Event Format

So what happens on the day of a Time Attack event you ask yourself?

When you arrive at the venue you will have a pre determined allocated garage or paddock area to park within, more often that not access is available to the venue on the night before the event or from around 07.30 on the morning of the event. Once arrived you unload your vehicle and tools and get comfortable in your area in readiness for the morning scrutineering, sign on, transponder fitment, noise testing and drivers briefing.

Scrutineering is in-situ and once your vehicle and your apparel has been checked by an official and you have received your scrutineering card you head to the Race Control administration office where you sign on and receive your competitor wristband, plus a maximum of four extra wristbands for your Team personnal which allows them access to the garages and pit lane/pit wall.

Lastly is the driver briefing, this is the final part before you go on track and here you are told all you need to know about the days events and any relevant safety issues.

The on-track element of a Time Attack event consists of four sessions:

Warm Up 15 minutes, Practice 20 minutes , Qualifying 20 minutes and the Final 15 minutes. The sessions timings may vary but the Final is always 15 minutes.

Warm Up – is always untimed as it is the time when you familiarise yourself with the circuit and ensure your vehicle is competition ready.

Practice – this is where you start to lay down some fast times and see exactly where you are within your class.

Qualifying – is exactly that, if you want to go through to the Final you must make your times count in this session. Some events allow all drivers within a Class through to the Final and this is confirmed with drievrs in the morning briefing. For 2009 points are also awarded for qualifying in each class as follows: 1st – 50 points, 2nd 40 points through to 10 points for 5th position.

The Final – where the pressure is on with even more points (and trophies) at stake for you to achieve towards your 2009 points table, points as follows: 1st 100 points, 2nd 90 points through to 10 points for 10th position.

Other elements of the day:

1. All sessions are open pitlane
2. Sessions are started from the pitlane with drivers being queued 10minutes prior to their session(s) starting. Sessions end with a chequered flag on the start finish line
3. Timing sheets are available roughly 5 minutes after each session in Race Control/Administration
4. A safety car is used for one parade lap and it maye be used for Practice, Qualifying and the Final or in some cases solely for the Final. Drivers follow the Safety Car back into the pits and queue in readiness for their session(s)
5. If a session is stopped for any reason the timekeepers also stop the session clock and all drivers return to pit lane where they queue again in readiness for the restart of the session
6. In all sessions drivers may complete as many or as little amount of laps as they see fit. This will be changed for 2010 with drivers having to complete a minimum amount of laps per session
7. Live timings for all sessions are available within the garages and on a live feed on the Time Attack website
8. Trophies are awarded in all classes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions and at the end of the year Series trophies are awarded as well
9. All Time Attack events are maximum 105db unless stated

Below is an example competitor timetable from one of our previous events:

07.30 to 09.30 Scrutineering
07.30 to 09.30 Sign On
08.15 to 08.45 Club Challenge Briefing
08.45 to 09.15 Club Pro and Pro Briefing
09.30 to 09.45 Club Challenge Warm Up
09.55 to 10.10 Club Pro and Pro Warm Up
11.30 to 11.50 Club Challenge Practice
12.00 to 12.20 Club Pro and Pro Practice
13.00 to 14.00 Lunch Break
14.00 to 14.20 Club Challenge Qualifying
14.40 to 15.00 Club Pro and Pro Qualifying
16.00 to 16.15 Club Challenge Final
16.25 to 16.40 Club Pro and Pro Final�
17.00 Trophy Presentations

The above timetable does not show other on-track elements that we have within the day.

I hope the above has given you an insight into how a day at a Time Attack event is ran and hopefully we get to see you at one of our events as a competitor or team member so keep an eye on event news for all dates (and show details) and come along to chat with one of the Time Attack team if you are interested in getting involved.