I just want to start off this post by saying that I believe the photos you’re about to see below might be my best photography work, like fucking EVER. Haha, I’m serious though. I couldn’t help but be inspired by being at the World Time Attack Challenge this year and being exposed to so many awesome vehicles, from the competitive race vehicles in each class, to the drift cars doing demo runs, and of course, the classic Japanese race vehicles which were transported from Japan just for demonstration at WTAC. It’s incredible. I had already made plans to go to WTAC because I wanted to see the competition itself, but being able to not only see guys like Keiichi Tsuchiya, and being able to meet him, is something that I would have never imagined would ever happen. There was a point in the afternoon when I was pit-side, staring at the Mazda 767B and Tsuchiya’s TRD N2 race car, that I told myself that everything I’d ever done in my craft was worthwhile…because of this moment. It was during those brief few minutes when I knew I was in the presence of something special. I don’t even know if I can really explain it to you all in words, and I think of myself as a pretty good writer. You just have to be there I guess, to really understand. There’s just something about traveling to new places and seeing new things that really help to inspire me to hone my craft as a photographer. Having great subjects to shoot like the cars you’ll see below really help obviously, but there was just this energy that I felt while I was there that I hadn’t felt in a very long time…

I’m so glad that I actually had three days to try to capture all that I could, but it probably wasn’t even enough time, because there was always something else to look at. One of the most difficult things to do in photography is to capture emotion, to capture that moment in time, and attempt to try to translate it to whoever is looking at your photos. Hopefully I’ve done that with my recent work from WTAC. I’d like to think that I did a pretty good job of trying to harness that essence that was present at this event. I’ll let you guys be the judge. Take a look below and check out the shots. If you dig them, I hope you come back to see the rest…

WORLD TIME ATTACK CHALLENGE 2017

SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA

PHOTOS BY STICKYDILJOE & TIFFANIE MARIE

WORDS BY STICKYDILJOE

One of the cool things about the World Time Attack Challenge event is that there is a little bit of everything for everyone. You have your WTAC competitors, show cars and display vehicles in the vendor section, drift demos, and some old racing classics. Above is a Nissan Bluebird that ran some demonstration runs on the track with some other classic touring vehicles…

This Bluebird, I believe, was a replica race car inspired by George Fury’s old Nissan Bluebird turbo. Fury is an Australian rally and race car driver who won the Australian Rally Championship twice while also participating in the Australian Touring Car Championship series…

One of the mechanics filling the rotary engine with some GReddy motor oil while others were on the track…

One of the features of the event that I was highly-anticipating was seeing Keiichi Tsuchiya and his TRD N2 AE86 Levin. He was invited over to Australia by WTAC to cruise around the track a few times for some demo runs in his Corolla and it was quite the site to see. One of the advantages of being around during the test day portion of the event was that there weren’t much people there, which allowed us to get much closer to the action. Here they were just making sure he was comfortable in the car before he went on the track for a few test laps…

Tsuchiya of course, is a legendary race car driver in Japan known by the famous “Drift King” moniker….

There was a sense of awe there, I have to admit, when I was around Tsuchiya’s N2 Levin. This is literally a piece of Japanese racing history…

The crew from the popular Japanese DVD series, Hot Version, was on hand to film the entire process of Tsuchiya’s journey to WTAC…

The other major piece of Japanese racing history that was on-hand at WTAC was this Mazda 767B Prototype Le Mans race car. It looks exactly like the one that is still with Mazda North America but is actually quite different…

This 202 car I believe is privately owned by Senji Hoshino, the same one you guys might remember from the Japan Motorhead YouTube by Luke Huxham, and the same car that originally competed in the 1989 24 Hour Le Mans race.

