Star Road

Even with the advent of social media, I still subscribe to some email newsletters. Every week, one of those emails comes from the suspiciously named “Kerrie Speed” and the SCCA. The Sports Car Club of America, to call it by its official name, is a sanctioning body for both amateur and professional motorsports, and they put on more motorsports events than any sanctioning body in the world: over 2,000 events per year, by their count. Recently, the SCCA newsletter alerted me to a Time Attack event in my area, and it was my favorite type of event they sanction: a National-level amateur event. I love to see people like myself out there taking their hobbies to the highest level. And since I had never attended a Time Attack event, I knew I had to see this one.

This was only my second time attending a National-level SCCA event; the first time was a few years ago where I attended a round of the “Solo National Tour”, which is a series of autocross events that leads up to the autocross (which they call ProSolo) National Championships held in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was super impressed by what I saw back then: it was a huge event with tons of cars in every class, and quite a few epic builds.

When I rolled up to the outside road course of Las Vegas Motor Speedway on this glorious Sunday, I didn’t exactly know what I would see, but my expectations were high. Speeds are much higher on the track than autocross, and aerodynamics are a huge element of time attack. But when I rolled up to the track a little after 9, I may have been the only spectator.

Well, bummer there was nothing to see in the spectator parking, but I was here to see track cars anyway. I didn’t see this RX-8 on track, but it looked great lowered just right on these RPF1’s.

For me, these are the two coolest S550 (sixth generation) Mustang variants: GT350 and Mach 1. With this car, Ford did a similar thing to BMW and the E46: when the E46 was facelifted for the 2002 model year, the M3 kept the whole front end from the pre-facelift version. The Mustang GT350 came out in 2015 during the first part of S550 production, and likewise, they kept the same front end even after the Mustang’s 2018 refresh. To me the GT350 is the best looking S550; not only do I like that bumper the best, I also prefer the pre-facelift “tsurime” headlights (as opposed to the “tareme” lights of the later cars).

The road course at LVMS is not really intended for spectator events; it has a grand total of zero spectator seats. You can walk up and down the paddock, but there are really only two turns to watch. I started here, the closest turn to the paddock, and got a few snaps with the snowy Spring Mountains range in the background.

I’ve actually been to this track before; I shot it for ChampTruck when they raced here. But I wasn’t familiar with the odd layout they were using for this event, and it amazed me how different everyone’s line was into this last turn before the front straight. Some cars were swinging way wide, like the ND Miata in the previous pic, but some were hugging it tightly, like this E90 BMW.

You can also go to the north end of the paddock and see this turn. This turn has a bit of camber and a hill on the outside, so you get that neat effect of seeing cars go below the track.

Nice and subtle Scion xB.

Two pillars of the GR franchise, Supra and GR86. Is the Supra unpopular because it doesn’t have a manual transmission, or because it’s too expensive?

Well, the horsepower-per-dollar equation does actually seem like a strong consideration for many car enthusiasts, especially in Las Vegas where Chargers, Challengers, Mustangs, and Corvettes are very popular. I see C8 Corvettes all the time, but I haven’t seen the new Z06 in the wild yet. At this time attack there were three!

I’m always a sucker for Hot Lava. This one has the Tom’s tail lights which are a nice touch.

Sadly, I never saw this MR-S leave the trailer. This event took place on Saturday and Sunday, and Saturday also had the addition of a regular track day. I went on Sunday because for some reason I assumed that’s when the serious action was happening; in retrospect it seems to have been the opposite. Next time I know to go on Saturday to see more action.

One trippy aspect about this track is that it’s right on the street: behind that paddock fence is a public road: that’s the aptly-named “Checkered Flag Lane” you can see receding into the distance. It reminds me of Martinsville Speedway in Virginia: the actual wall of the track in Turn 4 swings out and goes directly onto a public road!

CAM T is a great class: it stands for Classic American Muscle Traditional and is open to cars and trucks from 1948 to 2000, and minimum weight is a chunky 3180lbs. This is where you get to see beefy American cars hauling ass to thumping V8 soundtracks.

I took one photo of this angle, and here it is.

Man, I’m getting rusty at panning shots. A shutter speed of 1/60 second is slow but not crazy slow; still, I struggled to produce good shots with that setting.

I wouldn’t wrap my car in this icy blue matte, but I still thought it looked awesome on the car.

I assume this CT4-V Blackwing was competing in whatever “Street” class it falls into, because it appeared to be completely stock even down to the Pilot Sport 4S tires.

Even though I switched my backroad driving from late nights to early mornings, I am still very intrigued by this awesome KC light setup. This must be a liability at Time Attack and it doesn’t look like a rally car–does this car also do endurance racing? I didn’t get a chance to talk to the owner and find out.

I initially thought that sticker said “X13”, but it makes more sense that it would be XB, which is one of the more extreme classes for this car. I see big wheels and tires, big aero, and some fancy coilovers poking out of the shock towers. But the interior? Completely stock. Stock seats, stock steering wheel, stock shift knob. Odd juxtaposition.

Finally…it was time for the big boys to roll out.

This is what I came to see! Powerful cars on fat tires with huge wings.

It was all American muscle in this group (and that includes the Tesla!), except for that Civic del Sol.

