TopSpeed Motorsports

TopSpeed wins 2008 Redline Time Attack Unlimited AWD Championship

Atlanta, GA – October 6, 2008 – TopSpeed and driver Luke Russell clinched the 2008 Redline Time Attack Unlimited-class all wheel drive championship this past weekend at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virgina.

Russell drove the TopSpeed Subaru Brighton to a winning lap time of 1:58.5 beating the Crawford Subaru STI driven by Japanese time attack star Tarzan Yamada by a half-second.

The win extended TopSpeed’s season-dominating event Grand Champion total to four and was the third consecutive – an impressive task considering international and factory-backed competition participating in the series. The Grand Champion’s trophy is given to the team with the fastest lap time of all competitors at each event.

Russell and TopSpeed also clinched Grand Champion honors at St. Louis, Nashville and Summit Point, West Virginia.

After early season performance driver Russell was unsure of their chances for a championship, but he was proud of how the team pulled together to bring home the title.

“The crew at TopSpeed came back with a vengeance,” he said. “This is all due to their hard work. All I did was turn the wheel and push some pedals.”
Russell may be shy about his accomplishment, but car-owner Doug Wilks isn’t as modest about his driver.
“Luke has never let me down,” he said. “He has always held up his end of the deal when push comes to shove.”
Wilks is also quick to point out that it wouldn’t be possible to do without teamwork, including sponsor JRZ Suspension.
“Without Bryan from JRZ our car would not be nearly as quick as it was today,” Wilks said.
The TopSpeed team also had some help from their competitor at the event – Crawford Performance, who got them an air-oil separator.
“They made sure we had the right part,” Wilks said, “and it performed flawlessly.”
Despite the tough competition, teams often help each other when it comes down to it.
“Everyone is there to win, but at the end of the day we can all sit around a table and still drink a beer with friends,” Wilks said.
The TopSpeed team is looking to repeat their championship in 2009, but that may be tough without sponsorship.
“I know our car has a lot left in it,” Wilks said, “and I won’t really be happy until it’s done.”

TopSpeed is an Atlanta tuner specializing in tuning, turn key builds, chassis setup and parts sales.

Supporting sponsors of the TopSpeed Time Attack car are Brian Crower, GSC PowerDivision, Cobb Tuning, Whiteline, Urban8designs, Carbonetics, Traqmate and Nasioc.

-Doug Wilks

Thanks to our sponsors, Cobb Tuning, Whiteline, Brian Crower, JRZ, GSC Power-Division and Playmoreonline.

Wow,
This last race has been an emotional roller coster for Topspeed. With so many cars hitting the walls or breaking we decide to play it easy on Saturday’s practice. Making only a few laps and not being able to get one clean lap we decided to throw in the towel and wait for Sunday.

Sunday’s first morning practice we go out and the front splitters mount breaks off. Only thing we could attribute it was coming down off the harsh jump. We have run this splitter for two seasons now and have not had a single problem untill today. In a huge effort to get the car ready for the first timed session we missed the second practice on Sunday.

So after making only a few laps in practice we were lined up on the grid for our first timed session with high hope’s of breaking the one minute 30 barrier. Those hope’s would soon be crushed as Luke would call over the radio to let me know that the front splitter was again draging the ground. I gave him to ok to contiue as we needed to atleast get one run on the books. After completing one lap he pulls in the pits. The annoucer came over the loud speaker telling the crowd we ran a 1:31.8. Feeling a bit discuraged we pulled the front bumper apart and removed the splitter. It was destroyed, noway we could break the record now.

With no option but to run our car without the splitter in place we set out for the last practice time of the day. This practice was also a huge let down, as the car was now extremely pushy. Guess the front splitter was working more than we had anticipated as the quickest time Luke was able to turn was a 1:33.7 in the last practice. Almost two seconds slower than the first time runs. Crap!!! with our car now handicapped almost two seconds our only hope was to turn the boost to the moon and go for broke.

With a little inspiration from Chris Rado’s team called VPimport we cranked it up. The result ended up in us running a 1:30.5 in the final session. Some 3 seconds faster than our previous practice without the splitter, but a second and half off the track record.

With the overall victory sealed Luke brings the car in after his second lap to try and save the car for the next event. Thanks to everyone there hope to see you all at VIR.

-Doug

First off TopSpeed would like to thank all the companies that have supported us this season.

JRZ, Cobb Tuning, Whiteline, Brian Crower, Playmoreonline, and Urban8designs

Onto our weekend of many emotions.

Thursday started out pretty tough, after searching high and low for our tires we usually run we kept getting the same answer.. “Sorry sir, those tires are on backorder”. Crap…. well after a long search we finally found a set in Knoxville, Tn. So I told the guy to hold them for me as I would be driving up first thing Friday morning.

