World Time Attack 2018
 

Thursday test day is just wrapping up now. AUS is many hours ahead for those of us in the US, WTAC day 1 is tomorrow!
Live feed should be on the WTAC site and their facebook page. If you're tuning in from the US, here's when to be sure to have it on (I think I have the math right).

Friday (Thursday in the US)
8:00-11:05 AM Sessions 1 & 2 [Thursday 2PM - 5PM PDT / 5PM-8PM EDT]
12:15-12:30 PM Special Event - HKS TRB-03 [6:15-6:30 PM PDT / 9:15-9:30 EDT]
13:00 - 16:05 Sessions 3 & 4 [7:00-10:05 PM PDT / 10:00-1:05 AM EDT]

Saturday (Friday in the US)
8:00-11:05 AM Sessions 1 & 2 [Friday 2PM - 5PM PDT / 5PM-8PM EDT]
12:35-12:50 PM Special Event - HKS TRB-03 [6:35-6:50 PM PDT / 9:35-9:50 EDT]
13:35-15:30 Sessions 3 & 4 [7:35-9:30 PM PDT / 10:35-12:30 EDT]
15:50 - 16:45 Superlap Shootout [9:50-10:45 PM PDT / 12:50-1:45 AM EDT]

Keep an eye out for our two MT.net boys in Clubsprint, Mark Collingwood (Team Racepak) and Kendall O'Cconnor (Nitro Dann). Good luck guys!

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...27&oe=5C60E50A

Also pulling for our North American competitor, Will Au-Yeung:

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...7b&oe=5C49845F

Predictions -
PR Tech winning Pro in the Porsche with a 1:19, Escort Evo reverts back to 2017 aero before day 2.
Pro-Am is going to be a blood bath, Tilton and PZ on podium, can't pick a third but curious if the Swiss J-spec team can make it.
Adam Casmiri wins Open.

Live stream link:
Live Stream - World Time Attack Challenge Sydney

Agree on PRtech. Hammerhead seemingly has near zero development from 17 to 18. They have a whole new AMB aero pkg coming for 2019 though.
Escort has Voltex Evo v3r2specB aero now?

I would love to see PZ pull a win in ProAm. That gives us all a sightly better moving target for North American time attack pace, since Will has lap records all over the country.

The 968 has zero excuses now that the new engine is in, and that multi million build needs to justify itself.
They have Voltex aero plus amateur hour special additions.
Agreed and I'd love to see the same, but the Tilton car has gone seconds faster already, though in the hands of a pro driver Garth Walden... It's down to Kosta to make the most out of what is a proven winning package.
The J-spec team won a bunch of stuff in Europe including resetting track records as well, so the car is working well, but it is their first trip to WTAC so Will has a leg up on them in that regard.

Thursday practice coverage -
Thursday - End of Day Wrap - World Time Attack Challenge Sydney

Few notes I found interesting -
The MCA 86 has a new aero package from Barry Lock -
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1b0eaf1cf1.jpg

There are all kinds of interesting elements about this, but the one that sticks out the most is what prompted this development.
This car had AMB Aero on it for 2017 including an Infinity winged splitter -
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...33256a2d28.jpg

History lesson fill -
The MCA S13 Hammerhead was originally designed by Barry Lock, then received partial make-over by AMB Aero, but never really finished the AMB packaged and this year planned upgrade to the Infinity wings splitter was told to be delayed to 2019 because of rules issue.
Now I'm not entirely sure that this is the case, at any rate the S13 looks to be moving fine as it did a 1:22 flat in practice :party:

The Tilton car ran a mid 26 in the hands of the owner -
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9f3e5e037c.jpg

Yeah definitely noticed the changes on the MCA 86, and lack of changes on the Hammerhead.

With the newcomer excuse gone, PR Tech should be winning this thing this year. But, there have been plenty of examples in history of programs with all the right parts fall short of realizing their potential for any number of reasons. So far, they haven't pulled it all together completely. Everyone is just watching and waiting to see if they do because I don't think anyone has doubts that car will dominate if they can get all the cogs meshed right.

Kosta is the one to beat in ProAm. With Mighty Mouse retired anyone else will need to make a few seconds' worth of improvements to give them a run.

In Open, agreed Casmiri is going to be tough to beat. I would have bet Longhurst would be right up there and possibly the one to come out on top this year. That R34 has the potential for it and they've made even more updates this year, but having to pull the drivetrain out last night isn't starting off on the right foot.

Thinking harder about the MCA 86, the class did have the aero envelope increased for this year.. I'm wondering if they shot themselves in the foot by flip-flopping.
The clock will tell, but I suspect the V-Sport 86 which DOES have the latest AMB Aero is going to have edge on aero performance.

V-Sport AMB Infinity wing with narrowed design to fit new max width regulations. I saw a picture of it with eleventy GoPro stickers on the new front end in testing, but can't find it now...
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ca965c9d42.jpg

The rooster tail video that was posted yesterday was pretty awesome!

It's 8 AM there, schedule says they should be starting. Live stream doesn't go up for 2 more hours, not sure what that's about. They've got light rain right now.

I seem to remember something like that last year too, the live feed jumped into the action when Pro-Am hit the track the first time, or something along these lines..

It's 4:02 and there's no live stream.
I give up, I want my money back.

I have been watching for a bit. Its fun seeing random miata's in the background on track when they are talking about other cars.

Feed wasn't working for me, but Natsoft Race Results will give you live timing, click on circuit racing at the top and it is at the top of the list. You have both live timing and static/historic lap times.

Goddman you HKS.
Nob pulling an easy 26 on a wet track with ZERO development time in a car that is visibly slower down the straight from lack of power.