I’ve been following Hondas for a long time, and I’ve never seen a del Sol this extreme. Not only does this thing look sick just sitting in the paddock, keep scrolling to find out why this was my favorite car to shoot in action all day.

This Elise driver clearly marches to the beat of their own drum: not only is the S1 Elise a completely unique car for this event, they also parked in the extreme corner of the paddock where no other cars were. I loved their combination of huge RV, large trailer, and tiny race car. It almost looks like those vehicles can nest inside each other like track day Russian dolls.

Polarizer chat: I got to this location and didn’t have a chance to dial my settings when I saw this C7 coming in hot to the last corner and powerslide out. Normally I keep the polarizer with the “clear” side on top, but it actually worked out this way with it turned this way.

I still prefer this way though; it just seems more natural looking to see a clear windshield and reflections on the side of the car. On a dynamic note, check out how little of that giant 345 rear tire is on the ground!

Most people modify some sort of street car for this type of motorsport, but two competitors went full race car with two different types of Camaro.

If you’re going to put your car on a trailer and run slicks, might as well start with a full race car, right? There is something to be said about building your race car from a production model though, especially if it’s a particular car you like.

The green Camaro did a 1:50 and the red Camaro got down to 1:52. Right in between them? This awesome Civic del Sol, with a 1:51.

The driver was giving it everything, and the car was responding. It was on three wheels all the way from the entry of the last corner to well past the apex!

Now this is more like it. You don’t always have to hit the geometric apex or drive the shortest possible line, but I was unclear why some competitors seemed allergic to this curb. This Tesla also managed a 1:51.

Generally speaking, professional drivers always do the same thing at the same place.

In search of speed, us amateurs attempt to do the same thing every lap too. These two Mustangs aren’t exactly in the same spot, but pretty close. This is another comparison between the GT350 (which always used the early-model front) and an actual pre-refresh S550.

People love black cars, but they are very frustrating for me as a photographer. It’s just a big black blob, and not helped when a car has black accents and black wheels.

There were a couple different 991 GT3’s out there, but I was surprised not to see more Porsches, which are a major fixture at all the California track days I go to.

This is a Time Attack, so the competition is against the clock, not against other drivers on the track. I strolled by the paddock and caught some of the driver’s meeting where they went over strategies for each group to be able to leave the pits, do their out lap, and not catch anyone during their session. So on that note, it was neat to get a pic of these cars driving so closely.

I moved over a little and tried shooting them coming down these esses, but it didn’t really come out as nice as I had hoped.

I’m posting these mostly for the sake of variety, since there aren’t many photo spots at this track. Still, I just find something lacking about these.

Now there’s a roll bar that will pass the broomstick test! This has to be one of the tallest Miata roll bars I have ever seen.

It’s cool to see big wings and all that, but the FR-S just looks so great in its purest, unadorned fashion.

It might seem incongruous to see this big ol’ sedan out there, but the V Blackwing cars are very track capable: the main thing holding them back is the OEM Pilot Sport 4S tires, which are great on the street but not really up to the task of holding up a 4000lb car around the track.

Some substantial three-wheeling from this Focus RS. I wonder how the AWD system and the ESP/TC programming deal with the car lifting a drive wheel off the ground for a prolonged period of time.

I was stunned by the amount of heat coming off the Z06’s. This snap perfectly captured the FR-S in the background completely distorted by the heat waves. Whoa!

This GR86 was nicely modified, but this racing line makes no sense.

Another thing that fascinates me, which you can see here, is that a lot of drivers were out there with bare hands. For some reason I have really sweaty hands, so I even wear gloves when cruising on back roads. I know Nevada is dry, and there is no requirement for fire safety, but how can people drive on the track without gloves?

If you check out the gallery from the Crows Landing autocross I went to in 2017, you’ll actually see that same Elise! Motorsports is a small world. I wonder if it’s still the same owner.

I love Shark Blue, and I’m really glad they chose it as the “communication color” for the 992.1 GT3 RS. It looks great here on this 718 GT4.

Shooting the dark side of a black car is usually pretty rough. The crazy angular side of the Elantra actually adds a lot of depth, and the shape suddenly makes a lot of sense.

There can’t be any advantages to those lights at an event like this, but it’s still sweet to see.

I’m getting old. No longer are Radwood era cars, those from the 80’s and 90’s, just “used cars”: they are now classics. As you can see from this post, performance has moved on: almost every car at this event was from the 2010’s and newer.

Hey, that’s a 1995 “M Edition” Miata. They all came in that lovely Merlot Mica with the not-so-lovely tan interior.

I’m not a Corvette expert, but I believe this lovely color is called Elkhart Lake Blue. Cars going fast are always fun to watch, but it’s even better if they are a cool color too.

So what the hell was that? I don’t know. Overall I had a good time: I spent a few hours out of the house in beautiful weather and got to see some cars going fast. But from a national-level event, I expected so much more in terms of cars and drivers. Would I have been less disappointed if I had been the day before, when far more cars were running? Probably–and that’s a lesson for next time. It’s not a particularly great spectator circuit, but the next time they’re out there running something interesting, I’ll be back to give it another shot.

If you were at this event and don’t see your car in this post, I may still have taken a photo of it! Check out the whole album on my Flickr.