HRE Performance Wheels | Luxury Street Motorsport

The WORLD Racing Scion tC wins its class and takes second overall at Willow Springs Raceway

On March 28th the Redline Time Attack series kicked off its 2010 season at Button Willow Raceway, known as the proving ground for the fastest time attack cars in the United States and the place where at last years Super Lap Battle Finals, WORLD Racing demolished a four year old track record. After that event the team determined there was plenty left on the table to go deeper into the history books.

After spending the Winter months tuning the HRE-equipped WORLD Racing Scion tC, driver Chris Rado was excited to get back to Button Willow with his sites set on the FWD overall lap record. On Friday during testing Rado laid down a 1:47 second lap time which was 2 seconds faster than the record. This left WORLD Racing very optimistic that the possibility was there to run a 1:46 lap or even faster. Some small mechanical issues with the vehicle needed to be addressed after testing.

WORLD Racing focused on these issues Saturday to ensure the racecar was fit for battle on Sunday. At the end of the day on Saturday the team decided to go out for one practice session and make sure some of those fixes actually did what they were supposed to do in the final session. The result was shaving another half second off of an already unbelievable time for Button Willow clockwise configuration 13.

On Sunday Rado went out on a tear, but as he rounded the final corners he got into the braking zone approaching Star Mazda turn and the brakes didn’t slow the car down. Rado drove straight off (luckily) on to another paved portion of racetrack. After bringing the car in the pits and determining that the passenger side CV joint had exploded and coated the entire passenger side brake in grease. The team then quickly determined the cause of failure, changed the CV joint and readied the car for the first “official” time attack session of the season. Since the session was at 2:40pm track temps had gone up over 60° and the air temperature had risen over 30° from their previous outing that morning, this meant that the car now wouldn’t have the mechanical grip or aerodynamic down force it had in the earlier session. Nevertheless, Rado was able to run a 1:47 lap and it was still faster than their previous record.

The car was ready again for the final session on Sunday and even though the temperatures persisted Rado and the team were able to run a 1:46.730, which was 3.1 seconds overall quicker than their previous record and secure the first super modified win of the season. This lap put the WORLD Racing Scion tC in the record books. In addition to running a 1:46 and finishing first in super modified the WORLD Racing team also finished second overall behind the Sierra Sierra all wheel drive Mitsubishi Evolution.

Rado and the WORLD Racing team are elated with their performance at Button Willow after coming to the track hoping to run in the 1:47s and somehow dipping the car into the 1:46 territory. Chris says “after a long weekend running the car and seeing the possibilities I truly believe that we can be a contender for the overall at Button Willow and maybe even run a 1:43.” The team isn’t back at Button Willow until November for the Super Lap Battle finals but you can guarantee that when November comes, the race will surely be a battle not to be missed.

The team’s next race is in Phoenix at the Super Lap Battle season opener and Modified Ultimate Tuner Shootout at Firebird International Raceway in Avondale Arizona. This next event is a combination of drag racing, time attack, dyno challenge, and autocross. All these events will be competed in with one vehicle, and a FWD has never placed in the top five overall. Stay tuned for more coverage and video coming soon to the HRE Blog.

Photos courtesy of Mike Garrett @ SpeedHunters.com
To view more pictures and to see the SpeedHunters post, CLICK HERE