So Friday morning I wake up at 5am and hop in my car, destination Knoxville, Tn. After driving 3 1/2hrs through some of the most amazing twisties and mountain roads I arrive at the Hoosier south distribution center. Spending a total of about 10mins there, to relieve the 3 redbulls, sign a few papers and load the car up with a fresh set of stickys I am back on my way to Atlanta. Back at the shop we mount the 4 new tires, and load up the rig.

At 8pm we leave TopSpeed and make the 4 1/2 hr drive to Nashville Super Speedway. Once we arrive at the track we are greeted by Todd, and Nick from redline. Chat with them for a few and then call it a night.

Saturday comes and we have the car ready to go but no driver.. Luke isn’t scheduled to arrive till later Saturday night. So while sitting around I get bored and decide to take the car out for a spin to check a few things. Saturday’s fast practice times are around 1.07′s to 1.10′s for all the teams.

Sunday, finally our driver has arrived, but not without issues. Luke’s flight that was supposed to arrive Saturday night was canceled. With his only option to fly out first thing Sunday morning he loaded up.

Luke finally got to see the track for the first time about 10am Sunday morning. In our third lap out in Luke’s first practice session we set FTD with a 1.05.6. Not bad for our first outing. After a few more practice laps we decide to sit and wait for the timed session to get one on the books. First session, we leave the car on our low boost mapping since we felt confident that we could secure the overall and then go for lap record on second session. The plan worked as we ran a 1.04.5 first session out securing the Overall.

Knowing the car had alot more in it we felt confident we could break the overall track record. So with the car set on our high boost map we headed out. On Luke’s first flying lap it happened, A 1.03.7 the new track record for any bodied car there even faster than the GT1 times. Second lap around looked to be an even faster lap, however on the back straight the clutch decided it had enough and gave out. Pulling the data from the second lap it looks like we should have run a low 03 or even possible a high 02.

This wraps up TopSpeed’s second Overall Grand Champion win and first Track Record. Not to mention back to back GC wins We should have some wicked video up in a few days after the editing is done.

Summit Point and VIR here we come, hope to see everyone out there.

Doug

TopSpeed Wins Overall Champion

What an exciting weekend, we couldn’t be happier with the Overall Win. After months of preperation we have something to show for it.

The weekend started off running the entire Friday and Saturday practice without one single issue. With two days of testing in the bag we were feeling pretty confident, as we didn’t have one single issue. We were sitting 1st overall with a healthy margin.

So on Sunday with the Buschur Magnum out of the running due to an unfortunate wreck, we decided to take it easy for our first timed session on Sunday and just seal the overall win. Running a meek 20psi of boost we set the winning time of 1:04:6

We figured we would then push it on the final timed session to break the track record, and take home all the glory.

But as luck would have it right after the first timed session while I was checking tire pressures on pit lane the cars fuel surge tank somehow got a small pin hole leak causing a fire. The fire was quickly put out causing no damage other than a huge mess of powder to clean. With our spirits broke the search began to find a tig welder to fix our surge tank. With no welder to be found at track or within driving distance we settled for a temporary fix.

Or only option without a tig welder close by was to try and JB Weld the hole closed. With 4 hours to our last timed session we hoped we had enough time for it to dry.

With ten minutes to go we put her back together and fired her up. Great… it looks like its holding, so I load up our “KILL” map which bumps the boost from 20psi to 28psi giving us a huge jump in power.

Sitting on pit out it would seem again our luck ran out. The car started leaking fuel so we shut her down and called it a weekend, ending our attempt at breaking the track record.

All in all we had a great weekend and are very happy for the Overall Win but wish we had gotten our chance to break the track record. Oh well… there is always next year.

-TopSpeed Team

Well we fired Lucy up tonight for the first time since all of the new parts went on.  She sounds amazing and revs like a crotch rocket now with the new intake.   We can’t wait for tomorrow’s dyno session.  Doug and the team have completely re-done the entire car’s intercooler setup, intake manifold, and build a custom one off turbo kit as well.

The car is making amazing power now.  We put it on the dyno today and let our tuner Doug Wilks work his magic.  After a couple of pulls at ONLY 20psi she made an amazing 520 whp!  I think the graph will speak for itself.

Updated pictures and dyno graph.

Just wanted to update from the race this weekend. Speed Vision was at the track and decided to follow us around. We are not sure what may come out of all the press and interviews, but we had a good time with those guys. This is the first race that the car has really run in that the car was setup and ready to go. We placed 2nd overall which we are very happy with. Enjoy the pictures.

~TopSpeed Team

We got a new front bumper and sideskirts fitted. We still need to do some small tweaking to get it all aligned right and mount the front splitter. Then it’s off to the paint shop. I think we are going to paint the hood, front bumper, side skirts, and flares all red to match the rest of the car. Should look like a new car then.

Until then… enjoy the new pics.