I think Dextah090 introduced the scheme to the community at large with a RRkit tourney
Had the 90 second timer, only because it wasn't possible to have the turn time set to infinity. It was used in a couple of following RRkit tourneys too (cause I liked having different types of RR in different tourneys, had LG, had mirror RR, 3 star ropes, timetrial, 50% timetrial, oh the endless possibilities!)
I think the infinite timer was added specifically to accomodate timetrial though, so I'll still call the 90 second version the birth of timetrial.
ps: hi, Ryan!