2008 Long Beach Grand Prix Super Lap Battle - So Long Champ Car

Hello Super Lap Battle

The streets of Long Beach witness a new breed of track cars The 34th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach bid its final farewell to the Champ Car World Series as drivers and teams prepared for their transitional merger into the Indy Racing League. Will Power, piloting the KV Racing Technology machine, took the checkered flag in the final Champ Car-sanctioned Long Beach Grand Prix race in ideal weather conditions on April 20. While Champ Car was scheduled to run their final race, the parking lot/paddocks sitting adjacent to the course's straightaways entering Turn 8 and exiting Turn 9 was bustling with activity as 14 Super Lap Battle all-star vehicles began prepping their rides for their scheduled exhibition on the 1.968-mile course-a landmark event for import cars representing the time attack scene.

The 14 cars given the all-star title were deservingly labeled for their efforts in lapping the quickest times at previous Super Lap Battle events held throughout the 2007 season. What made this group of cars so spectacular to watch was the fact that they weren't any different from what you and I drive on the streets on a daily basis (for the most part). With some mechanical knowhow and proper suspension and engine tuning, these competitors have made their way from average Joes to respectable in each of their time classes.

Unfamiliar with the course layout and driving conditions on the track, drivers and teams preparing each car were relatively calm throughout the first day of the event as many sat around and took in the beautiful Long Beach weather while mentally preparing for three days of time trial exhibitions. The calm atmosphere, however, quickly dissolved for each of the teams as the following two days leading into the final Saturday exhibition in front of thousands of curious onlookers were filled with many ups and downs associated with the various racing sports.

Champ Car fans witnessed some of the quickest, most recognizable import cars taking to the tracks as the 14-car all-star collection each endured their share of multiple engine fires, blown engines, brake problems, and electrical gremlins. But through the tough times and setbacks, the group kept an optimistic outlook and completed a successful Super Lap Battle with the fastest lap of the weekend going to Factor X and its NSX, piloted by Billie Johnson, clocking in at 1:30.17 seconds at 78.572 mph-just seconds before ending the day with a broken transfer case.

How did the Factor X NSX's lap times pale in comparison to others? To compare some numbers lets look at the ACS/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra winner of the Sports Car Club of America SPEED GT Class over the weekend, which ran a 1:25.479 at 82.883 mph. In the Le Mans Series LMGT2, the winner and fastest in its class was the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR posting a 1:21.095 at 87.364 mph. The Mustang posted a mere 4.691 seconds (plus 4.3 mph) faster than the NSX while the Porsche GT3 was 9.075 seconds (plus 8.79 mph) quicker. Consider the fact that this was Johnson's first time on the Long Beach Grand Prix street course and that Factor X isn't a corporate-sponsored team with multimillions invested in its cars, and you'll come to appreciate how fast their track machine truly is.

Congratulations to all drivers and teams who made the trip out to Long Beach and participated in this year's Super Lap Battle exhibition. If you missed out on this year's event, be sure to check out next year's exhibition or any of the upcoming Super Lap Battle events across the U.S. at www.superlapbattle.com

Vehicle 411:Purchased brand-new, six weeks prior to running Long Beach Grand Prix. The car was built and designed for go and show. The vehicle was repainted in Pearl Orange (Arancio Borealis), and the rims were redone in Pearl Yellow.

Fastest Lap Time To Date:Long Beach was the first time out for the new Crawford Performance '08 WRX STI.

Vehicle 411:The car was originally raced in Super Taikyu and rebuilt for Time Attack by shaving off more weight and replacing a smaller fuel tank. All vehicle mods were done in-house at our 5Zigen race factory in Osaka, Japan.

Fastest Lap Time To Date:Fastest lap time in Unlimited FF class, record holder in Super Lap Battle LBGP

Vehicle 411:The '95 Integra was originally a theft recovery car that was converted into an SCCA SSB road race car. We chose a four-door chassis because it was stiffer than the hatch. After a year of racing SSB (too slow), we decided to turn it into a project car. Originally we raced it with an H22 swap but once the K-series engines looked to be the wave of the future the car was converted.

The car was turned over to Martinez for development. He has numerous lap records and class wins with the car and has done an outstanding job. The car is raced in NASA Honda Challenge H1 with a naturally aspirated K24A2 and is this year's National Champion.

Vehicle 411:Chris Rado's WORLD Racing Time Attack Scion tC started out as a 300hp turbocharged, big braked, coilovered, gutted street car that evolved in the last year into what you all know as "Black Betty," the 545whp, 575 wheel torque, front-wheel-drive, four-cylinder monster that makes 1.27-minute lap times at Willow Springs, Calif.

Vehicle 411:The car was designed to be (first of all) reliable and fast. You cannot win without finishing the race. A lot of emphasis was put on simplicity and function-to-performance ratio to get the best of both worlds. The simplest versus the fastest class car equals success. Speed comes from the synchronization of engine power output to the suspension and chassis. Perfect balance is equal to speed and best of all it's a giant killer. Currently leading this year's championship points in SU class in NASA (in a Honda).

Fastest Lap Time To Date:(Fastest lap time) record holder in Super Street Time Attack1:58 Buttonwillow conference No. 13 on Toyos