Time Attack - Round 2Knockhill - 15th May 2011
The technically demanding Knockhill race circuit lived up to its reputation of providing close and exciting motorsport last weekend, when Time Attack made it's annual visit to the 1.3-mile track near Dunfermline for round two of this year's seven-round series. After retiring from round one at Oulton Park, Gavin Renshaw was delighted to score his first Pro-Class victory of the season in Scotland. By setting the fastest overall time in his NR Autosport Mitsubishi Evo IX, he took the win by just 0.137 seconds - a measure of how close the competition was throughout the day.
Fractions of seconds also separated the winners in the other classes: Fiona Kindness scoring a home win in her Track Scotland Nissan Skyline R32 in the Club-Pro Class, whilst Alan Freeland took the honours in the Club 4WD category driving his Mitsubishi Evo XI. Romain Levesque delivered an impressive performance with his Honda CRX in the Club FWD class and Umar Masood and his Mazda RX7 collected the spoils in the Club RWD category.
Once again, the venue's 'four seasons in one day' weather system played its part, with drivers having to contend with a mixture of wet and dry - and somewhere in between - conditions during the course of the day. After a hot and sunny weekend at Oulton Park, this was the first time that competitors sampled the new Pirelli P-Zero tyres in wet conditions, with the treaded 'road-style' pattern helping disperse any standing water.
With the rain appearing in the middle of the day, thankfully - for the competitors and 1000s of spectators that had turned out to see the action - it did not return in the afternoon, which meant that track was dry by the time the final runs began just before 4.00pm. However, conditions for qualifying in the Pro and Club-Pro Classes - which both share the same time slot on the track - were horrendous, with drivers having little choice but to get through the session as cautiously as possible and not ruin their chances of making it through to the finals.
Pro Class
The Pro-Class is the series' top category and therefore features professionally built cars - mostly four-wheel-drive and turbo-charged Japanese examples - some of which develop over 800bhp! However, in the changeable conditions this was not always an advantage and, on a circuit like Knockhill, a good set-up and precise driving is also an important factor in maximising a lap.
After the disappointment of a DNF in round one, Renshaw was determined to put the record straight - and did so, with a time of 55.024 against second-placed Russ Paton's 55.161 in his Mitsubishi Evo XI. Third place went to Marcus Webster, who stopped the clocks with a 55.904 in his Nissan Skyline R32 ahead of fourth-placed Evo VIII of Michael Mahoney.
After tasting success at Oulton Park, Duncan Graham was frustrated that he could not put together a perfect lap in his BC Racing Subaru Impreza and, on this occasion, had to be content with fifth. Another Subaru driver who's luck was not with him was Paul Doyle, who's K-Sport backed completed no more than one lap in the morning's warm-up session, its early exit attributed to a suspected engine problem.
Club-Pro Class
The Club-Pro Class is also populated by rapid four-wheel-drive machinery, albeit not as modified as the Pro-Class examples. However, that didn't stop local driver Fiona Kindness setting a highly impressive 56.900, which secured her the Club-Pro win by over half a second.
The battle for second and third in the class was a closely fought affair between Warren Kelly in his Airtec Escort Cosworth and Neil Robertson in his SRC Evolution VI, the pair of them setting lap times of 57.584 and 58.441 respectively.
Club Classes
Featuring cars of closer-to-standard specification - many of which are also used on the road as well as the track - the Club Class is split into three categories: four-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive and front-wheel-drive. The two-wheel-drive classes are then further split into turbo-charged or normally aspirated cars, with all going out on track during the same sessions.
Club 4WD
Unsurprisingly, the fastest of the Club Class runners were all in the four-wheel-drive category, with the top three at Knockhill all Mitsubishis, separated by less than 0.7 second! Fastest was Alan Freeland in his Evo VIII who, by posting a 56.127. He also set the fourth best time of the day and would have won the Club Pro-Class had he been entered.
Second was round-one winner Andrew Barbour, who lost out on this occasion even after posting a respectable 56.704. He finished just 0.106 seconds ahead of Matthew Lawson, who's 56.810 in the closing stages secured him a comfortable third place by a significant margin of 1.7 seconds.
Club FWD
The class for front wheel-drive-cars is regularly dominated by the Forge Motorsport Astra VXR of Bo Nielsen: but this time is was Romain Levesque in his super-quick Honda CRX that was the man on form this weekend and his 1:00.222 in comparison to Nielson's 1:00.415 was just enough to leverage the win.
Third went to Dave Thorpe in his TDI North Honda Civic, with a time of 1:00.665 and, with less than half-a-second separating the leading FWD trio, Knockhill again provided yet another closely fought battle between the class leaders.
Club RWD
The Club rear-wheel-drive category saw the top two drivers from Oulton Park swap positions. This time it was Umar Masood who romped home to victory with a 1:01.151 in his Mazda RX7, ahead of Jimmy White who suffered problems with his Vauxhall VX220.
All of this year's Time Attack events share their calendar with that of the Pirelli European Drift Championship. Following his win in round one, Paul Conlan did it again, overcoming the tricky conditions and the difficult nature of the Knckhill Drift course in his BC Racing Nissan S15.
The event also hosted the ever-popular Modified Live show. This homage to tuning and modifying once again including a huge gathering of car club displays, trade stands, a collection of individual exhibits and a host of other attractions, including the Show 'n' Shine competition sponsored by Kleers.
The next event in the Time Attack series calendar takes place in the south of England and sees the first of this season's double-header meetings, with Brands Hatch hosting rounds three and four on 25th & 26th June.
The 2011 Time Attack series is sponsored by: Pirelli, Sumo Power, NISMO Competition.com Kleers, Cosworth, K-Sport, SuperPro, BC Racing, Santa Pod Raceway and Speedhunters.
2011 Time Attack CalendarRound 1: 16 April Oulton ParkRound 2: 15 May KnockhillRound 3: 25 June Brands HatchRound 4: 26 June Brands HatchRound 5: 31 July: Cadwell ParkRound 6: 28 August AngleseyRound 7: 25 September Snetterton
