There’s just something about a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive machine setup for road racing (or drifting) that makes it very hard to put the power down on the dragstrip. We’ve seen this every year at the Shootout and this year was no different. No machine struggled more for traction than AFI’s 460-whp S2000. Driver Jeremy Renshaw had to literally granny shift his way down the track just to keep the tires from spinning and the tail end from stepping out, resulting in what must have been a very frustrating 16.057-second run at 99.66 mph.
Time Attack
Just when we thought the weather was finally on our side, some fresh rain clouds blew in and dumped some more moisture on the track during our time attack practice session. Watching all these high-horsepower monsters struggle to put more than a fraction of their power to the ground was almost comical, but watching Tarzan Yamada from Crawford Performance turn his first laps at Firebird in a rental car made for an even more entertaining spectacle.
Thankfully, that was the last of the rain, meaning our official time attack session was run on a dry surface. But that didn’t mean it would be a cakewalk for the teams, since this session took place at 9 pm. The front straight was well lit because it’s used for nighttime drag racing, but three or four temporary lightstands used on the back half of the track left some corners dimly lit at best.
Crawford Performance may not be a big fan of wet-weather racing, but on a dry track they proved their mettle and then some. We’re not sure how Tarzan wrapped his brain around going from a rental car in the wet to a 550-whp Subie monster in the dark, but somehow he managed to not only post the fastest lap of the event in the CP STI with a 1:02.10, but he also shattered last year’s time attack track record by almost 3 seconds!
That’s not to say they didn’t have some stiff competition, since Sheehan in the GST Impreza was just over two-tenths of a second behind with a seriously rapid 1:02.34. This left us wondering, if GST wasn’t protecting a points lead in the overall Shootout standings, would they have turned up the boost and instructed Sheehan to push a little harder? Of course, we’ll never know the answer to this timeless racing question, but one thing you can be sure of is that these two Subaru tuning titans will continue to trade body blows for the rest of the time attack season.
Completing Subaru’s dominance of the time attack podium was the YimiSport/Full-Race GR Impreza STI, a street-driven machine (quite possibly the only one driven to/from the Shootout) that still has the factory DVD and Navi systems on board and all the other luxury fixin’s. With Firebird ringer Mike Speck behind the wheel, a best lap time of 1:05.42 was posted, good for third overall in a field stacked with high-horsepower and fully gutted race cars. Clearly, the KW Clubsport suspension, upgraded Brembo brakes, 275/35-18 BFG R1s, Full-Race gen2 twin-scroll turbo kit and a truly kick-ass driver make for a killer combination, along with some excellent overall tuning by the boys at YimiSport.
Next quickest overall was Tage Evanson in his Hasport-sponsored EG Civic, posting a best lap of 1:05.45 and taking the FWD class victory in the process. But Tage was clearly a bit disappointed to have only beat his time from last year’s Shootout by one-tenth of a second given the improvements his team—most notably Brian from Hasport, Josh from Tri Tech Motorsports and Joe from Locash Racing—have made to the car this year, including 275/35-15 Hoosiers up front, bigger aero and bigger power from the addition of a JRSC supercharger with a 6-psi pulley.