The finale of the Super Lap Battle time attack series always seems to be a pretty memorable event. In years past a GM-prepped Cobalt and an HKS-primed Evo IX have dominated the trials, the Mitsubishi most recently crushing Buttonwillow Raceway Park's hot lap record for track configuration CW13 at 2007's final round with a blistering 1:43.523.

This year's fourth annual closer - coming after a season's worth of qualifying events - looked to be just as indelible, with several American time attack regulars mixed in with a handful of high-profile Japanese-based competitors. Perennial victors like Tyler McQuarrie and the Brian Crower/C-West Honda S2000, Gary Sheehan and the GST Impreza, and Chris Rado in his World Racing Scion tC were matched up against the likes of Eiji "Tarzan" Yamada in the Tomei/Cusco Impreza and Super GT pilot Katsuyuki Hiranaka in the 5Zigen Euro Accord-R, among others.

The 2008 contest was much more straightforward than last year's, and seemed to run more smoothly because of it. No weird "micro" class, no "drift class" (that could be the other guys...), just three categories, Unlimited, Limited, and Street, broken down into separate groups based on drive-train layout: All-Wheel Drive (AWD), Front engine/Rear-wheel drive (FR), and Front engine/Front-wheel drive (FF). (Incidentally, since there was no "mid-engine" category, cars like the NSX and Elise were shoved into a variant of FR.)

The day began with two half hour-long whipping sessions to determine run groups. Drivers had 30 minutes to lay down a fast time that would only count toward their final placing among similarly fast challengers. Each of the five groups would then have four sessions throughout the day to record a fast lap that would stick.

There was no shortage of drama at Super Lap, most of it happening in the paddock; in fact, some of the fastest cars on the day didn't seem too healthy. The C-West S2000, for instance, rolled in after its morning run group qualifier with some not-too-encouraging sounds coming from under the valve cover. Turns out there was a piston clearance issue, which was diagnosed, resolved, and the car returned to the track to lay down the best time in Unlimited FR, a 1:46.893.

Yamada's Cusco Impreza also found itself disabled at one point, needing to be pushed in after session 2 from the end of the front straightaway. We never learned what took the car out, but apparently by then it didn't matter; he had already lapped the fastest of anyone, a 1:44.372. It wasn't a record breaker, but Yamada's dominant performance was still nearly three seconds better than the next competitor in his class, and even bested the next fastest time overall by 2.5 ticks.

While the big dogs in the Unlimited categories brought out the heavy machinery and expert hot shoes, and put up correspondent numbers because of it, it seemed the Limited and Street groups were more closely matched and therefore provided just as much excitement. The final outcomes of three categories - Limited FF, Street AWD, and Street FR - saw each group's top-two finishers separated by less than a second. In Street AWD, champion Nils Leufven in the Factor X/RobiSpec Evo 8 just barely edged Ryan Gates in the Gates311.com/AMS Evo 10 by 0.05 seconds. Talk about razor thin.

Thumbs up to the boys at Sport Compact Car, Super Street, and Import Tuner magazines for the exclusive invite to their Super Lap Battle; we were one of the few outsider media outlets to attend. They've really developed the time attack series into one of the can't-miss events of the sport compact world, as each seems to be bigger and badder than the previous one. For complete results, and news on next year's run to Buttonwillow, check out www.superlapbattle.com.

For more pictures, visit the 2008 Super Lap Battle Gallery.

Unlimited AWD
1 Eiji Yamada, Team Tarzan 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX 1:44.372
2 Eiji Yamada, Crawford Perf. 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI 1:47.052
3 Gary Sheehan, GST Motorsports 1996 Subaru Impreza L 1:48.038

Unlimited FR
1 Tyler McQuarrie, C-West/BC 2000 Honda S2000 1:46.893
2 Paul Brown, JIC Magic USA 1996 Porsche GT2 1:47.868
3 Billy Johnson, Factor X 1991 Acura NSX 1:47.965

Unlimited FF
1 Katsuyuki Hiranaka, 5Zigen 2004 Honda Accord Euro-R 1:54.987
2 Chris Rado, World Racing 2006 Scion tC 1:56.126
3 Andy Hope, Mishimoto/Motorworld Hype 2002 Acura RSX-S 1:58.098

Limited AWD
1 Tim Kuo, Evasive Motorsports 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 91:50.003
2 Andrie Hartanto, Speed Element 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII 1:53.229
3 Dieter Heinz, MFQ/RobiSpec 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8 1:53.981

Limited FR
1 Matt Andrews, RobiSpec/Flying Miata 1995 Mazda Miata 1:56.187
2 Toshiki Yoshioka, E-Autosports 2006 Honda S2000 1:57.169
3 David Norton, SPEC Clutch 1995 Nissan 240SX 1:59.667

Limited FF
1 Tim Kuo, Sportcar Motion 1995 Honda Civic 1:55.948
2 Tage Evanson, HASport/Kaaz 1995 Honda Civic 1:56.186
3 Paul Bonaccorsi, 2006 VW GTI 2:02.652

Street AWD
1 Nils Leufven, Factor X/RobiSpec 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII1:56.672
2 Ryan Gates, Gates311.com/AMS 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 1:56.726
3 Martin Musial, AMS 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X 1:57.067

Street FR
1 Matt Andrews, Yokohama/Boost Logic 1995 Toyota Supra 1:57.711
2 Rob Walker, Evasive Motorsports 2006 Honda S2000 1:58.364
3 Manly Kao, trackHQ.com/APR Performance 2005 Lotus Elise 1:58.752

Street FF
1 Michael Chang, Evasive Motorsports 2008 Honda Civic Si 2:03.557
2 Douglas Wind, Windspeed Motorsports 2004 Dodge Neon SRT-4 2:04.912
3 Eric Bizek, Cobb Tuning 2007 Mazdaspeed3 2:05.254