• Pit+Paddock follows pro driver Dai Yoshihara and Evasive Motorsports co-founder Mike Chang as they visit the 2024 World Time Attack Challenge.
• Despite the Evasive Motorsports Honda S2000 RS not traveling overseas, Dai and Mike continued their journey to Sydney, Australia to meet with organizers and experience the motorsports festival.
• Dai Yoshihara borrowed JDMYard’s FL5 Honda Civic Type R to drive the 2.43-mile Sydney Motorsports Park for the first time.
• Dai reports the track is “very flowy” like WeatherTech Laguna Seca”, can be “bumpy” at times, and reveals the high-speed Turn 1 will take “a lot of laps to get used to.”
• WTAC welcomed Dai as a special guest, featuring him in two autograph sessions, a Q&A with VIP guests, and a spot on the well-watched Livestream feed.
• Evasive Motorsports and Dai Yoshihara aim to return to the World Time Attack Challenge as competitors in 2025 with the support of ENEOS Oil, Yokohama Tire, Turn 14 Distribution/Pit+Paddock, and Koyorad.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

The action-packed excitement from this year’s World Time Attack Challenge has finally settled, and there’s a lot to still soak in and reflect on. I can’t stress enough how hospitable folks from Australia are, as they opened their arms to a bunch of California tourists that, perhaps, left many fans disappointed with the Evasive Motorsports S2000 RS not making the journey. But kindness poured through as shops like GT Evolution and Dahtone Racing let us whip around their Nissan GT-Rs for an unforgettable night in Sydney (featured in Part One of “Down Under with Dai”).

The following three days at World Time Attack Challenge felt like a “home away from home”. Our pro driver, Dai Yoshihara, was treated like family, as he had the opportunity to drive Sydney Motorsports Park, as well as be featured as a drifting legend and time attack hero through meet-and-greets, autograph sessions, and interviews.

FIRST LAPS AT SYDNEY MOTORSPORTS PARK

While this was Pit+Paddock’s first time attending WTAC, this was not Dai’s first. In 2015, he was invited out as a special guest drift judge, not too long after he took home the world championship in Formula DRIFT four years prior. However, during this time, he didn’t get a chance to walk around, survey the track, or meet with many people, which is why it made it that much sweeter that he would be taking some hot laps around Sydney Motorsports Park for the first time in his 20+year pro driving career.

All that he needed was the right car, and what better vehicle than a Honda Civic Type R, which he might know a thing or two from his current campaign in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series. Owned by the founder of JDMYard Yonas Liu, the FL5 wasn’t quite TCR race-spec, but some bolt-ons from Spoon Sports would make for a sportier-than-stock test drive.

WTAC organizers set up Dai nicely with his own private session. This allowed Dai to experience the 2.43-mile, 11-turn track with zero distractions. Following a few hot laps, Dai returned to the pits, where he reported the track was “very flowy” and not very high speed except for Turn 1, which he revealed would require a lot of practice laps and aero/suspension tuning to be able to take it at full speed. The Pro and Pro-Am class lap times revealed similarities to WeatherTech Laguna Seca, where the Evasive S2000 RS threw down a 1:25.526 last year in an exhibition race (in-car video). After discussing with Evasive co-founder Mike Chang, they both feel the S2000 could perform well at Sydney Motorsports Park, which we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for.

GUEST OF HONOR

The fun didn’t stop after the Civic Type R hot laps, as Dai was treated like a guest of honor at World Time Attack Challenge. The next two days included autograph sessions at the Yokohama Stage. Here, we were able to witness the wide scope of Dai’s fanbase as hundreds of enthusiasts lined up to meet him. We even saw some people bring their own Dai-related merch for him to sign, including a rare Subaru BRZ R/C drift car dressed in Turn 14 Distribution livery.

In addition to the meet-and-greets, Dai was invited to be a guest speaker alongside other time attack heroes like Tim Slade, Cole Powelson, Feras Qartoumy, and Barton Mawer. The final leg of the weekend was a one-on-one interview on the WTAC Livestream, which we’re told by organizers this year received record views.

TO BE CONTINUED

I’ve reported and followed the World Time Attack Challenge as a journalist for more than a decade but having the opportunity to travel 7,500 miles and experience the motorsports festival with Dai Yoshihara and Mike Chang was larger than life. I was skeptical that the event drew 30,000+ people like the organizers claimed and was curious if that many people actually followed and watched the time attack competition, which you would never hear stateside. They did, and WTAC lived up to the hype. The hope now is that next year, we’ll be watching a different story unfold with Dai, Mike, and the Evasive team competing at the world’s largest and most recognized battleground for time attack.

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