Oh, it is also the same one that crashed and was pretty badly wrecked during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It has since been repaired and now exists almost identically to its Le Mans-winning specifications prior to its crash…

One of my personal favorite photos from the entire set of photos I collected at WTAC. It’s just so cool to see man and machine together, focused, with the right amount of light, and well, some cool gullwing doors don’t hurt either…

A few weeks prior to my trip to Australia, I actually went to the Japanese Classic Car Show event in Long Beach and had the opportunity to look at the 767B that resides in North America. On the outside they couldn’t be more identical, the main difference with the one in America is that it has some updated technology with a MoTec digital display, MoTec ECU, and a newer onboard camera on the passenger side. I guess I might be only one of a few in the entire world that got to see both 767Bs in the same year, just weeks apart… That’s pretty cool…

I wasn’t the only one completely enthralled with the idea of seeing Tsuchiya’s TRD N2, other photographers flocked to it as soon as possible to get their own shots of the legendary duo…

To have these two cars together pit-side with the opportunity to take these photos was already worth the plane ticket to Australia for me. There’s just no better opportunity and it is something I will definitely remember for the rest of my life…

I love these photos so much that I might even turn some of them into full-size 40×30 prints like I did before with some other posters I produced. It would just be cool to have some of these shots blown-up and hanging in my office…

“Let the suicide doors up”…

Keiichi Tsuchiya getting interviewed by the Hot Version video crew…

Amazing capture by Tiffanie of Tsuchiya…

TRD N2 getting ready to take-off. Granted, Tsuchiya didn’t run the car very hard but it was still great to see on the track of Sydney Motorsport Park…

Meanwhile, back in the paddock, Adam Casmiri and crew began to prepare for the next session in the JDMyard/Hardrace K24 turbo Civic…

Crazy to think that one of the fastest vehicles at World Time Attack Challenge this year was an EG Civic. Even crazier to think that the fastest FF at WTAC was a CR-X…

Josh Coote and the MCA Suspension Toyota 86…

Croydon Racing Developments R34 Skyline, driven by Drew Hall, competing in the Open Class competition…

Car Shop DREAM FD RX-7 ripping down the straight at Sydney Motorsport Park…

This RX-7 is fucking ridiculous, I swear, it just looks so good and sounds even better…

Casmiri returning to the paddock…

I believe this was already on Day 1 of the competition so he had just run his 1:28 lap time that put him in first before Morcom took over the lead later in the afternoon…

Here’s a look at the rear of the Car Shop DREAM FD. I love how it is completely exposed and you can see the Advan A050 tread through the rear…

Here you can see Freddy from Topstage Composites taking a selfie with Zee from JDMyard, so they must have just ran their best lap time of the day…

Meanwhile, I ventured off to go see what the vendor area had to offer and ran into the 767B once again, but this was towards the end of the day so everyone was already gone…

Another Japanese motorsports legend participating in demo runs that weekend was the Hasemi Sport/UNISIA JECS S15. It was set to be a part of a friendly dogfight on the track with the RE GT300 RX-7…

Here’s peek into the interior of the S15 through a little opening in its acrylic passenger window. Check-out that sequential shifter and Haltech digital display…

Another angle of the S15 with its traditional UNISIA JECS livery and centerlocking SSR wheels…

As I walked further into the vendor section, I spotted a build that I had long wanted to see in person, the “Engineered To Slide” PS13 coupe, built and owned by Nigel Petrie. I originally contacted him to see if I could visit his shop and shoot his cars before realizing that he was literally a flight away from Sydney. For whatever reason, I think that everything in Australia is easily accessible, forgetting that it is quite a large country, haha. I chatted with him over Instagram a bit and he said that he was actually going to be at World Time Attack Challenge, and that I could shoot the car there if I wanted to…

The car isn’t necessarily complete yet and was set to go to paint after WTAC. I was still down to shoot it though because it is a pretty amazing machine. I didn’t realize he was in a booth though and he seemed pretty busy all of WTAC so I didn’t bother him. It was still great to see his car though. Fucking thing is every bit as good as it is online in photographs…

Nigel actually owns some other really great cars too, including an RPS13 180SX, a drift Hilux pick-up truck, and he’s also a motorcycle guy. Just looking at what he’s done to his engine bay, you already know that he’s got a very particular style that exudes creativity through fabrication. Also very cool that he’s running a naturally-aspirated, individually-throttled SR20DE…

