The Willall Racing Toyota 86 made its hugely successful debut into Time Attack competition over the weekend, competing in the Street Class at the SA Time Attack Championships held at Mallala Raceway.
Wearing a new set of Toyo R1R tyres and with some further tweaks to its chassis and tune, Willall Racing’s 86 (WR86) managed to finish in the top five Street Class cars in a field where it was the only naturally aspirated competitor.
Running a best time of 1:23.6, the WR86 was able to outpace many of its competitors in Mitsubishi Evolution and Subaru WRX racers, no mean feat for the little two-litre, rear-wheel-drive coupe.
“It truly was a fantastic experience,” explained Willall Racing WR86 driver Martin Donnon.
“Most – if not all – of the turbo cars we were racing had more speed than us in a straight line, so getting the best from the WR86 meant we had to hold a lot of commitment through the corners and drive the car on the limit under brakes.
“Where the bigger power cars would pull lengths down the back straight we could close that gap up car lengths at a time under heavy braking, which means that the gap had an elastic band effect of constantly stretching and reducing.
“Most impressive was the performance of the Toyo R1R Street Tyres; while they offered almost semi-slick style levels of grip and performance.
We know from experience that they’re also whisper quiet on the road and provide perfect performance in the wet – overall, the R1R is a great all-round piece of rubber and highly recommended for any Toyota 86!”
Proving the mettle of the WR86 package was the fact that it could circulate in every session without any mechanical problems, an impressive result on a day where mechanical failures were so common that the 40-car starting field was whittled down to around half of that by the end of the event.
“That’s why we have chosen the parts we did for WR86, and then tested them so thoroughly,” said Donnon.
“There is no point in improving the performance of such a great platform if you can’t actually get out and use it as hard or as often as you want.
“The time for performance street cars to not be durable passed many years ago, and with our focus on OEM levels of quality and durability, we’re sure that the feelings of happiness and satisfaction that the WR86 delivered on the weekend will be transferred on to all those that make this same package choice for their own 86.”
With the 2013 Motorsport season rapidly drawing to a conclusion, the achievements of WR86 have been exceptional.
At the point end of class in most every event, and unmatched on the longer hill-climbs, the Willall Racing team and all of their WR86 development partners have shown that it is possible to have both a highly capable club-level track car that is also perfectly daily driveable without any compromise to its reliability.
For Willall Racing, it’s time to make some serious plans for 2014 and move even further up the order.
