Time Attack is different. The spectators are generally from the aftermarket street scene, the aero packages on the cars are cartoonishly extreme, and there’s usually a throbbing backing track playing loudly in the pits. As for the format, it’s somewhere between hillclimbing without the hills and motor racing without the races. Maybe not one for the motorsport purist, then...
Or is it? Consider the facts. Time Attack offers competition that does not involve contact between cars, very high levels of technology and unfettered and continual development in its top classes. Given all that, this might just be the purest form of motorsport out there, especially when it comes to actual racecar engineering.
Of the relatively free UK motorsport categories we have been championing in these pages over the past year, this is by far the most open, which goes some way towards explaining the bonkers looking cars.
Tuning Japanese
But before we get to them, a little background on the series itself. Time Attack started in Japan in the 1980s as a way for tuning companies to demonstrate the efficacy of their products, something which is still a feature of the scene today.
‘It is really aimed more at the aftermarket and the tuning fraternity than it is the core traditional motorsport sector,’ says Simon Slade, UK Time Attack championship coordinator and promoter.
The UK championship has been in existence since 2006, and claims to be the largest and most professional series of its kind in the world today. Its rounds are usually held at ‘tuning jamborees’, which also feature entertainment, car displays and other fringe motorsport disciplines, such as drifting.
These events are hugely popular, too. The Tunerfest South extravaganza at Brands Hatch that Racecar attended was sold out on the Sunday, something that simply does not happen with club and most national race meetings these days.
Another way in which Time Attack differs from regular racing is, as the name suggests, it’s against the clock. That said, in the UK championship the
