Round 4 of the 2026 86Cup presented by Maxxis Tires
After the last two “roadtrip” events, the 86Cup crew is heading back a little bit closer to home.
Round 4 sees us at Willow Springs International Raceway circuit aka “Big Willow” on Saturday, May 2nd.
Big Willow will be undergoing a “reimagining” relatively soon so this is your last chance to refresh some old PBs before we see some massive changes coming to the oldest permanent road course in America.
The time is finally here! We apologize for the long wait but your 86CUP and Maxxis tire contingency and championship prize details for 2026 have been finalized!
Maxxis joins as the title sponsor for the North American 86CUP time attack series for 2026! Maxxis will provide Maxxis RC-1, VR-1 or VR2 tires as part of their 2026 86CUP Tire Contingency and the 2026 86CUP Championship Podium Prizes.
Maxxis Tires and the 86CUP will provide a discount code to registered 86CUP participants to purchase Maxxis RC-1, VR-1 or VR2 tire products ONLY.
ALL 86CUP competition classes are eligible for the Maxxis Championship Prizes and Maxxis 86CUP Tire Contingency.
For full details please head to over to the contingencies and sponsors tab under “Driver Resources” on our website at https://86cup.us/sponsors/ for full details.
We’re excited for you all to earn some Maxxis tires out there on track!
With this we are ready to truly get the season in full swing.
Round 1 came and went super quick and we’re already almost at March if you can believe it!
Round 2 of the 2026 86Cup presented by Maxxis Tires, sees us head east out into the center of the desert. Desert Center that is, and visit Chuckwalla Valley Raceway on Saturday, March 14th.
This 2.68 mile track may not seem like much on paper but when you’re out there, you’ll find that this track rewards those that are brave enough to really keep their average speed up and utilize the berms to their advantage.
However you don’t want to stay too glued to those berms for too long as the runoff at the edge of the track is usually a steep descent leading to bent wheels and busted subframes, if not worse.
Registration appears to be waitlisted as of this announcement but if you want to join the waitlist, do so ASAP and be sure to put down “86Cup competitor”. Speed Ventures will do what they can to squeeze in as many competition folks as possible at the last second.
As of writing this announcement, there are 17 folks signed up for 86Cup which is awesome to see!
Cabins at Chuckwalla have been sold out for this weekend for months, so best to look elsewhere in the locale for your lodging needs. Otherwise camping is a great way to wake up close to the track! It might be kind of chilly however…
The 86Cup driver registration form link will be up on our home page here about a week before the event. So be sure to fill that out so your times can count and you can potentially get award(s) at the end of it all!
We hope to see you all at Round 2! But if not, hopefully you all can make it out to Sin City with us in April. See ya when we see ya!
The new season is finally upon us! We are less than one week for Round 1!!
Round 1 sees us kick the season off at the newly-refreshed Streets of Willow at the Willow Springs compound. Tire walls, tire stacks, guardrails, berms and extra runoff will pose a new challenge even to those that have several events here under their belt.
Event registration for this round is basically sold out. We’ll be with our friends at Speed Ventures for the entirety of the 2026 86Cup season, so that makes it easy for you to follow along!
The 86Cup Driver Registration Form is already out as we’re less than a week away, you can find it HERE or on the homepage of our 86Cup website, updated for 2026!
If you’re attending Round 1, be sure to stick around until the end of the event as we’ll be hosting awards same day for the first time in forever for 86Cup!
We hope to see you at Round 1, but if not, there are plenty of chances to catch us for the rest of the year.
New year, new look. We’re ready to bring back the party on track to the 86 and BRZ crowd on track in 2026!!
2026 86Cup will feature potentially ELEVEN rounds! At the moment, we have 9 rounds confirmed, 1 of which will feature our frenemies to the north in NorCal 86Challenge bringing the fight to hallowed grounds at Buttonwillow Classic 13CW in September.
