World Time Attack 2015 - Sydney Motorsport Park

Hey Guys Kat here, I’ve finally got around to writing some things down after a whirlwind of a week where it feels like my feet haven’t even touched the ground. I’ve just come back from an amazing experience representing New Zealand at the World Time Attack Challenge 2015, where the BurgerFuel Evo was put through its paces against the clock at Sydney Motorsport park. I can’t even begin to explain how much of a buzz this was, with 20,000 fans and over 100 cars from around the world attending 2 days of petrol head heaven. We haven’t heard the final numbers yet, but the livestream view numbers are into the hundreds of thousands, along with countless thousands of Youtube, Instagram and Snapchat views. Honestly, Initially I was caught off guard and I wasn't 100% sure it would be possible to attend after being forwarded a invitation by owner Ian Baker. The event is a big deal and I was only given 1 week to make the decision to enter open class. After talking to my crew and the super Doofer awesome BurgerFuel team, I committed to loading my baby in to a container and meeting it in Sydney to take on a track I’d only ever seen once in person, a handful of times on TV and to compete against a whole bunch of drivers who are racing week in week out. I was so nervous but also so excited to be able to take part in event I’d always thought would just be a pipe dream. After a quick stop at Ilabb to pick up some new threads and getting some new undies (flame retardant and not even that flattering) haha, I was off on a flight with my fiancé Andrew and Tristan my crew chief with fingers and toes and everything crossed that nothing had happened to my car while it sat in a container crossing the Tasman. I was simply blown away when I got to the track, everyone was so nice and welcoming and just wanted to help. As the only girl racing in the whole event, I wasn't sure how the drivers and crews might react, but the event is just so professional and everyone wants to see everyone else do well which really is an awesome feeling. I was beyond privileged to have been contacted before I flew overseas by Kiwi & international motorsport legend Shane Van Gisbergen whom I had met through other joint events previously with the offer of some priceless 1 on 1 tuition at the event. I cannot thank him enough because it made everything a little less daunting and with such a technical track to navigate through, this guidance helped me to shred seconds off lap times. While I never expected to win against cars with allot more power and lots of laps around the track, I set myself some personal goals. One was to improve my lines every session, and get a new personal best every day, be professional on camera and to represent NZ and my sponsors with pride and also beat previous years female entrants time to which I was successful by over 4 seconds. Mission accomplished! Once we got the right tires on, I went 1.44.5 and was absolutely stoked given temperatures went to 34 degrees and were just too hot for turbo charged cars. My good friend Warren, who is known for being grumpy was on the livestream presenting team and he can be my harshest critic, so when he came back to our pit telling me I had done ‘moderately OK’ with a smile on his face I was over the moon, I know he loves me really. The comments from all at the event from public to organisers were nothing but positive but my favourite mentioned on livestream would have to be 'Kat talks the talk, walks the walk and steers those corners with the best of them'. I could go on for hours really and I met so many amazing people, with so many parties to thank for the support and really just believing in me along the way. Some very exciting news is to recieve offers of driver coaching on an internal level and hosting for next year already, but maybe I’ll save those stories for the next drinks at HQ. Big thanks and love to my BurgerFuel Family, it was also absolutely a pleasure to meet Bonnie and the BlackTown team and convert many Australians to the BurgerFuel way of life. KBR over and out, already dreaming and planning for a 2016 Attack! Photo credit - Alastair Richie, Greg @ Creative Design