COVERAGE> More World Time Attack from OZ!

Day two of free practice for the World Time Attack Challenge saw a host of various cars come out to tempt their fate at Sydney Australia’s Eastern Creek Raceway. Competition begins tomorrow… are all the challengers ready for the heat of timed competition?

Most of the cars on the track were the competitors for the WTAC, but since it was technically an open practice drive day, several non-competing cars were also out on the track. Let’s take a look at some of the cars on the circuit from today!

Of all the cars that ran Eastern Creek today, I think none looked better than these two Lamborghinis.

Another day of practice before the actual competition rounds begin tomorrow – which means that most of the pro teams performed at least some laps. This being said, Tarzan Yamada was very busy driving!

After piloting the Tomei/Cusco Subaru Impreza WRX widebody, Tarzan would literally jump straight into the Sun Auto Cyber Evo for more testing laps.

Walking around the pits, I spotted this R32 Skyline GTR. To the keen eye it became apparent that this is one of the original Gibson Motorsport Skylines that dominated Australian Touring Car racing in the early 1990s. In fact, the Gibson team dominated so much that the category was changed to disallow cars such as this -which gave birth to what is now known as the V8Supercar Series.

Fast forward twenty years or so and we have a modern example of the ultimate Australian built GT-R – Mark Berry‘s amazing Hi Octane Racing/Advan R34 GT-R.

The pit garage of the Sierra Sierra team is impressive. Lined with expensive red Snap-on tool chests, it shows that the S2 team means business!

The R-Magic FD3S RX-7 looked impressive whether it was standing still or flying around the circuit.

The “other” RX-7, from Pan Speed, seemed to spend as much time on the track as the R-Magic car. As to which was faster? We will have to wait until tomorrow when we have some proper lap times to post. Most of the laps from today’s sessions were cut short or in traffic.

The Sun Auto Cyber Evo also saw quite a lot of track time and its three stage canard system was put to good use on the high speed sections of Eastern Creek.

This Queensland based JZA80 Supra had a unique aero package. It’s racing in the Clubsprint class, which is for more street based cars.

Several Australian based RX7s also hit the track today! This FD hails from Adelaide and is part of the Rama Racing team.

It wasn’t all plain sailing with the 999 Automotive team forced to swap the gearbox on their DC5 Integra/RSX.

These are two of the fastest Time Attack cars in the world. The pits look great with weapons like these entering and exiting constantly.

When the extreme looking Panspeed RX-7 makes any move at all, everyone notices.

GT Auto is a Queensland based work shop and their demo car is this clean looking FD RX-7. The driver is experienced circuit racer, and tarmac rally driver, Steve Glenney.

Today saw many freshly built cars hit the track for the first time, among them was Sam Stratten‘s J’s Racing DC5 Integra. This car was the cover car of Auto Salon Magazine‘s final issue, so it is a well known car, even though it had not hit the track until earlier today.

This is possibly the best known Australian time attack car… the Hi Octane Racing R34 looked great from behind…

…and totally menacing from the front. The car was running well until heat issues caused the team some drama. Let’s hope they are easily repaired!

A near standard Nur-spec R34 looks quite mild when compared with the Hi Octane Racing Advan car.

Looking down pit lane, just seeing the R-Magic RX-7 drive toward you sends shivers down your spine!

It also looks equally intimidating on the track!

The Sierra Sierra team was very happy with their testing progress…

Oh, hey, did somebody order an RB26 engine?

Several Radicals were lapping throughout the day. Amazing little cars.

Here’s a Mitsubishi Evo taking the chequered flag. There was no real racing today; the flag was just used to signify the end of the session. Perhaps this may be a sign of what awaits us tomorrow? Will it be the Cyber Evo which laps the creek in the shortest time? Or will Sierra Sierra continue their dominance?

Or will it be someone else? Anyone care to place some bets?

:: Mark Pakula