Get a look at that header and how he made his own cooling pipes which tie into a reservoir on his tubbed wheel well…

Take note of how the cage ties into the firewall and into the shock towers as well. Just great work all-around. Don’t forget the -AN lines and fittings that run through the body…

The interior is just as good as the engine bay itself. Look at that custom dashboard with the custom instrument display housing a collection of Defi gauges. Also check out the door panels and the releases which are also custom fabricated…

One of the best S13 builds I’ve seen ever and its not even completed yet…

Nissan Stagea wagon featuring an BNR34 Skyline GT-R V-Spec Nur front end conversion…

Under the hood of the R34-converted Stagea is a turbocharged VH41DE….

In the Motul display section was a Midnight Purple Nismo 400R. In all my journeys to Japan, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a 400R. Crazy to finally see one in a completely different country…

More 767B because I swear to you I will take a photo of it every time I walk by…

Grim Performance BNR34 Skyline GT-R with a set of Ganador Super Mirrors and concave-faced Volk Racing TE37 wheels…

The Skyline looks simple enough on the outside but it actually hosts a 827HP RB26 engine which is now a 3.2L stroker with a CNC shimless head and custom HKS V-cam set-up…

The Fury Bluebird replica parked and on display…

Next to it was this really cool Sierra Cosworth Tony Longhurst RS500 touring car…

In the 1990s it was generally known in the Australian Touring Car Series that the Benson & Hedges Cosworths were the most powerful in the world with a powerplant that produced 590HP…

LIKEWISE displayed this really well-done Toyota 86, featuring Aimgain aero, 326power wheels, and a wild engine set-up…

Resting inside the purple engine bay of the LIKEWISE 86 was a twin-turbo 2JZ-GTE engine swap, with Wiggins clamps and HKS cam gears executed properly to match the bay…

This BNR33 GT-R looked to be another 400R but I am not completely sure….

RB26DET with upgraded Precision turbo, billet valve cover, and Hypertune components…

This former World Time Attack Challenge competitor is known as “JET200”, a S14 Silvia with S15 strawberry-face conversion and custom aero on display at the Motive DVD booth…

Under the hood is an SR set-up running a Redsun Motorsport VE head, Nitto 2.2L block, and GTX3582 turbo, managed by a Haltech ECU…

Group A Taisan STP Skyline GT-R race car originally piloted by Keiichi Tsuchiya, on display at the Yokohama Advan booth…

Matt Longhurst and the R34 Skyline GT-R from Integrated Motorsports…

Ripping down the Brabham Straight…

JDMyard team hard at work refueling the Civic while it cools down after a hot lap…

The weather on Day 1 was especially warm so cars would typically go out for one hot lap and then come right back in too cool down. These cars were so fast that each session was probably less than ten minutes long, and most of it was just waiting to get on the track with proper spacing so each car had a chance at a good hot lap devoid of any other vehicles in their way…

Preparation for this competition was key and with experience on their plate, the guys from JDMyard were fully-prepared…

…And now, to end Part 2, one of my favorite vehicles ever, which I was finally able to see in person after scouring the web for over a decade just finding the smallest of photos of it….

The RE Amemiya Bomex GT300 RX-7 in all its glory. Finally I was able to see this car in full-size in real life. 320x240px photos of it on Minkara is cool and all but man, seeing it in person is just way more amazing, haha…

I took so many fucking photos of this thing. I love how a shop went and restored it to its former glory and now it just exists as-is, looking like it was transported into our present day from a time machine…

The rear of the FD, with the bumper cut and a straight-piped exhaust protruding outward. Love the slicks wrapped around the center-lock Regas as well…

Talk about a bucket list trip, being able to see all these Japanese legends. I still can’t believe I was in the presence of all of this. It still doesn’t even seem real…

And there’s much more to come…

So please stay tuned and come back for more…