Forza Friends, Thanks for your support and sorry for the delay getting this update to you. Tune in to TakataTimeAttack.com and subscribe to my YouTube channel for the latest info! Check the schedule at RedlineTimeAttack.com and see us at the races! - James
After a long off season, James Elterman and the Takata Impreza are anxious to return to the Redline Time Attack series to defend the Modified AWD Championship. With 2 west coast rounds already on the books for 2009, there are high hopes for a strong debut at Round 3 at Autobahn Country Club just south of Chicago. Throughout the off season leading up the 2009 debut, Paul Szuba and his crew at P&L Motorsports were tasked with refreshing, repairing, and upgrading the Takata Impreza. Paul and James were faced with many surprises and challenges throughout the off season, all of which climaxed with serious problems that arose just 36 hours before the event.
On Thursday evening prior to the event, pro tuner Jorge Carillo was dyno tuning the Takata Impreza's fresh new engine, when unknown to anyone, injector #3 began to fail at high rpms. The result was a blown engine, and a very long night for P&L's die hard crew. By Friday morning the Takata Impreza had a borrowed stock engine, and by afternoon was tuned for just over 400 whp with fingers crossed that the engine would last the race. As a fierce storm rolled through Chicago Friday evening, P&L's shop lost power. The final touches were applied by the light of generator powered drop lights.
Despite a nervous 36 hours leading up to the event, the Takata Impreza rolled up to the starting line on schedule Saturday morning. The Modified AWD class had a fantastic showing and included a number of notable contenders for the season championship including Ryan Gates in the AMS prepared EVO X, and Sharif Abdelbaset in the Forged Performance Nissan GTR R35. Come Sunday's Time Attack, the bugs had been worked out of the car and James was able to focus on driving. In the 2nd Time Attack session James made the borrowed engine scream for mercy as he lapped the track with a 1.34.221, a time worthy of third place behind Ryan and Sharif respectively. Following the Time Attack sessions, Redline conducted a Super Session for bonus points. The Super Session is a crowd favorite that consists of a 3 lap sprint race amongst the fastest Unlimited and Modified class cars. The Takata Impreza was staged in pole position for the Modified group which started from the second row. As dark clouds rolled in, the P&L Motorsports crew made final adjustments to tire pressure and aero in preparation for the immenent rain. As the green flag dropped, the rain began to fall, but the AWD of the Takata Impreza held the car sure footed and James maintained pole position to win the race for the Modified class!
Results are available here.
Videos
Time Attack Session 2
Super Session Win!
Takata Impreza Featured in Redline Time Attack PreGrid Show
Takata Impreza Multicamera Hotlap published by Redline Time Attack
Photos from the event are available from Budski Photography, Zmann42087, FormulaRedline, and Spanier Photography.
Special thanks to Paul, Pawel, Eddie, Jorge, and the entire P&L Motorsports staff for the hard work and long hours. Stay tuned for Redline Time Attack Nashville in conjunction with Import Alliance.
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