The 2024 Aus Time Attack featured drama, lap records and incredibly competitive action across all classes last weekend at Winton Motor Raceway.
For the second straight year Aleck Kazakovski took the outright victory in the event, however in 2024 it was far from easy.
Kazakovski driving his Subaru WRX STi stole the victory in the final minutes of the very last session on Sunday afternoon.
He set a 1m 20.789s time, breaking the event lap record in the process, lowering the benchmark by a staggering 2.3s.
In the end Kazakovski’s victory was by less than 0.3s from Benny Tran in his Honda Integra who set a 1m 21.038.
Mitsubishi Evo 7 driver Brad Shiels finished third, but only completed seven laps over the two days. Early on Saturday on course to set a PB lap the Sports Sedan racer’s car came to a halt as the car shorted out, this was due to an overtalked aluminum banjo bolt and resulted in a gearbox failure.
Time Attack is like qualifying, the person at the end of the weekend with the fastest time is awarded the outright trophy.
There are five classes within Aus Time Attack based on vehicle specifications. The five classes are as follows Prodsprint, Clubsprint, Open, Pro and Supercar Class. During the weekend each category was given nine, 12-minute sessions.
As well as winning the event outright, Kazakovski also went back-to-back in the Pro class winning the category by 1.4s.
Once again Richard Perini in his Ginetta G55 had to settle for the position of class bridesmaid in second. In 2023 he finished in second outright, however this year slipped to fourth behind two Open class competitors.
Nunzio Gulino at the wheel of his MMC Evolution X RS rounded out the Pro Class podium, beating Brian Bugh by just 0.7s. Hailong Wang completed the top five within the increased Pro field.
The second highest category is titled Open, however this class has seen drivers take overall honours in the past and nearly happened again in 2024.
Despite missing out on the overall victory by less than 0.3s, Benny Tran did take the Open class.
Fellow outright podium finisher Brad Shiels was second, only 0.4s clear of the man who rounded out the class podium, Evo VII driver Darren Bishop.
Laine Brandis was a further 1.5s back in fourth ahead of former outright Aus Time Attack champion Paul McKinnon.
Not only did Clubsprint boast the largest field with 24 cars, but it also bagged the closest finish.
It was a battle between two Subaru drivers, Trent Grubel and Michael Garland. Grubel set his best time on his fourth lap of the entire weekend, and despite his best-efforts Garland could not knock him off the top spot, that was until the final run.
On the penultimate lap of the entire weekend Garland snatched the win from Grubel by the smallest of margins, 0.083s.
It was heartbreak for Grubel who was just minutes away from taking back-to-back victories in the class, but he did finish second over 1s clear of the best of the Evos.
Driving an Evo VI, Alex Michalskyset was third, 2.3s clear of ahead of Surinder Singh.
A couple of notable names came next, reigning TCR Australia winner Josh Buchan was sixth ahead of ace Ben Schoots in a Toyota 86.
Prodsprint was yet another hard-fought class, the category essentially for road registered vehicles went the way of ZiLing Wang.
The entire 20 car field was split by just 15s at the end of the weekend and featured lots of makes and models at the pointy end of the field.
Wang in his BMW M4 set the benchmark on the second lap of his weekend. Reigning class champion Jie Ren threw everything including the kitchen sink at it, but he could not beat the time.
On his 31st of 33 laps he got to within 0.4s but that was all he and his Supra could manage.
On his final lap Josh Muggleton pinched the third placed trophy off Astair Robertson by 0.01s, yes one-hundredth of a second. Xuli Gu was just 0.3s back from the pair in fifth.
Josh Buchan was a busy man competing in multiple classes. In Prodsprint he fielded the first EV in the event’s history.
Driving a Hyundai Ioniq 5N, Buchan set a time of 1m 32.607s, good enough for seventh in class.
The Supercar class went the way of Porsche Cayman GT4RS driver Kiet Nguyen. Kam Aghtan ended up 0.639s back in second, with Min Duan rounded out the podium in what was a highly successful weekend of Aus Time Attack competition.
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