World Time Attack Challenge 2025: Hazelwood’s Shootout Heroics, Hypercar Mayhem, and Everything That Went Down at Sydney Motorsport Park

The world’s fastest time attack cars had their annual reckoning at Eastern Creek. Here’s the full story.

What Is the World Time Attack Challenge?

The World Time Attack Challenge — WTAC for short — is the biggest and most prestigious time attack event on the planet. Held annually at Sydney Motorsport Park in Eastern Creek, NSW, it attracts purpose-built monsters from Japan, the United States, Europe, and everywhere in between. We’re talking six-figure builds running on slicks with more downforce than sense, driven by people who have dedicated their careers to shaving tenths off a single lap time.

WTAC runs multiple competitive classes — from the ultra-extreme Pro Class to more accessible clubsport divisions — plus drift demonstrations, exhibition runs, and a full festival atmosphere. It’s two days of sensory overload, and 2025 took things to another level entirely with the introduction of an all-new Hypercar class that brought some of the most exclusive track-only machines on the planet to Eastern Creek.

The Main Event: Hazelwood Does the Unthinkable in the Shootout

Going into 2025, the Tanuki Racing Nissan Silvia S13 was already a known quantity. The Japanese-backed team had competed at WTAC before, and the car — a wildly built S13 platform running serious aero and a turbocharged engine making well north of a thousand horsepower — was known to be fast. What nobody anticipated was just how fast it would go in the Saturday shootout with Bathurst 1000 winner Todd Hazelwood behind the wheel.

Hazelwood, a professional Supercars Series driver making his WTAC debut, dropped a 1:18.1690 in the Emtron Pro Class shootout. That’s not just the fastest lap of his personal career — it shattered the Tanuki car’s own previous best efforts and was the kind of number that made everyone on pitlane go quiet for a second before the celebrations erupted.

The combination of Hazelwood’s professional car control and the Tanuki team’s deep understanding of the S13’s setup produced a lap that nobody else in the Pro Class could come close to matching. Behind him, Alex Rullo’s modified Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX came in at 1:22.765 — more than four full seconds back. In time attack, that is an eternity.

The Hypercar Class: A Brand New Battlefield

The single biggest talking point going into WTAC 2025 — before a wheel had even turned — was the introduction of an all-new Hypercar class. Organizers assembled three of the most exclusive track-only machines in existence and pointed them at a lap timer. The result was one of the more visually spectacular classes in the event’s history.

The Brabham winning on Australian soil had a certain poetic quality to it. The Brabham name has deep roots in Australian racing history, and watching an Australian-built machine top a class featuring Italian exotic machinery was a storyline the crowd clearly appreciated.

Full Class Results: 2025 World Time Attack Challenge

The Controversy: The DQ That Broke the Internet

No 2025 WTAC recap is complete without addressing the incident that generated more than 1.6 million Instagram views before the footage was pulled.

Japanese competitor Yuuki Kamakura had just set a 1:31.34 lap time in his custom Mazda RX-7 in the GCG Turbos Open Class. On his return to the pits — with emotions running high and his team waiting to celebrate — Kamakura executed a power slide that turned into a full burnout. Multiple rotations in the pit lane, in front of officials, team members, media, and spectators.

WTAC organizers did not find it amusing.

Kamakura was disqualified from the entire event and all of his recorded lap times were nullified. He subsequently issued an apology, acknowledging that his emotions got the better of him and that his decision was inappropriate given the environment.

The incident sparked considerable debate online. Some argued the penalty was excessive for what was essentially a celebration that got out of hand. Others firmly supported the zero-tolerance stance given the genuine safety risks of an uncontrolled vehicle in a crowded pit lane. The practical outcome: WTAC has now committed to providing all international competitors with explicit documentation of Australian motorsport regulations before competition begins.

Beyond the Time Attack: What Else Went Down

WTAC has evolved well beyond a pure lap-timer event, and 2025 continued that expansion.

The Drift Demos

The Garrett International Drifting Cup brought its own spectacle to the weekend. Japanese drifting stalwart Masashi Yokoi returned to WTAC — having competed at previous events, Yokoi is well known to the WTAC crowd — to compete in the drift demonstrations. The weekend also debuted an All-Female Drift Showcase, a first for the event that was warmly received by the crowd and could well become a recurring fixture.

New Faces Making Their Mark

Rising Australian talent Hana Burton made her WTAC debut alongside Todd Hazelwood, representing a new generation of drivers getting exposure at the highest level of the sport. Meanwhile, one of the fan-favorite entries of the weekend was Tatsuru Ichishima returning with the Spoon EK9 Honda Civic — a car that embodies the philosophy of extracting maximum performance from a naturally aspirated, modest platform. In an event dominated by turbocharged monsters and exotic machinery, Ichishima’s clean, precise approach consistently draws a crowd.

What’s Coming: WTAC 2026

The next World Time Attack Challenge is already confirmed. WTAC 2026 returns to Sydney Motorsport Park on September 4–5, 2026. Competitor Expressions of Interest opened in February 2026, meaning the entry list is already starting to take shape.

Given the momentum the event has built — the introduction of the Hypercar class, the drift showcase additions, the growing international field — there’s every reason to believe 2026 takes everything up another level. If you’ve never attended WTAC in person and you’re anywhere near Sydney in early September, put it on the calendar now.

If you’ve never seen what a 1:18 lap at Sydney Motorsport Park looks like from the cockpit, go find the onboard. Then try and explain why your hands are shaking.