While traditionally popular motorsport events are losing entries hand over fist, one branch of the sport that is largely dismissed by circuit-racing purists is thriving. Time Attack was introduced to Ireland in 2007 as an add-on to drifting events, but it received little attention until it was taken in-house by Mondello Park for the start of last season. Since then, the championship has flourished and is now one of the few growth areas in Irish motorsport.

Motorsport is a luxury pastime, so in times of recession it is naturally one of the first things to suffer. Both circuit racing and rallying have been hit hard by the economic crisis, with the evidence being there right from the start of the year. The Galway Rally managed just over 40 starters, down from 80 the previous year, while Rally Ireland struggled to attract local competitors. Circuit racing too has suffered. Classes were dropped and amalgamated for the first event of the season, while the second race meeting was canned when more withdrawals were announced.

So why has Time Attack done so well? The simple reason could be accessibility. Motorsport is notoriously hard to make your way into, a problem that Motorsport Ireland recognised with its ‘Get Into Motor Racing’ day earlier this year. Giving prospective competitors an easy way to get started is key. This new branch of the sport is based around modified road cars and caters for the performance-saloon-car enthusiast, particularly those with an interest in Japanese cars, which dominate the entry lists. Time Attack allows drivers to take their vehicles from road car through to trackday special and on to full competition spec quickly and easily.

Feeding directly from the trackday scene, Time Attack gives drivers an easy way to make the jump from wannabe to racer. That transition can be made without having to enter the often strange and complicated world of circuit racing, with its huge number of options, very few of which have any relationship to the performance saloons that are so beloved of the new breed of racer. The events themselves are also easy to understand, with the results being decided by a driver’s single fastest lap in the final session of the day. The whole event builds through two or more practice sessions to the final, which can be run in two ways, either an unrestricted open-pit format or a single-lap shootout.

Time Attack, like a number of other new motorsport initiatives, began in Japan and is currently making huge strides all over Europe. Its strong appeal to the street and trackday driver means it has become a heaven for tuners looking to show prospective customers what they can do. In the UK, this element of the sport has led to a number of tuners employing ex-touring car racers to pilot their cars, in the hopes of improving their standing. The sport has not gone to that level here in Ireland yet, and hopefully it won’t, but the signs are there, with two former Irish tin-top stars already being drafted in by one tuner.

19 cars entered the first round of the 2009 Irish series compared to 12 at the ’08 opener. This is an impressive enough jump when looked at in isolation, but taking into account the number of 2008 competitors missing from the grid while new cars are finished or their rebuilt cars await completion makes the entry look even more impressive, particularly as nine of the drivers entered were taking part in their first-ever competitive event. By mid-season up to 30 cars are expected, which would make Time Attack the single most popular class in Irish racing – not bad in these recessionary times.

With conventional racing, buying or building your race car is just the tip of the iceberg, as running costs can also be prohibitive. One of the biggest factors in the growth of Time Attack is the low running costs once your car is track-ready. The track time offered for your entry fee compares well to any race series, and with no actual door-to-door racing the chances of needing body repairs are practically non-existent. Restricting drivers to only using high-performance, over-the-counter road tyres means that spending vast amounts of time or money on engine development is futile, as you simply will not be able to use your extra grunt. Running solely at Mondello also helps, as endless testing of setups for new tracks is not required.

Time Attack is not part of the circuit-racing establishment, but that does not mean it can’t exist quite happily on its own. As entries and levels of competitiveness continue to fall in other areas of the sport, Time Attack’s second season looks like being far more keenly contested than the first. The cars are good to look at, make the right noises and are capable of lap times of under a minute around the Mondello Park National track. Very few vehicles running on road tyres can claim those sort of times, so the lack of doorhandle-to-doorhandle racing is not seen as a drawback by fans. It may never be one for the purist, but Time Attack’s straightforward nature has made it one of the strongest growth areas in Irish motorsport and it looks like it will remain so for many years to come.