Things are already getting interesting in the sport compact motorsports world, and it isn’t even the off season yet. The rumor mill is churning on Redline Time Attack’s plans for 2011, but one thing has already been confirmed: the Pacific Tuner Car Championship Series is a reality.

MotoIQ has signed up as the official media partner for the Pacific Tuner Car Championship Series, and is helping bring a class of racing that will hopefully inspire others to participate. One thing that has really plagued Redline Time Attack’s growth over the year is the lack of excitement – especially when you have options such as drifting to watch, or even drag racing. The overall lack of wheel-to-wheel (or door-to-door) Touring Car-style racing has limited Redline’s growth as a spectator sport. But it looks like that’s all about to change.

The Pacific Tuner Car Championship Series will enforce a power to weight ratio and tire size to determine the class that you will run in. Instead of limiting the amount of modifications you can have on your car, or throwing you in some ridiculous class just because you opted for an engine swap on your car, MotoIQ’s brilliance will bring competitive wheel-to-wheel racing to the sport compact world.

So long as you meet the safety requirements to go wheel-to-wheel racing, your car will be classified based on its power to weight ratio. Currently there will be two classes, Tuner Over and Tuner Under. Tuner Under will field vehicles with a 12:1 power to weight ratio, while Tuner Over will field those with a 8:1 power to weight ratio. And in order to keep things equal based on the various vehicles in competition, tire restrictions will be put in place.

We’re extremely interested to see how this will all work out, especially on the basis of supplying a certified dyno sheet in order to classify your car. We’ll be guessing that some of those not-so-fun competitors will be sandbagging, but it’ll also be pretty easy to tell on the straightaways if someone is fibbing their horsepower figures. So hopefully rule enforcement will be strict to keep it a level and fun playing field for all. Will this bring Time Attack to the masses in an exciting way? Only time will tell, but we look forward to the growth of the sport.

[Source: MotoIQ]

When Chris Rado first unveiled his Scion tC time attack car with a massive front spoiler we applauded his ingenuity. Now we’re astounded. To compete in the Redline Time Attack, as well as events around the world, Rado and Team Need for Speed have developed a 1,100-hp all-wheel drive Scion tC. And yes, it’s got a massive front spoiler, and an equally huge rear spoiler. In fact, with this setup it looks a lot like a Pikes Peak machine – aside from the extremely low ride height.

This past weekend Rado and crew gave the car its first competition shakedown at Road Atlanta, although all the bugs haven’t been worked out yet and so the car wasn’t competitive. We’ll be sure to update you if and when the car gets running properly to see if Rado will claim any more track records.

[Source: SpeedHunters]

GST Motorsports and their venerable 1996 Subaru Impreza “L” had a perfect weekend at Round 6 of the Redline Time Attack Championship at Willow Springs Raceway (Rosamond, CA), claiming the Super Modified AWD class and Overall victories with a blisteringly fast lap of 1:20.759 (just 0.3-seconds off the AWD track record set by the Sierra Sierra Mitsubishi Evolution last year).

Mystery driver G-Stig then went on to win the Super Session, where the top cars from the event participate in a 5-lap sprint race for bonus points in the championship. This put an exclamation point on the weekend for the GST crew, completing their clean sweep at Willow Springs and solidifying their lead in the Super Modified AWD class.

“The entire crew has worked very hard on the back of the engine issues we encountered during the previous round”, said G-Stig, driver of the GST Time Attack Subaru L. “With the motor working flawlessly all weekend it allowed us to start concentrating on the handling aspect of the car. We’re getting close and I look forward to testing the changes the team is making to the chassis and aero for the next event.”

Mike Warfield, owner and engine tuner of GST Motorsports, added, “The new engine internals from Brian Crower really did the trick for us this past weekend. The motor ran strongly all weekend and we’re confident we have the powerplant in place now to start pushing things that much harder. We have always had fantastic grip from the Hankook Ventus 214 C91’s and now we’re going to start pushing the chassis and aero that much harder. The win this weekend was attributed to the reliability of the engine in the extreme heat coupled with the tires’ ability to maintain constant grip levels throughout our sessions.”

For in-car evidence of GST’s amazing 1-minute 20-second lap around Willow Springs, check out the video after the jump.

[Source: GST Motorsports]

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Driver Will Chan and his twincharged Enmo Racing Honda Civic turned the Time Attack world on its ear with a dominating performance at the Redline Time Attack Autobahn Country Club event (near Chicago), where Chan won the Street FWD class by 5-seconds over the nearest competitor and reset the class track record by over 3-seconds. In fact, Chan’s car was so fast his time was just 0.2-seconds off the Street AWD record.

Proving that racing is often a fickle mistress, the Enmo Racing Civic was then unceremoniously rear-ended by a Mitsubishi Evolution VIII that slid off the track in the same puddle of oil that the little Honda encountered just moments before. As the pictures available after the jump show, this left the oil-spewing Honda S2000 that started the unfortunate chain reaction and the Enmo Civic sitting in a dangerous spot on the outside of an oil-covered corner, and before the corner workers could throw a red flag to warn the oncoming Mitsubishi, it too hit the slick patch and careened off the track into both Hondas.

Enmo Racing hasn’t let this cruel twist of fate slow them down though, so expect to see this amazing turbocharged and supercharged old school Honda tearing it up at an upcoming Redline Time Attack event, perhaps even at the legendary Sebring road course in August as well as the series finals in November.

[Source: Enmo Racing]

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Redline Time Attack isn’t just the premier Time Attack racing series in the United States, it’s also a great place for novice track drivers to get their feet wet and receive some top notch instruction.

