ARC Forum Battle :: Time Attack, Weather Assault.

Earlier this month Melbourne played host to the inaugural Forum Battle.
In true Melbourne syle, all our interstate guests and competitors were welcomed by some of our finest weather (sorry about that!).


The Forum Battle consisted of three separate competitions, originally there were more, but the weather had the last laugh.
The Time Attack was easily the largest category, with sixteen cars competing. This included five interstate cars.

Mr Advan and one of the boys from the ‘Big Red’ team talking strategies.
The car was covered in tape and cloth to test the aero package on track, the crew also made some last minute changes by cutting into the the tyres to help gain some extra grip in the wet.

Marty from Mighty Car Mods getting excited as he headed out.

Pedro in the insanely loud, left hand drive VW Golf.

Looking down the line-up for the Time Attack cars, I was pretty impressed as there was such a varied mix of cars!

After one lap behind the pace car it was time to start setting some times. Ovi in this red Evo was first off the line.

During the very first lap on the second corner the worst thing happened! I wasn’t even ready with my camera and I don’t think Ovi was ready either.

The track was just too wet and Ovi came in far too ‘hot’.

After the smash the drivers in the dummy grid waited for the track to be cleared and at this stage it was unsure whether or not the race would continue.

Eventually the Evo made it’s way back to the pits on the back of a flat bed. The tow truck drove past the dummy grid…

And then the radio announced that the race would continue.
The RX7 drivers thought it over and decided to call it a day though.
Some of these guys were from QLD so it was not an easy decision to make having traveled so far and having spent so much money to get here.

A short time later, the show continued. Drivers paced themselves and gradually got faster throughout the day as they gained confidence on the track.
Stephen Verschuren managed to crack the one minute mark with his tuned and built Nissan Pulsar.

Jason Naidoo got himself into poll position in his highly tuned Evo 8. This was one of the cars to watch after a very respectable 1:43.0420 lap at last years WTAC.

The fastest RWD for the street class, Chasers east side division’s S15 driven by Manny Su.

After a few laps the Mitsubishi GTO pulled in after having some ‘technical difficulties’.

The car had already set a very quick lap so it was given a chance to rest in the pits and retired early.

Having two events running side by side was great for the spectators. So while the Time Attack was underway the rally cars were coming past to get to the starting grid.

One of the Calder park officials looking very official indeed!!

My personal favourite car from the field,  Ken Matsuda’s turbocharged AW11 MR2.
This car performed brilliantly during the Time Attack and even better in the Motorkhana session.

Marty’s 1.3l beast – this little car had a lot of grip issues in the corners.
The throttle had to feathered the whole way around the course, check out the in car footage from Mighty Car Mods Video

The crazy Golf managed to crack the 1 minute mark, a very quick lap of just 56.4

Throughout the day the Vic Drift demos turned heads everywhere. I even overheard some of the officials comment that it was very exciting to watch!

There were just six cars representing Vic Drift over the weekend. This included Nigel in the ETS 180SX and the JAK Motorworks boys in their freshly painted blue Nissan S14 and R32 4 door.

The track was absolutely soaking and the boys did a great job putting on a skid show.

All the water meant the tyres lasted a lot longer!

The Thunderdome allowed for some ridiculously long drifts around the banking corners.

Here is the official leader board for the Time Attack results.

 
 
We still have the Motorkhana post coming up and a final recap of the entire Forum Battle event.
So until then, thanks again for reading.
– Gwyn.