2025 Racetreads.com GT Radial 86Cup Rd. 3 – The Circuit at Buttonwillow – Event ResultsRound 3 was a stark reminder to everyone in our community that it ain’t always sunshine and rainbows in a time attack event. And that ultimately, at the end of it, a lot of it just comes down to pure luck.Drivers battled the elements dealing with suboptimal conditions all day. While we don’t count the first session of the HPDE day, drivers got to learn the new track at Buttonwillow at a relatively slow pace as the rain was coming down full bore early in the morning.

The track was full wet, then half wet, then dry/steamy, then full wet for half the track, and every combination in-between throughout the rest of the day for everyone in 86Cup. Not to mention lightning and then huge gusts of wind that blew tumbleweeds that would try to kill you entering turn 5, then try to finish the job again as you came by on the front straight.

It was definitely hard to put down a proper flying lap. Towards the end of the day, it seemed like everyone just decided to full send in the rain and put down the fastest lap that they could as time ran out overall.

Being this is a new track for us, there were several “records” recorded amongst the 86Cup gang and those laps have now been updated on our website for your viewing pleasure. Send us a photo if you print it out and hang it on your fridge for your mom to see.

STOCK Class

The Luke Daley show is in full effect for the 86Cup Stock class with another W added to his column. After the 1.5 second penalty is assessed for Gen 2 cars, he comes home with a 2:06.479*.

Sean Irwin falls closely behind in second place with a 2:06.936. Can Sean make a comeback in the rest of his season to go back-to-back Stock class championships? Only time will tell…

Eric Robi takes home the final spot on the podium in what is probably the last event for ‘ole red, laying down a 2:08.296* after time adjustment. Based on the group chat, it seems like he got his money’s worth out of his rotors.

Honorable mention goes out to William being the lone Gen 1 car in the class this round, putting down a 2:09.267. This lap will go into the records page but it will be exciting to see if someone can break it the next time around for 86Cup.

STREET Class

The party class strikes again, though this time the admins didn’t have to go into the double digits for the results positions which probably hasn’t happened in a bit.

Bobby Tisher comes up with a massive W in the rain! If we’re not mistaken, this is his first win in 86Cup? At least for Street class that is for sure. Congratulations on the top spot Bobby! It’s been awesome seeing you get faster year after year and especially in 2025 in particular you’ve been blazing a trail!

That being said, Ethan Lawrie comes nipping at his heels. Remember when we said time attack is sometimes just about pure luck at the end of it all? Well, Ethan comes up just 0.050 seconds behind Bobby to take second place. As many of us have experienced over the years, Ethan is probably analyzing that lap trying to see where they lost that time.

With rain, mud, lightning, and luck all thrown into the mix, we have Matt Woolsey taking home the final podium spot with a 2:05.345 in his 2023 Toyota GR86. Matt lead the charge for what is otherwise an extremely intense Street class midpack battle looking at the time charts. Everyone from 3rd to 7th was separated by less than half a second. Some Gen 1 cars thrown into the mix there too, suggesting some of the Gen 2 drivers need to go a little bit faster possibly.

MOD Class

Looks like the rain scared off any Mod class friends we were going to make this Round. No one wanted to be the first to claim a “record” lap? Guess we’ll have to wait until next year.

UNLIMITED Class

Is anybody going to stop this man? Jared Ramirez is on a terror in his 2022 Toyota GR86, seemingly in a league of his own setting the only sub-2 lap for the class this round.

Speaking of sub-2, Jeff Flogerzi gets ever so close to such. He sets the non-86Cup specific FA20 NA overall lap record based on our data. He laid down a 2:00.997 at the end of it all. So looks like there’s still about a full second to look for out there. Sounds like it’ll be doable on a completely dry event.

Tim Chan, also in a first gen car, comes home with 3rd place for Unlimited class in his 2014 Subaru BRZ. He put down a 2:02.743 on Kumho Ecsta V730s.

EXHIBITION Class

Exhibition class finally saw two challengers in the running. Our dear friends and sponsors, CounterSpace Garage managed to put down a 2:01.109 in their Silver Bullet 2022 Toyota GR86. They take home the “win” for the class, despite battling the drastic weather changes all day.

Shining Wolf Motorsports is the other contender for the class, with their 2020 Subaru BRZ, they managed to lay down a 2:06.105 lap on GT Radial SX2 RS tires. It’s nice to see that team back in action, having been dormant since a Global Time Attack event in 2021.

And with that, that’s a wrap on Round 3! Thank you to everyone who came out to the event. It seems like a lot of you changed your minds about the track after finally getting to see and drive it yourself for once, even with all of the weather.

Sidenote, did anyone catch the double rainbows at the end of the day? It was a nice touch to end what otherwise was a great day.

Our next round, Round 4, is coming up super fast! Round 4 sees us head up north to visit this wonderful track called Sonoma Raceway. If you haven’t been to it, we highly recommend you come join us!

Once you visit and drive this track, other tracks will pale in comparison. Round 4 will also be a joint event with our NorCal buddies 86 Challenge so there will surely be some fierce competition with folks who may call this their home track.

Registration for the track day portion will be via Speed SF Track Events, so a bit of a change of pace from the usual SV days. The SpeedSF guys run a top notch ship and a lot of them are 86Cup/86Challenge alum so they are all too familiar with our shenanigans.

Round 4 flyer and event details will be posted tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

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