The schedule also sees the 86Cup community make another trek out of state to Nevada at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Outside Road Course on Saturday, April 18th. We hope to see a bunch of our southwestern friends who usually don’t get to make it out to California events join us here. LVMS ORC is an extremely challenging track to nail down perfectly right, throwing even the most experienced 86Cup drivers in for a loop.
Registration for ALL events confirmed so far for 2026 on this schedule posted above will be with our good friends in Speed Ventures, who for some reason still put up with our shenanigans after all these years.
Registration for 2026 86Cup Round 1 on February 21st at Streets of Willow CW is now currently open to the public. There are several competitions occurring this day while also being a very beginner-friendly track so we recommend you sign up now before it’s too late!
Also, we should note that cabins for the weekend of March 14th at Chuckwalla are currently sold out. We always try our best to release the schedule as soon as possible for this possibility but much like tracking your cars, there is ALWAYS someone faster. Chuckwalla cabins for the weekend of November 21st and 22nd for some of our final rounds are still wide open at the time of writing this post. We still recommend reserving a cabin as soon as possible if you’d like to stay at the track. They’re really nice and it’s super convenient to just wake up at the track day of! You may look into renting a cabin HERE.
That’s it for our announcements for 2026 at the moment! We should have some very exciting news coming up shortly in regards to sponsors and rules in the coming weeks! The 86Cup admins are also planning our 2025 Awards Celebration as well, so look forward to that as well.
As you all can assume, it’s about that time of year where the admins, and our (potential) drivers look towards the next season to build their 86 or BRZ into the best build for the upcoming season.
Will we be back in 2026? -Hell yeah we will!
Will there be several rounds on the schedule in 2026? -Definitely!
Will there be some friendly fightin…err…competition with 86Challenge in 2026? -Possibly, most definitely. We may even throw in some random collaborations with folks as well in the greater community, you will just have to see.
That all being said, we want to give you all a heads up that there will be some pretty big changes coming in 2026 so we please ask that you hold off on your builds until the 2026 season is more clearer. Hopefully we can provide an annoucement as soon as after Round 10 has concluded next week but hope to do it before the Christmas break and definitely before the New Year has started.
You all can expect some rules changes (potentially). Stock class will probably remain the closest in form to its current iteration so if you’re aiming for that class, you should be good. The motive for that class has always been the “least amount of mods to (regularly) take your car to the track and have a fun time”.
We’re toying with the idea of a “warm up” round in late January/early February if we think folks would be interested in an exhibition, non-points paying round. It would not count for 86Cup points but it’s a good way for everyone involved to get into the swing of things.
Nonetheless, we ask that you all hold off on buying tires and other mods if you’re specifically aiming for a certain class to be in for 2026!
Please hold any and all questions until we’ve released 2026 information. All questions until then will be ignored until the announcement is made, thank you!
Rounds 8 and 9 of the 2025 Racetreads GT Radial 86Cup sees us head out east to the desert for a doubleheader weekend at Chuckwalla!
Both days will have us doing the Clockwise (CW) configuration of this 2.68 mile track out in Desert Center, California.
The best part of this weekend isn’t just the on-track action but also the camaraderie and bonds that form between the 86Cup community as well as other track rats lingering on Saturday night as we typically have a potluck/barbecue at the cabins at Chuckwalla.
Registration is OPEN via Speed Ventures and Saturday is already pretty much sold out, if not filled up by the time of this post. We recommend signing up as soon as you possibly can to make sure you get in! You may have to sign up for Sunday and ask to be waitlisted for Saturday. If you do end up on a waitlist for either day, please be sure to write “86Cup competitor” in the notes. There’s a lot of competitions happening this day so there’s no guarantees you’ll get in as per usual but the awesome team at SV will always do what they can to get competitors in first!
Along that same vein, cabins at Chuckwalla are basically sold out, so best to look to Palm Springs for some lodging or perhaps even try your hand at camping (though it gets extremely cold in the fall)!
We can’t wait to see you all at the end of November!
