as their near-flawless campaign was capped off.

“It’s been three years [at WTAC], but six years building the car and it’s just been a struggle,” said Mark Guyer. “What do you say? The whole team we just work. There’s no egos and it’s just unbelievable. The emotion of this whole thing is fairly strong. It’s been hard, but this will make it worth it. Number one!”

Owner of the XTREME GT-R Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R, Michelle Guyer, was ecstatic with the team’s hard-earned victory.

“I drove this project from the beginning and so many people told me that it can’t be done with a 32 – that it was too pretty to go fast, and that I was concentrating too much on pretty and not enough on fast – but it’s pretty fast! I couldn’t be happier.”

Congratulations to all competitors, and especially to the podium finishers in each class.

YOKOHAMA WORLD TIME ATTACK 2019 RESULTS

ROYAL PURPLE PRO CLASS
1. Barton Mawer – 1:19.277 – RP968 Porsche 968
2. Andre Heimgartner – 1:21.867 – MCA Hammerhead Nissan S13 Silvia
3. Garth Walden – 1:23.856 – Tilton Racing Mitsubishi Evo

HI OCTANE DIRECT PRO AM CLASS
1. Kostinken Pohurokov – 1:26.324 – Tilton Racing Mitsubishi Evolution
2. Sami Sivonen – 1:29.178 – R8 1:1 Audi R8
3. Kunihoko Bando – 1:29.272 – B-Active Racing Toyota Soarer

GCG OPEN CLASS
1. Brad Shiels – 1:28.114 – XTREME GT-R Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R
2. Matt Longhurst – 1:28.736 – Integrated Motorsport Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R
3. Rob Nguyen – 1:29.174 – Dream Projects Australia Nissan S15 Silvia

HALTECH CLUBSPRINT CLASS
1. Jamal Assaad 1:38.614 – Evolution Racing Spares Mitsubishi Evolution
2. Brett Dickie – 1:38.824 – Elusive Racing Honda Integra
3. Nik Kalis – 1:39.276 – Metropole Mitsubishi Evolution X

Author Credit: https://www.worldtimeattack.com/