WORLD Racing ends a great time attack season with a 2nd place finish at Buttonwillow

Chris Rado and the WORLD Racing team were excited to head to their last time attack event of the 2008 season, the Super Street Super Lap Battle Finals at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Finishing off the season as the Redline Time Attack Unlimited FF National Champion, Chris was hopeful to be able to finish his Super Lap Battle season successful as well.

This Super Lap Battle would bring competitors from not only all over the nation, but from all over the world. But one thing was clear; WORLD Racing was the team to beat at this event, there was no question about that.

Chris and the team made it out to the track a day early for practice. They wanted to make sure the WORLD Racing Scion tC was in top shape for the event in order to bring home a win. Not only would the tC need to be on-point, but the team needed to strategize a plan because of some of the mechanical limitations with the vehicle. Chris and the WORLD Racing team put together a plan that would allow them to run a good time in the first session, while the track was still fresh.

Everything seemed to be going great during the practice session Tuesday. Chris was running lap times in the low 1:56’s and he and the team were sure they could go out there and run even better times the next day on fresh tires. So the team packed everything up, and was ready to rock for the competition.

After confirming Wednesday that, just as the previous year at this event, times would count in the first session as well as the three sessions after that, Chris and the team were ready to put down a good number in the first session. “We were pretty confident that if we went out there with a stock transmission and a TRD diff, that we could lay down a pretty good number,” says Chris.

That’s just what they did. Unfortunately, 10 minutes before the session they announced that it would not count and it was too late for the team to change the transmission to use for another session. So in the first session, Chris put down a 1:54.43, the quickest lap time for a front-wheel-drive car the entire event. To WORLD Racing’s dismay, however, that the first session would not count – only the last three sessions.

Chris and the team were very frustrated about this, but knew the only thing they could do was to get back on track and try to run a good number again.

The team had to change transmissions in the tC, which caused them some problems, forcing them to scrap the second session all together. The team got out there again in the third session with a upgraded differential, which they had been excited to run because of its special track-friendly capabilities. To the team’s disadvantage, unfortunately, they found out quickly that the differential was defective and wouldn’t allow Chris to make a single lap.

For the fourth and final session, the team put another stock transmission back in, knowing that it would last them this session, even though they wouldn’t have as much grip with the increased track and weather temps. Chris knew he had his work cut out for him, since besides not having as much grip, the track conditions were poor in the final session, as it had been beat up pretty bad and some fluids had been dropped.

In the third session, Chris ran a 1:56.1 and finished the event in 2nd place behind Hiranaka in the 5Zigen Honda Accord.

As frustrating as it was for Chris and the WORLD Racing team to not place first in the overall event standings, they were proud that they ran the fastest lap of the day, even if it didn’t count. “When it came to who was ready to race,” says Chris, “there was no one as prepared as WORLD Racing. We changed two transmissions during the day, swapped multiple parts, and were ready for every round of competition. We have the best crew in the entire world.”

Chris continues: “Special thanks to Ty Cooley, who in his first year on board as crew chief, has helped WORLD Racing achieve one national championship, nine victories, and seven track records all over the nation. What a great season.”

The “off” season, is not necessarily “off” for WORLD Racing. WORLD Racing will be heading to PRI December 11-13 in Orlando, Florida where they will be displaying not only their time attack SCION tC, but also their new Descendant product line, as well as their new boost controller, the BD-1. Also, in the “off” season, WORLD Racing will be fixing the inherent mechanical limitations they have battled against in their FWD time attack car and also will be in the process of building their new unlimited time attack AWD Scion tC. The 2009 season is going to be great! Stay tuned for more updates!

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