Today’s photo of the day takes us to the famous Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where on a rainy afternoon “Mr. Time Attack”, Nikolas Malechikos enjoyed great success in his City Tire Online sponsored Nissan 350Z.
“Prior to racing the Berk Technology BMW 135i, I was using Redline Time Attack as a practice platform for myself to stay sharp and keep my competitive edge, I was running my personal 911 Turbo which I converted to RWD for a better similarity to the GT racing Porsches. Much similar to professional racing, session time is somewhat limited during the race weekends to get the car dialed in perfect for the weather conditions and the track, so you have to do a few laps, pinpoint what has to be changed on the setup, make the adjustments and then go out and nail it again. During Redline Time Attack 2010 I was also racing the City Tire Online Nissan 350Z, which is a Formula Drift car that I actually even ran on street tires in the Modified class just because it was too expensive to run R-comps (this was before the Ventus TD came out). That car had no chance to win on paper but remember what I said about optimizing the usage of the tires, staying reliable and consistent? Well I ended up as the 2010 Mod class Champion and also broke the class track record at the infamous Big Willow. Who would’ve thought!” ~Nikolas Malechikos