Can you believe that 86Cup has not visited the classic Buttonwillow Raceway Park Race #13 in a clockwise configuration in over a year and a half?!?

We know, it definitely seems crazy to think about but we haven’t been here since April 2024. It’s weird thinking about how the scheduling books went that way.

Nonetheless we shook off the rust this past Saturday and ran this classic time attack configuration. It was great to see a healthy amount of competitors, both new and old come join us for what was otherwise a day of beautiful weather at the track!

STOCK Class

(puts on beanie and baggy clothes) He can’t keep getting away with this!!

This is what we say to ourselves as once again Mr. Luke Daley comes out on top for the SoCal 86Cup GT Radial Stock class. It seems that Luke has become well adjusted to his 2024 BRZ and is tearing up the track any chance he gets with us.

Right behind him less than half a second away, we have Mr. Sonny Watanasirisuk, ironically in Luke’s BRZ, getting his first test of the oh so sweet FA24 motor and the Gen 2 86/BRZ platform in general. Hopefully this won’t be Sonny’s last foray (in a Gen 2 car), we miss you!

Claiming the last podium spot is Scott Irwin who without his usual posse seems to be returning back to form now that the car can actually rest in-between sessions.

Lastly, we want to recognize this person’s efforts for taking on the otherwise seemingly terrifying Buttonwillow Raceway Park Classic track, Celeste Alvarez! Celeste joined us earlier this year back in June in her 2025 Toyota GR86. While she didn’t run a transponder for this event, we still want to recognize her for taking her GR86 to the track and coming out to learn Buttonwillow! We’re sure you’re in good hands and hope to see you more in the future!

STREET Class

If this is usually the “party class” then for this particular round, the folks in Street class were finally sent to detention for goofing around. It seems our mainstays for this group all had miscellaneous issues at some point in the day. Some worse than others, but we’re glad everyone is okay and we were all able to drive home safely, even if egos were bruised a tad.

If Luke is the king of Stock class, then Ethan is the king of Street class for the 2025 season. It feels like every round he attends, he’s on the top of the podium, and usually breaking (or getting close to) a record for his efforts each round. While no records were broken this time, Ethan does go home with a blazing fast 2:04.067 for Round 7 at Buttonwillow.

In second place, we’re not sure if he just capitalized on the faults of his cohorts and/or he finally got used to the new build, but Eric Robi takes home the next available podium spot in his 2025 Toyota GR86.

Next up, another Trueno edition GR86 claims the other odd position on the podium. Ryan Robinson laid down a 2:07.365 to claim the final spot. It’s been nice keeping up with Ryan and his adventures and nice to see some hard work on track finally pay off with a podium.

MODIFIED Class

(tumbleweeds starting to pile up)


UNLIMITED Class

Fresh from their Gridlife fortes being shown to audiences on the opposite side of the country (and globe?), we have Jared Ramirez reminding everyone that there ain’t no rest for the wicked as he lays the foundation for the 86Cup records page for FA24 cars in Unlimited class. Jared was the only one who managed to “sub 2” on Saturday before having a wild go in the later sessions in the day. Hopefully this round gives Jared some great seat time before tussling with the folks at Global Time Attack at Finals in the first week of November. Good luck Jared!

In second place, and no stranger to this place. In ever pursuit of the magical sub-2 club, we have Jeff Flogerzi in his FA24-swapped 2013 Scion FR-S. Jeff has been chiseling away at his times for what seems like forever but we’re sure once he crosses that threshold, it will taste ever so sweet to see the time he’s been waiting for on the stopwatch.

For third place we have Keith Wong in his 2016 Scion FR-S, laying down a 2:03.890 on Yokohama A052s for the day.

While Keith has joined us in previous years for 86Cup, this is his first round of 2025 so he gets zero points awarded. So a friendly reminder that if you join 86Cup for the first time in a calendar year or simply switch classes after the September round, you’re awarded zero points for your new class as if you had not participated anyway in order to not affect any championship battles that may be taking place.

And that’s a wrap for Round 7!!

Thank you to EVERYONE that came out for some 13CW action at Buttonwillow. Like we said earlier, we haven’t ran it in a while, so we’re glad we got to see y’all run it again. We’ll be running it back again for our final round of the year in December with OnGrid, so sign up now if you haven’t!

Speaking of which, Rounds 8 and 9 of the 2025 Racetreads GT Radial 86Cup season will be taking place at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway November 22nd and 23rd with Speed Ventures. If you have not signed up yet, you better to do so expeditiously!

This weekend sells out every single year and we’re sure this year will be no different. Saturday is already looking pretty full so you may have to resort to being waitlisted for Saturday and sign up for Sunday. On that same note, the cabins at Chuckwalla are sold out so please look to find residence in Palm Springs/etc. if you’re looking to come out for these rounds.

We’ll be releasing the round flyer for this round tomorrow, so stay tuned!

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