Time Attack

Time Attack

Time Attack is a race to secure the fastest lap time possible on a designated circuit or section of track. Also referred to as time trail, tuner battle, or super lap, a time attack is used to evaluate car performance in real racing applications. Similar to a qualifying lap, the higher average speed you maintain the faster your lap time, so drifting around certain corners can save valuable time.

The term time attack comes from Japan where time attack events are organized by the Japanese automotive media to give top JDM aftermarket tuning manufactures like HKS, Top Secret, Trust (GReddy), and VeilSide an arena to battle their factory tuned cars. Tsukuba circuit is the most popular racetrack in Japan for time attack events.
As in NASCAR, the cars in a time attack start off under a full rolling start. Cars are timed with a transponder device inside the vehicle that works with the circuits internal system used in normal racing. As the car passes a beam the timing begins and runs until the car completes a lap. Numbers are allocated to cars to ensure the times are correctly recorded.