Canadian auto racer David Empringham has become the first driver to break the magic one-and-a-half minute mark on street-legal tires while racing at the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) in Sydney, Australia, a premier Time Attack racing event.

The former Atlantic Championship and Firestone Indy Lights champion broke the barrier for the American Sierra Enterprises team, setting a time of 1 minute 29.020 seconds in his Hankook Ventus TD-shod Mitsubishi Evo. The lap was more than a second faster than the V8 Supercar lap record of 1:30.187, which was set on full slick racing tires.

Hankook-fitted cars dominated WTAC. Nicholas Kalis, who won the Open Class competition for less modified cars, and second place Simon Podlenski both used Hankook Ventus TD tires on their cars. In addition, the Club Sprint class for near-standard road cars was won by Marek Tomaszewski with Hankook Ventus R-S3 road-spec track tires on his car.

“Congratulations to David Empringham on breaking the one-and-a-half minute mark at the World Time Attack Challenge,” said Bill Hume, vice-president, Hankook Tire Canada. “We are thrilled he did it using our tires. Hankook has put a lot of resources behind our research and development - it’s great to see our products performing at such a competitive level.”

Almost 10,000 people attended the two day World Time Attack Challenge with Hankook as the naming sponsor of the Open Class at WTAC.

The premise of time attack is street-car-based vehicles on "street" tires attempting to turn the single fastest lap on a given track. Unlike other timed motorsport, cars are required to start under full rolling start conditions following a warm up lap. Cars consist of modified road cars and are required to wear tires authorized for road use. Drivers are allocated 15 minute sessions with unlimited laps, and the fastest time over two competition days is recorded.