P.S. With championship battles heating up, if you need tires before the event, purchase through our Racetreads 86Cup member link to receive a small discount on your order or simply enter ” 86CUP “ into the promo code area when checking out! (All GT Radial tires used for redemption need to be purchased through Racetreads regardless). Our friends at CounterSpace Garage can also help out with any fluids, maintenance items and any other modifications you may fancy before the end of year is up.
Round 7 of the 2025 Racetreads GT Radial 86Cup restores order to the Force with us FINALLY doing 13CW at Buttonwillow Raceway this season.
It’s kind of weird how the calendars all work out isn’t it?
On Saturday October 18th, we’ll see just how fast some of you are and see if you’re ready to join the “Sub 2 club”.
Track day registration for this round will be through Speed Ventures.
Also, ALL Speed Ventures events are open for registration for the rest of the year!!! That means Round 7 here as well as Rounds 8 and 9 for Chuckwalla are NOW open. Don’t sleep on it and get some vital track time for our championship run before December!
Need tires before the event? Purchase through our Racetreads 86Cup member link to receive a small discount on your order or simply enter ” 86CUP “ into the promo code area when checking out! (All GT Radial tires used for redemption need to be purchased through Racetreads regardless)
Hope you all had a lovely summer break. Did anyone else get super bored (towards the end) trying to figure out what to do with their lives?
Hopefully you all spent some quality time doing non-car related things for once in our lengthy season.
There were a lot of things going on for Round 6 of the Racetreads SoCal 86Cup. First off, it was a joint round with our frenemies to the north in 86 Challenge, provided not only camaraderie but also a good challenge to take home bragging rights of which group has the fastest drivers between NorCal vs. SoCal.
Second, we threw everyone in for a loop by running 25CCW at Buttonwillow Raceway Park! If you’ve never done this configuration before, this layout has you head straight into Star Mazda after the “esses” and then has you skip Bus Stop out of Riverside heading at 100+ towards Grapevine where there’s a hump and compression smack dab in the middle of your (lengthy) braking zone. While we all know these 86/BRZs are not that fast, this track layout surely tested a lot of folks’ confidence with high speed sweepers and heavy braking zones we don’t normally get to try out during 13CW days.
Luckily the weather wasn’t too bad. The heat still reminded us that it exists but nobody seemed to be dying or camping in the air conditioned control tower at BRP getting yelled at by the loudspeaker for the diner.
That being said, let’s dive into it!
STOCK Class
If there was any class that highlighted the NorCal vs SoCal battle for 86Cup this past weekend, it’s surely Stock class. Taking home the W and being the first to put a Stock class “record” on our records page for FA24 Stock Class cars, is Dennis Feng in his 2022 Subaru BRZ. We’re sure he spent countless hours on the sim in preparation for the event. Dennis laid down a 2:06.844 before the 1.5 second Stock class time penalty was assessed for his second generation car.
Hot on his bumper was none other than our own resident hotshot, Luke Daley in his 2024 Subaru BRZ putting down a 2:07.156 before time penalties were assessed. It looks like as far as 86Cup competition goes, Luke and Dennis are now 1-1 in the tally column. Perhaps Luke should show up to a random NorCal round, perhaps at a track he’s already done to see what’s up in this fight for Stock-ish supremacy…
Last on the podium, but certainly not least by any means, especially after an engine rebuild, is Saurabh in his 2023 Toyota GR86! After adjustment, Saurabh put down a 2:10.930* which was three seconds faster than the nearest Stock class competitions for 86Cup this round.
STREET Class
The party class is here to stay, and forcing us once again to utilize a second results sheet for our (social) media posting.
Still being fueled by plot armor, we have Ethan Lawrie in his 2024 Trueno Edition GR86 putting down a 2:07.418. Ethan’s time was the fastest time amongst any 86Cup competitor for this round, only bested by the CSG entry in the Exhibition class.
Right behind Ethan in second place is none other than Bobby Tisher who has made tremendous strides over the past year in his performance and is always a threat to take home a podium, or a win in his 2023 Subaru BRZ. Bobby put down a time of 2:08.148.
