It's been a helluva year for JC Meynet and AQ Motorsports in the 2010 Time Attack Series, especially at the SuperLap Battle at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. JC (real name Jean-Charles) races on StopTech brakes. Here is recap of the year from his newsletter...
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In the world of car racing, F1 has Monte Carlo, Nascar has Daytona, Indycar has Indianapolis, and Time Attack has Superlap Battle at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Every November for the past six years Buttonwillow has been the place to be in the world of Time Attack racing. Teams from all over the USA and even overseas are invited to come race this event in order to settle the age old debate of who has the fastest Time Attack car/team/driver in the world. The classes are broken down into Unlimited, Limited (Modified), and Street classes and then further broken down by driveline configuration (front, rear, or all-wheel-drive). The goal of Time Attack is to crank out the fastest lap on an open track without strategic considerations other than simply going as fast as possible over a single timed lap (much like F1 qualifying or Drag Racing with turns thrown in). Superlap Battle Time Attack cars are the fastest production based cars in the world and do so on street legal tires.
With many wins, track records, and several championships to our credit, JC Meynet and team fully recognize the need to be successful at Superlap Battle as a win here makes a huge statement and carries a lot of momentum into the off-season. Although we were undefeated in the Redline 2008 Street Class National Championship, we came up a little short that year at Superlap Battle with our only loss of the season (3rd place) even though we still lapped under the previous record. 2009 saw us in Limited (Modified) class and in spite of a very successful season and again lapping under the existing track record, we again only managed another 3rd place due to the heavy competition. On a side note, we did win last year's Limited RWD class in the AQ/Novak Honda S2000.
This year, we really had our game faces on while contending many hurdles and controversies. We are happy to come away with not only a class win but also a new all time track record for the Limited/Modified class, besting the old Superlap Battle record by about 1.5 seconds, a relative eternity in the world of road racing. Our race this year went off without many hitches thanks to the intensive preparation and hard work from our team and sponsors. We did our usual practice sessions and adjustments to get some recent changes working properly and then managed to nail our opening lap with a Championship/record winning 1:48.5 lap time around Buttonwillow's 2.5 mile track (the usual 13CW configuration). For reference, our lap time puts us in 4th overall for this event against all the Unlimited class cars (on slicks) and would have been 2nd overall behind the legendary HKS Cyber Evo car just two years ago. We would have been the flat out overall winners just 4 years ago (and this is with our car being completely Ltd/Mod class legal on full treaded tires, not slicks!). The art of Time Attack has really come a long way in recent years and we are proud to be one of the cutting edge teams. Our stiff competition this year included several high dollar teams, former Time Attack champions/record holders, Grand Am Champions/competitors, and some grassroots teams like ourselves who are doing a lot with very limited budgets. It's exciting to note that the Unlimited, Limited, and Street classes all had their records smashed this year as well as some of the subclasses. It's exciting to be part of this ambitious group of successful racers.
As a bonus to the Superlap Battle competition, JC was invited to drive EDO Performance's black 2010 Subaru STI in the Subaru v Mitsubishi Modified Magazine Shootout. Although the car was set up similar to an Enthisiast class car, JC was able to click off some decent lap times (2:02, good for 2nd place in class at the last Enthusiast class Time Attack race held at this track) that helped the Subarus collectively win the overall over the Mitsubishis. Always fun to do these special feature events. A special thanks to EDO/Tomioka Racing/M7Japan for covering our entry fee for Superlap Battle this year.
Our decisive and undisputed win and record at Superlap Battle this year represents more than just a single fast lap, that was the easy part. The hard parts this year had more to do with our own relentless pursuit to be faster yet more reliable while also contending with yet another new organization incorporating an ever changing and self serving agenda (what doesn't kill us just makes us stronger!). Fortunately, we still have many excellent places to compete in Time Attack competition such as Superlap Battle, Speedventures, UMS, GTA, GTGP, NASA, and others as well as some select magazine events.
We will definitely enjoy the fruits of our labor with this Superlap Battle win/record. However, the off season is only about 4 months long and next year will come faster than ever. Time Attack is about setting records and then working hard to beat them, even if it's our own record we are often targeting. At nearly 700whp (about 800HP at the engine) we are close to our horsepower target but at almost 3000lbs, we definitely need to lose some weight. Another important area that will be improved on is our already decent aerodynamics that can always be better. As one of the premier benchmark teams in Time Attack competition, we plan on continuing our winning ways, developing an even more competitive race program, and doing so while maintaining the highest levels of integrity in all areas.
2010 record: 2 Championships (Superlap Battle and SpeedVentures), 7 wins, 7 records, 1 DNF.
Career record since 2007: 37 class wins, 33 track records, 4 championships, over 90% win record for 4 years (best in TA), Fastest Subaru in 41 of 44 races (100% fastest in class), always raced legally....
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