For those who don't know, you can get full live timing and every lap time on natsoft.com.au.

edit: damn Gee emm beat me.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...57546bc027.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1b67e1f9fc.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...430a7dc1f1.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d160f62989.jpg

That is the blue MX5 that I watched chase a black FD.

I also saw part of Dan's lap where he hit a PB somewhere in the 1.4x range. They did not care for much keeping the MX5's on cameras.

The driver of the blue MX5 is Eipgam who posts in the aero section a fair bit.

It's a highly developed N/A engine with around 190-200whp, itbs, e85 etc... The car is also running more sensors and data loggers than a F1.

Word.

What a pain it was to see the Tilton car getting destroyed.

Watched day 2 with Moti while we worked on stuff for Hyper. Not a bad way to watch WTAC!

Stoked to see both of the Miatas run well for the weekend. Dan was on 17" wheels, interested to hear impressions and findings regarding that since it's practically a necessity for this particular ruleset. Just interested to hear how the event went from both team's eyes!

Hard to watch Kosta's crash. We were cringing hard as he lost the front, then the rear, then almost had it but went wide and had just the worst bit of a two-off and hooked left. You see crashes often enough in racing but something about it really struck me with a lot of sadness as I watched. Then I realized why; we're watching this while we're literally rebuilding broken parts damaged in my incident with a tire barrier earlier this year. Professional race cars are rebuilt overnight. Time attack cars are one-offs, labors of passion and countless hours from small driven individuals or teams. Even at the Pro class level with big resources it's a very personal thing for the people involved. And what an iconic car for it to happen to. I really felt for Kosta and his guys. Happy that they have a win and a class record to take away from the weekend. Hopefully they rebuild the car - at least restore it to operational status.

RP finally got the cogs to mesh and threw down a landmark time. HKS didn't embarrass the cars that were actually in the competition. Fun to see Suzuki drive Ando's car which was great for the event, good for team Escort, and just fun the sport in general.

I wasn't driving, I just supplied the engine bolt on's/tuning and helped choose the right mods for the admittedly limited budget, we even had a carbon fastback and a crusher style airdam but both were denied by the WTAC scrutineers.

The car killed 2x LS coils due to me setting the dwell too high, intersting it chose this event to become an issue seeing as how it has a LOT of dyno time and a few other events on the same settings.

We were 5+ seconds off pace and unfortunately the wet and lack of practice and setup time meant we were never going to claw those seconds back. however it was a great event to go to and experience.

here are some more photos.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f9a155fae5.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f41903eaaf.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ca5f26fdb8.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1e87b4d06f.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e0007aad70.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...31aed38c43.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ee9df0f555.jpg


Also a partial lap including main straight on my page at www.facebook.com/nitrodann
Dann

Pretty good predictions :)

Well done to both Mark and Kendall on their driving, and Dann for his work on Kendall's car. Hopefully you have all the bugs sorted out by the time I need a similar engine and turbo package for my car ;)

Interested to hear why the scrutineers knocked back the CF hardtop and air dam Dann?

It wasnt street car enough. S2000s in class with factory hardtop were ok, even though they are almost a fastback, and Marks airdam which is the same as ours was let through.

is what it is.

Dann

I can understand the CF hardtop as being non factory, but hard to understand the air dam provided it fits into the rule set for the class. It's inconsistencies like this that make it difficult for competitors to know where they stand sometimes. Lucky you had an alternative to fit and hadn't just driven 1000ks interstate only to get knocked back.

Dann, given your experience with Kendall's car what do you think is the optimal time for a MX5 in Clubsprint once the car and driver are dialed in?

When I did the sums on it, I figured it would be somewhere in-between a 1:37 and a 1:40 which are the lap records for the old Group A Sierra RS500 and the IPRA lap times respectively. This is based on referencing my times at Barbagallo and what I think would be achievable with boost and running a less grippy tyre like the Ad08r instead of the A050.

That's exactly where I believe kens car could be with some setup time, the right conditions and a gun driver. It ran 1.45 as a daily driver with half the power, but all of the changes and no time to set it up or learn to drive it really killed us at this event. But it's just one weekend to put a show on for the crowd, unless you are in with a chance to win the laptimes arent important, just experiencing the event is.

Dann

I think that's exactly how you have to look at it, and where I'm with it all too. The time and money involved in putting together a competitive Clubsprint car is out of reach for most people these days, but I would still love to be part of it one day just for the experience.

Miatas at WTAC. Awesome. Thanks for the details Dan, wasn't sure what your affiliation with the car was at first, saw the decal on it and went "Nitro Dann! Yes!" with a beer raised in the air ;)

I hear you on just going and being a part of the party. If one wants to be competitive one of the biggest things is testing/practice prior to the event. Get the driver, team and car together out to the track as many times as necessary until everyone is familiar with every detail of the car, driver feels completely comfortable with the car and it's doing exactly what they want, etc.

I'm betting Mark's car got through because the bumper is painted body color. It just looks more a part of the car than a black plastic airdam.

Thanks man.

And yeah, I agree with every part of that post.

Dann

Cool to see Miatas representing at WTAC, this ^ gave me a good chuckle! :skid:

Interested in this too. What part of the ruleset made it a requirement, and how did it compare to 15s?

Control tyre in Clubsprint is the Yokohama AD08R. Widest section in 15" is a 205, so to get any decent width, you need to run a 17", 40 series tyre.

It also applies to the Advan A050 which is run by the Open classes. I currently run a 225/50R15 which sits the chassis up around 20mm more than I'd like. I think a 245/40R17 is only a slight increase in diameter but lets you run a much wider tyre.

There is also a rule in all WTAC classes that allows you to remove metal for wheel clearance. Running a R17 on a NA chassis pretty much means that entire inner tub can be cut out front and back. Ideally you'd run drop spindles to keep the chassis ride height optimal.