Aus Time Attack To Tackle Winton This Weekend

This weekend, June 29-30, Aus Time Attack competitors will battle for national glory at Winton Motor Raceway. Similar to a traditional Motorsport qualifying session, time is of the essence with the driver who sets the fastest lap time across the weekend taking home the title of outright Aus Time Attack winner.

Throughout the weekend a total of 74 drivers will be racing against the clock to win either their class or outright honours.

Entrants are split into five categories based on the performance of the vehicle. Aus Time Attack organisers designate the classes for each competitor depending on the vehicles, power, weight and performance modifications.

The five classes are as follows Prodsprint, Clubsprint, Open, Pro and Supercar Class, a driver from any of these categories can win the event outright.

“Everybody will get nine, 12-minute sessions over the weekend and then it's the fastest time that counts,” said event organiser John Boston. “It’s essentially nine qualifying sessions, just like a normal race event.

“You've got your first, second and third overall outright over the 70 odd cars, but then you've got all your individual classes.

“Within some of those classes like Prodsprint, they've got a two-wheel drive, all-wheel drive and fastest naturally aspirated classes. So, there's lots of battles within each category.”

The reigning champion Aleck Kazakovski will be looking to go back-to-back driving his Subaru Impreza WRX Sti, but will be challenged further in 2024 with an increased field size both overall and in the top-class, Pro.

Last year Kazakovski won the Pro class and the event outright by 1.9s, that is unlikely to happen in 2024 with additional competition in the top class.

Kazakovski won’t just have to beat the new competitors, he will also have to overcome his rivals from last year also, Richard Perini driving his Ginetta G55 finished second in 2023 and will be keen to go one better this time around.

The Open Class, as the name suggests, has quite an open rule book, but is slightly more stringent than the Pro Class, despite this, drivers in Open have won the event outright in years gone by.

Reigning Open Class winner Shane Brandon is not competing this year and leaves the door wide open in 2024, with all drivers believing they can take the title.

Australian Sports Sedan competitor Brad Shiels, who won the event outright in 2019 will be looking to claim class glory.

“Brad's driven lots of things, he’ll be one of the front runners,” Boston predicted. “He'll be in the open class, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up top three outright over the weekend.”

He is not the only former champion in the class in 2024, two-time outright winner Paul McKinnon steps back up into the Open category this year and will drive a Subaru WRX.

This category is made up of highly modified Japanese built machines from a Toyota 86 to Honda Civics, Mitsubishi Evos and Nissan Skylines just to name a few.

The largest category this year is Clubsprint, this class also hosts a large variety of vehicles.

It is mainly comprised of Japanese machines including a Honda S2000, Toyota GR Yaris and Mazda RX-7, however it does also contain a Hyundai I30N and several BMW M machines.

Reigning class champion Trent Grubel is the Aus Time Attack and World Time Attack Club Sprint Champion and will be the one looking to defend his crown.

The 2023 TCR Australia winner Josh Buchan will be kept busy driving two cars in the event, entering a Mitsubishi Evolution X in Clubsprint and the events first ever fully electric car, a Hyundai Ionic 5 N in Prodsprint.

“The Hyundai weights 2.2 tonnes with nearly 500 kilowatts of power, it won Top Gear car of the year in 2023, who knows what that's going to be like on track,” Boston explained.

“For him to go up against the normal and proven combustion engine cars, I think it just adds a bit of a unique element with what we're doing and it's going to be a lot of fun.”

Prodsprint is the entry level category, in which drivers and teams must adhere to modification restrictions and tyre limits to contain costs, a stacked 23 cars have been entered into this class.

The defending Prodsprint class winner Jie Ren returns driving his Toyota GR Supra. Also coming back are his rivals from last year ZiLing Wang and Adrian Jarvis who finished second and third respectively in their BMW M products.

Other class cars include a GR Corolla, Nissan 18SX, Subaru Liberty and Volkswagen Scirocco R, this category without doubt contains the largest variety of vehicles.

Supercar Class is the final category for road going Supercars, open to Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, any make or model of supercar, these cars always turn heads.

“The Prodsprint class and the Supercar classes, both of those classes aren't involved at World Time Attack level,” Boston said. “When we introduced those classes a couple of years ago, especially Prodsprint, they became so popular, it’s nearly sold out each year.”

The race weekend starts officially on Saturday morning; however, all drivers have the option to take part in Friday’s Test and Tune Day.

This year will be the first time that the event itself has expanded to two days.

For fans, attendance on both Saturday and Sunday is free, and the Full Throttle Café will be open to purchase lunch, dinner or snacks.

You won’t want to miss a second of the Aus Time Attack at the Nation’s Action Track.