One of the fiercest-fought classes at the 2022 Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge is the GCG Open class. Tim Slade in the Xtreme GT-R R32 Skyline having a knock-em-down, drag-em-out dogfight with Nathan Morcom in the Gas/Royal Purple/Insight Motorsports Evo VII.
Early on Day Two Morcom led Slade by a tenth of a second with both cars in the mid-1.27 bracket, but the middle of the day saw Slade crack out a 1.27.379 to not only take the lead but also break a five-year-old class record. The old record was set by Adam Casmiri’s 1.27.562 set in the JDMYard/Hardrace Honda Civic.
Unfortunately for Slade and the Xtreme GT-R team the Skyline dropped a valve in the RB26’s cylinder head as it crossed the finish line, with the wild carbon-clad machine retired hurt shortly afterwards.
Morcom came back out later to run a 1.27.618 to sit tight for second-in-class and fifth outright in the Mitsubishi. He battled through a thrown accessory belt late in the night to come out as the last GCG Open class competitor to run in the shootout… and nabbed the win with a 1.27.247.
The rest of GCG Open class was incredibly tight as Benny Tran’s BYP Racing Honda Integra (1.30.320), Aaron Borg’s Worlds Best Technology Nissan R33 Skyline GT-R (1.30.803), and Rob Nguyen in the Dream Project S15 Silvia (1.31.001) fought for third, fourth and fifth, with all cars landing inside the Top 10 outright.
