The last two years Superlap has been hosted at Oran Park Raceway and it was getting bigger and better every time since it started in 2008, it was with great sadness seeing Oran Park closed forever at the end of January and with that Superlap needed a new home. The promoter Ian Baker from Hi Octane Racing had more in mind for the 2010 Superlap. Yokohama was once again on board to sponsor the great event. Ian, CT from Yokohama and their Crew set off on an overseas adventure and searched high and low for some of the best Time Attack cars in the world. Their first stop was Japan to find the Panspeed RX7, R Magic RX7, Tomei Cusco WRX and the record holding Tsukuba Time Attack Cyber Evo. Then they moved on to America where they invited the Sierra Sierra Evo. With locking in all these magnificent cars they headed back home to start preparations for the World Time Attack Challenge.

I had been anticipating the launch of the 2010 event and had been bugging Ian and Nathan on the car forums about when the details were coming out. Ian & Nathan saw my enthusiasm and invited me to come on board and be a part of World Time Attack Challenge for 2010! I was ecstatic by the invitation cause this motorsport event is right up my alley with the line-up of JDM cars entered, the glitz and glamour (as I like to call it) of all the trade stands in the pits and the level of entertainment that was envisioned and was going to come to life over the two days. I wasn’t going to miss it for the world! I attended a meeting at the Yokohama Headquarters to find out what was needed to make WTAC bigger and better than ever before. We went through the fundamentals and I was given the role of organising all the motorsport crews and volunteers needed to make the event go ahead. It was new territory for all of us as the event was going to be held at Eastern Creek International Raceway for the first time and I was taking on a lot more responsibility than ever before and was ready for the challenge.

I started recruiting people straight away and went seeking volunteers for Flag Points, Marshalling & Crowd Control. I booked Timing, Fire Crew (Firechase), The Recovery Team and I was going to be Race Control. Jeff Bolous has been the Clerk of Course for the event from the start and was going to be the first time for me working with him. Jeff booked the Medical crew and we were set and ready for the epic two days ahead. I was very excited to get a call from Ian to tell me the news that the international cars had landed on Australian soil. He invited me to come and have a sneak peek at the cars and I tell you now that Ian did not have to ask me twice. I was out to the site in a lightning flash. It was starting to become very real for all involve when you see that container door open up and the gorgeous race car sitting so loud and proud inside it makes all the effort worthwhile. The teams started to unload the cars out of the containers and to meet the Japanese & American teams in person before the event was out of this world. The language barrier with the Japs didn’t seem to matter much as we were all so excited to see what was beginning to unfold around us. The amount of gear that each team brought was incredible and the cars were so tightly packed that it was a delicate job to get them out. There were spare engines, body panels, turbo’s and pretty much anything that was on the car they had brought a spare for. There were a few Australian competitors hanging around that day and came to have a look at the competition and were pleasantly surprised at the level they were going up against. Garth Walden has been the raining champ for the last two years at Superlap and was going to be driving the Tilton Evo once again to defend his title. It seems the theme to put a fox amongst the pigeons is an understatement with such an exhilarating driver like Tarzan Yamarda at the realm of the Tomei Cusco WRX and the Cyber Evo. Superlap is the hunting ground for the innovative driver to step out of one time attack car and into another in the Pro and Open Classes. Tarzan had a strategy already planned it felt before he even set foot on our great country which was to give nothing away and playing who’s hiding the timing beacon on both practice days leading up to Time Attack. To see these magnificent cars up close that I could actually touch them and smell them was surreal and there was no better displayed car at WTAC than the Sierra Sierra Evo with it’s pristine carbon fibre body panels and red &black colour scheme it was simply stunning and was definitely going to be a heavy weight contender on both days. I am trying not to forget the Aussie and I was happy to see that David Loftus was back piloting the mighty BSM R32 GTR with a new paint scheme as well it was all pretty in blue! Jose Fernandez was also a very different flavour entered in Superlap with his freshly built Ex Ford Falcon V8 Supercar hosting a Turbo 6cylinder engine and it was packing a whole load of punch!


It was the Thursday night before the event and I was getting nervous and excited all at the same time. I had done my best leading up to the event to have everything in place. Georgie and I tried to calm our nerves and get some shut eye before we got up at the crack of dawn to get ourselves ready and off to Superlap by 7am. We had to meet and greet all the officials on Gate 7 and we were quite surprised to see queue’s already. We helped the gate officials get the pit crews and crowds into the grounds before the event started at 9am. We both headed to the Tower to get our key officials their radio and brief them of their duties and the place they would be seeing all the action. I found this particular morning a very trying time for myself. I learnt a lot from the experience, on how I handle pressure and what I need to put in place for the next WTAC to make it smoother flowing for all. I would like to Thank Georgie and all the Officials that helped out at WTAC I couldn’t of done it with out you guys! . But enough about the logistics to make an event work let’s get down to the fun stuff.

The Pro cars were the first class out and I was sick with anticipation of what the international cars would do. Being there first time out on this circuit and up against Aussie veterans like Garth Walden, David Loftus and Warren Luff. The Internationals were strutting their stuff and it was David Empringham that put down the fastest time in the Evo with a 1:32.2480 he set the pace for the Class. The Cyber Evo nearly destroyed their engine trying to match the time Emperingham had laid down for the lead. They worked overnight to fix the engine and went out the next morning smashing Mark Skaifes V8 supercar record for the circuit and putting down a 1:30.5870! The Aussies were battling hard to try and keep up and laying down excellent times for themselves but couldn’t get close to the Internationals top times!

I found myself a lot more relaxed on the Saturday and was enjoying the event. Georgie and I popped out of the control tower while the drift battles where on to go and catch up with some of the SSCC members that were in the Open Class Category. I was upset to hear that John Bright with his freshly built R32 GTR was out of the race with the engine loosing compression in cylinder 6. He wasn’t overly impressed either with all the time and prep that had gone into the car to get it to the event and it was on fire too with setting a blistering time of 1:41.42 on his first and only session. John is going to be one to watch next year when he comes back with a vengeance! Craig Burgess in his R32 GTR set a time of 1:43:18 which was a Personal Best for him at Eastern Creek. Plus you couldn’t miss Mick Hiscoe in his Evo with fluro orange wheels and setting a fast pace behind Brighty with a 1:41.7830! Steve Spada thought he would give the Tarmac Rallying a break in the EVO 6 and put down a great time of 1:48.05. Beau Yates was also there and competed in the Drift Competition with his AE86 Sprinter and Won! Well Done Beau. I have gone for hot laps in that car and was outstanding but that’s another story for another time! With the day nearly coming to an end and the Pro cars were trying to better Yamada V8 record smashing time with no luck. Yamada in the Cyber Evo took first place closely followed by Empringham in the Sierra Sierra Evo for 2nd Place and Yamada in the Tomei Cusco WRX took 3rd Place. Warren Luff was the First Aussie over the line with 4th Place and only being a half a second behind Yamada in the WRX.

It was a sensational event and I learnt a lot from my experience and can’t wait to run it all again next year. We will be back bigger and better than ever and my fingers are crossed to have more international contenders to take on our Aussies in 2011! Please Click on the link for all the latest news on Superlap