In third place we have Greg Balos who has been gathering seat time like Pokemon cards it seems and the results here definitely show it! Greg lays down a 2:08.622 which is good enough to snipe away the last podium spot from our NorCal friend Tor and his GR86.
Honorable mention for this class is Ty Dagdagan who miraculously nearly did a sub-2:09 lap in his first gen FR-S. And of course his actual time is 2:09.186, of course there would be an 86 reference in there. If you haven’t seen Ty’s incredible driving from this past round, we highly recommend checking it out!
MODIFIED Class
The ghost town class finally had a gaggle of BRZs in the mix to fill it’s ranks! Miles Kodama takes home the bragging rights for NorCal in our 86Cup Mod Class in his 2017 Subaru BRZ laying down a 2:09.602. We’re pretty sure he only went this fast because his exhaust was disconnecting from the chat…
In second place we have a SoCal resident in Garrett Wilson making a rare appearance outside of Chuckwalla to come party with us at Buttonwillow! In his BRZ tS, Garrett lays down a 2:11.029 on Kumho Ecsta V730s.
Wrapping up the podium, we have Brian Kao in his 2024 Subaru BRZ on GT Radial SX2s coming up just behind Garrett’s best time with a 2:11.246.
We’re not sure when the next time we’ll have this many folks in Mod class so rejoice in this now folks!
UNLIMITED Class
For Unlimited class, we only had three competitors this round so this makes for a short but sweet wrap up. In Mod we had three 2024 BRZs, in Unlimited we had three 2023 GR86s. This social media admin’s head hurts making sure everyone’s vehicle was correct and checking it 86 times over…
In first we have Johnny Hu in his GR86 putting down a 2:10.210 after adjustments on Kumho Ecsta V730. Johnny joins us from NorCal so it looks like NorCal takes the overall W for most class wins this joint round.
Just ever so close behind Johnny we have Joseph Alfonso on Nankang CR-S. Coming back from a short hiatus, we’re happy to see Joseph back out there!
Lastly, we have Terry Mai in their awesome wrapped GR86 on Continental ECS02 who managed to put down a 2:13.890 after adjustments to wrap up the 86Cup competitors for this round.
EXHIBITION Class
For a shop team that has “counterspace” in their name, the CounterSpace Garage team sure do spend a lot of time flying out there on the track instead of wiping down counters sitting around. Speaking of flying, did anyone catch them looking fly and blinged out with their custom hotboi CSG Spec 17×10 Titan7 wheels? There must have been some secret metallurgy in those wheels as their resident Stig managed to pull off a sub-2 for the event! An absolute killer time of 1:59.630 was put down before they called it a day halfway into it. What a mic drop exit!
And with that, that wraps up all of the joint rounds we have for the year with our friends 86 Challenge. Hopefully if you came out and chatted with them, you picked up on some speed secrets to help you out on track. Or at the very least came out with some new friends and/or build ideas. If you’re from NorCal and filled out an 86Cup driver registration form, thank you for participating!
Up next is Round 7, which takes place right back at Buttonwillow. Luckily, there’s no monkey wrench this time around as we’ll be doing 13CW for the first time this year! That sounds very weird to say but it’s just the way the cookie crumbled schedule-wise this year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Round 7, along with the doubleheader weekend of Rounds 8 and 9 all take place with Speed Ventures as the organizer. SV just announced that ALL of their dates for the rest of the year are now onsale!!!
If you’re even remotely thinking of joining us for Chuckwalla in November, you should 100% sign up before it’s too late. This weekend fills up every single year and there’s always a group of folks on the outside looking in, so get ahead of it! Also cabins are already sold out for Nov. 7th and 8th so best to look elsewhere or ask a buddy if they have a cabin for lodging.
Back to Round 7, the event flyer and details will be posted tomorrow but you can head to SV’s website to register ASAP. We hope to see you out for our first 13CW event of the year!
86Cup: 86/BRZ Time Attack Series 