Toyo and Yokohama are both reporting prodigious performances in Pahrump during the Sept. 26-27 Redline Time Attack series at Nevada’s Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch.
“The weather was hot,” says Mark Chung, Yokohama’s director of corporate strategy and planning, but his company’s sponsored drivers “were on fire, scorching the competition with two first-places finishes, three second-place finishes and the overall event title.”
Toyo-equipped cars drove away with five separate class wins, from stock to modified, at the Round 7 Time Attack festivities. “The results speak for themselves, proving both our Proxes R1R and R888 tires are capable of winning on a variety of cars with varying weights and horsepower,” says Stan Chen, Toyo’s manager of events and motorsports.
The series features purpose-built 600-horsepower race cars and highly tuned street-legal vehicles; points are awarded and winners selected based on which driver achieves the fastest lap time.
Running on Yokohama ADVAN A005 slicks, Billy Johnson set a track record of 2:13.057 with his FX Motorsports Acura NSX in the Unlimited RWD class. He bested the 2:22.982 time of second-place finisher Mike Cronin Jr. – also on A005s in his Fontana Nissan 350Z – by more than 9 seconds.
“Billy Johnson is simply amazing,” says Chung. “Yokohama’ tires have been dominating the series and we’re looking forward to ending the season at Fontana with even more first-place finishers.” The season concludes Nov. 14-15 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
Participating on ADVAN Neova AD08s in Pahrump, Jeremy Toye won the Street AWD class in his Reese Tuning/Robispec Mitsubishi Evo X, turning in a time of 2:33.485, with Stephen Ruiz bringing up the rear in second place with his AD08-shod StopTech/AMS Performance Mitsubishi Evo X. He posted an elapsed time of 2:34.868.
Toyo’s Proxes R1R140-UTQG extreme performance tires won three of the race classes on a variety of cars.
In Stock AWD, Robert Fuller piloted the Robispec/HB Speed/AST/Toyo Subaru STi to a win in a field of nine competitors with a time of 2:39.29. The Street RWD class was dominated by Manly Kao driving his bright yellow Track HQ/Buddy Club/APR/Toyo Lotus Elise in an eight car field to a time of 2:34.866 for the win.
Rhys Millen also competed with his 2009 Pikes Peak record-breaking RMR/Red Bull/Toyo Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
“Demonstrating his professional driving skills,” Chen recounts, Millen took the win in the Drift class with his R1R-equipped 550-hp car by netting a time of 2:30.819.
The Proxes R888 R-compound street legal competition radial won two of the modified classes at the Spring Mountain event. In Modified RWD, Jeremy Renshaw defeated a field of 12 racers with his AFI Turbo/Competition Clutch/WheelDude.com turbocharged Honda S2000.
Renshaw ran the course with a winning time of 2:31.657. In the Modified FWD class, the Sportcar Motion Acura Integra R, driven by Tim Kuo, won with a time of 2:34.114.
“We began using Toyo Proxes R888 tires at the beginning of this year,” says Loi Song, owner of Sportcar Motion. “We have won three out of three of the west coast Time Attacks so far and hope to make it a fourth.”
For more information, visit www.toyotires and www.yokohamatire.com.
