The final event of the East Series for the 2026 Tire Rack SCCA Time Attack Challenge sent drivers and event organizers scrambling. Considering the Time Attack Challenge is no fledgling series, and the drivers are a hardy bunch that rolls with the punches, that says a lot. But during the first day of the Aug. 1-2 Time Attack Challenge at Autobahn Country Club, a lot of difficult decisions had to be made.
The way a Time Attack Challenge weekend is supposed to work is that drivers receive a practice session on Saturday followed by three timed sessions; Sunday brings another three timed sessions. The fastest times from two sets of those sessions add together to form a cumulative score that determines class winners.
During the Autobahn weekend, epic levels of rain shook things up, to the point that Saturday essentially became optional, although more drivers took to the 2.1-mile, 15-turn South Circuit than many thought would. You see, Time Attack drivers don’t know when to quit.
Rain pounded the combined run groups on Saturday, with the Novice group getting the worst. The schedule was then shuffled so the Novice group would get time on track in conditions that weren’t so intense.
With a pleasant forecast for Sunday, the event proceeded as normal on the second day – other than, drivers would get no practice session, only three timed sessions to set a ripper of a score, because this event’s results would be determined by a single time.
Sunday’s Battles
Competition was close across the board, but the battles to watch came in a couple Sport classes, a couple of Tuner classes, Max 4, and Unlimited 2.
It was a battle of Camaros in Sport 2, with a solitary Cayman in the mix. Geoff Holbein won, but not by much – his 1:33.184 was 1.211sec ahead of Karl Riggs, but barely a second farther back was Jason Kroot in that Porsche, followed by Matthew Miller 0.4sec behind in fourth.
Unlimited 2 continued the shootout between Adam DeLong, Alan Lani, and Brandon Anderson that we first saw at the Pocono Time Attack Challenge just two weeks earlier. At Pocono, it was DeLong over Lani by 0.087sec. At Autobahn, DeLong put the hammer down, beating Lani by a comparative mile at 1.049sec.
Tuner 4’s battle for the win was even closer, with Nicholas Zelisko proving that rotaries still have what’s needed, beating out Liam Parkes and his Scion FR-S by 0.621sec with a time of 1:36.731.
Does a margin of victory of 0.285sec sound close? It probably did to Steven Mortenson, who put his Porsche 911 in first over Ivan Onofriiciuc’s Nissan 370Z by exactly that, his 1:36.815 the only time in class to break beyond the 1:37 mark.
Sport 3’s battle saw numerous Civics, with Trey Albrecht’s Honda setting the mark at 1:35.806. That time was good enough to set a new track record for the class, but it was only 0.17sec faster than Shubhankar Dasgupta, who was representing Hyundai with a swiftly driven Elantra.
Yet this weekend’s Tuner 1 drivers likely scoffed at Sport 3’s margin of victory. Here, William Becker put his Chevrolet Corvette on the top step of the podium by a scant 0.086sec over Cody Franssen’s Corvette.
The class results tell all the tales:
Other Top Performances
Class battles are one thing, but track records are another. It has already been mentioned that Albrecht reset the Sport 3 track record, but six other drivers were also on fire at the Tire Rack SCCA Time Attack Challenge at Autobahn Country Club.
The new track records are:
Beyond track records come the series’ Superlative Awards, which during the Aug. 1-2, weekend included the fastest in specific drive types, plus the Crossover Award (for the driver who normally participates in a different kind of motorsport), and the Top Novice who, as you might guess, was the novice who stood out the most during the weekend’s competition:
Then There Were Three
It won’t be long before the Tire Rack SCCA Time Attack Challenge will be back on the West Coast, with that event taking place Aug. 22-23 at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, WA. Here’s what you need to know about registering for that event.
Following that, all eyes will be on the Tire Rack SCCA Time Attack National Championship, taking place Oct. 22-25 at Eagles Canyon Raceway in Decatur, TX. This is the inaugural winner-take-all National Championship event for SCCA Time Attack competition, with palpable excitement surrounding this historic event. Reserve your spot for the National Championship event ASAP.
Yet even the National Championship event can’t stop the Time Attack Challenge, with the final event of the West series taking place Nov. 14-15 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Southern California. Buttonwillow is the OG of Time Attack tracks, making this season finale one you won’t want to miss.
Photo of Max 1 winner Jackie Ding by Geoffrey Bolte