As if to emphasize this point, Redline’s latest video from Las Vegas Motor Speedway showcases the full gambit of competitors, from a total novice in his completely unmodified Volkswagen Golf GTI who took advantage of the in-car instruction available at these events, to a seasoned racing veteran like Dave Lemon in his newly developed Street Tire class Mazda RX-8, to one of the fastest Unlimited class Time Attack machines in the world, the FX Motorsports Development Acura NSX.

The cool part about participating in a series like Redline’s is that you don’t have to be a pro driver with a big budget and a fancy race car, but you still get to hang out with and learn from some of the fastest drivers and best prepared teams in the country. It may not be a free education since it costs a bit to register for these events (typically in the $350/weekend range if you pay in advance), but it’s still the cheapest way to rub elbows with pro drivers like FXMD’s Billy Johnson and GST Motorsports’ Gary Sheehan (both very approachable guys who’ll give you some free tips on the fast line around the track if you ask nicely).

So if you’ve been thinking about taking your car to the track but aren’t too sure where to start, check out the video after the jump and take a look at Redline Time Attack’s website.

[Source: Redline Time Attack]

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The Redline Time Attack series — where man and machine compete against the clock to post the fastest lap time in Street, Modified, and Unlimited classes — attracts many of the biggest name tuner shops in the country, but it has also attracted Paul Walker, star of the film ‘Fast & Furious’.

Walker has made appearances at West coast Time Attack events in the past in a variety of cars including a R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R and a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, but this year he’s driving an E92 BMW M3 in the Street tire class. On March 26th at Buttonwillow Raceway (100 or so miles north of Los Angeles), Walker posted a best lap time of 2:08.407, good for 12th in class (out of 16 competitors). This was 10-seconds off the pace of class winner Mike Bonnani in the Berk Technology BMW 135i, but Bonnani is a veteran of the series and a professional driving instructor.

Walker’s M3, modified to the limit of the Street tire class, has been prepared by AE Performance of Chino, CA. Modifications include a gutted interior and full roll cage, as well as bigger brakes, wider and lighter Volk Racing TE37 wheels and Hankook Ventus RS-3 tires (which meet the 140 UTQG or higher requirement for this class). Curb weight has been reduced from the factory 3704 lbs down to a comparatively svelte 3567 lbs and a carbon fiber wing has been added to give the M3 some added rear grip.

If you’re a diehard Walker and F&F fan and need an autograph to go with your signed Vin Diesel ‘The Chronicles of Riddick’ action figure, chances are you’ll find Walker at a west coast Redline Time Attack event. Just don’t tell him we sent you.

[Source: Redline Time Attack, AE Performance]

Over the last decade or so of competitive compact motorsports, imports have mostly dominated the market, be it drag racing, drifting or time attack/road racing. There are very few standout Euros in any of those fields and when one shows up it’s memorable. We  can recall when Turismo Technology built a shockingly cool 318Ti for the quarter mile back in the late 90s. It was so unusual back then that it graced the pages of more than a few different magazine publications. We can slso think of Andy Sapp, who was a crowd favorite in previous Formula DRIFT seasons, taking his BMW E46 sideways. And now there is Berk Technology’s BMW 135i that is entering its second season of Redline Time Attack competition with extremely impressive results.

Just over a week ago was the Redline Time Attack’s season opener at Buttonwillow Raceway. There was great anticipation from all the teams to see what off-season changes were made, who would attend, and who was going to be impressively quicker and faster. Berk Technology’s 135i made quite the splash last year, but never got itself a podium spot in the Street RWD class. During the off-season they made a lot of minor tweaks and it truly paid off. After some practice runs, Berk Technology’s driver, Mike Bonanni, blew the doors off their previous track record by over two seconds. They had broken the 2-minute mark with a time of 1:59.319 landing them a first place qualifier. The car had more in it and was even more impressive on its first time attack session. The 135i set a new track record for Redline Time Attack’s Street Tire RWD class with a 1:58.839.

Being the only vehicle in the Street Tire RWD class to break the 2-minute barrier for the event is quite the achievement. But being able to topple the atypical imports with a balanced European garners plenty of attention. This just proves how great and versatile of a platform the BMW 135i is and we look forward to see what Berk Technology has up their sleeves for the next Redline Time Attack event in Las Vegas.

[Source: Berk Technology]

Modified Nissan GT-Rs are surprisingly few at the 2009 SEMA Show, but the ones that are in attendance are impressive machines. With the GT-R’s impressive Nürburgring lap time it was only time before tuners and race shops got started on tuning the GT-R to fulfill its motorsports calling.

The car features modifications including shocks by JRZ, aerodynamics by GT:R Fabrication and engine tuning by AMS and Cobb tuning. Power is a reasonable 550-hp, although the GOTO Racing team is reportedly working on upping the output to closer to the 650-hp mark.

Driver Brian Lock pilots the GT-R in both the Super Lap Battle and Redline Time Attack.

GALLERY: GOTO:Racing/Dell Equallogic GT-R

Motorsports is all about bending the rules. And as they say, if you’re not cheating, you’re losing. Chris Rado and his World Racing Scion tC are not losing.

In fact, at the recent Redline Time Attack at Willow Springs Rado dominated in the front-wheel drive Unlimited class posting a 1:22.623 lap time – setting a new record for a front-wheel drive vehicle at the track.

How did he do it? Isn’t it obvious? He stuck a ridiculous looking wing on the front of his tC race car, giving those front tires all the downforce they need.

We’re certain all the other competitors laughed at him… while he sprayed them with champagne from the top of the podium.

[Source: Speedhunters]

[Photography: Mike Garrett]