Howdy folks, the time has come! We shook off the rust and dust off our builds and ourselves for a lovely day out at Willow Springs International Raceway for Round 1 of our 2025 season.
As some of you are aware, this may be one of the last times we get to play out here, at least for this “cheap” so who knows what the future holds.
Anyways…
With new stickers provided by our awesome sponsors Racetreads and GT Radial, and the power of friendship to help install our new windshield vinyls, we were off to the races! Even more so for a few of you as we had some course records already broken in the first event. C’mon guys, we JUST updated the website and records tab haha!
STOCK Class
Stock class saw a true return to form with Luke Daley taking the helm and breaking the previous FA24 Stock Class lap record held by Matt Woolsey. Luke’s unadjusted time of 1:35.409 will be inputted into the record books shortly!
After that, Luke was chased by some first gen cars surprisingly considering that Big Willow is most definitely a power track. William Chen comes home with a 1:37.874 in his 2015 Scion FR-S after some unfortunate mechanical troubles later in the day. Arguably the only person who could really put a stop to Luke’s reign with his new FA24 platform.
In third we have Harry Galbraith take the final podium spot with a 1:38.892 in his 2019 Toyota 86. It’s nice to see Harry move up the timing charts event after event we see him at.
STREET Class
It seems that 86Cup is for the streets as Street class is a party once again. A lot of familiar faces from the last couple of seasons join us in the fray, along with some new ones joining 86Cup entirely or downgrading/upgrading their 86Cup build.
Ethan Lawrie channeling the power of Takumi in his Trueno edition GR86 comes home with a 1:34.818. Previously in mod class, he figured he’d join the shenanigans in the lower tiers. He takes home the win for this first round.
Phuoc Hai Tran in his 2014 Scion FR-S comes nipping at his heels with a 1:35.017, he’s arguably a longtime veteran of this particular class. If you ever need a ridealong or some advice definitely seek him out at a future round!
Lastly, we have Bobby Tisher starting off the season strong claiming the last spot on the steps with a 1:35.321 besting Cody by over half a second. Is this the year we finally see Bobby take home a clearly metaphorical first place award at the end of an event? Only time will tell!
We’d also like to welcome Carlos Ruiz to the fold with his Neptune Blue GR86, who was extremely eager to join our ranks. Welcome Carlos!
MODIFIED Class
(*crickets*……..tumbleweed blows across the mini-straight inbetween turns 8 and 9 at Big Willow……..)
UNLIMITED Class
Luke wasn’t the only person to break a course record during this event, we also had Jared Ramirez besting the previous Unlimited class record in his FA24 rocket with a time of 1:29.501.
Another newcomer, Joseph Alfonso comes onboard with his 2023 Toyota GR86 flying fast in the Unlimited class. He set down a 1:31.146 for this particular round which is definitely not something to shake a stick at.
Jonathan Geisinger comes out of his offseason nap to come play with us at Big Willow. On Nankang CR-S, he nailed a 1:33.245 for the day after all was said and done.
Lastly, we had another new face in Tim Chan come out to party with us in his first gen BRZ. It’s always interesting seeing the first gen cars in the Unlimited class. We hope to see you at more events as the year unfolds!
EXHIBITION Class
Something (not entirely but sorta) new to 86Cup is the exhibition class for this year. For those, especially (prospective) sponsors/shops/teams/etc. with FT86 cars that want to come out and play but don’t want to upset the championship dogfights, we invite you to take on the Exhibition class!
For this particular round, we had the CounterSpace Garage team take their shop 2022 GR86 and hand it to their notorious tame racing driver, who laid down a 1:29.061.
Despite having a full face helmet and a closed visor, we somehow interpreted that this tame racing driver did mention that this car could go much faster than the posted times. We wish them luck in their pursuit of squeezing even more speed out of the FT86 platform.
And with that, that wraps up Round 1!
How do you guys like the new graphic? How are you guys liking the new website so far? These event results will be posted their shortly and a new points standings will be shown as well at a later date.
Some other news while we have you all here…
Our 2024 Awards Ceremony has been scheduled for Sunday, March 30th at 2:15pm at K1 Circuit in Winchester, CA. If you’d like to go, please check out the “Schedule” tab for the event and it’s details.
If you can’t make it out to this event and you were a podium class finisher last year, let us know! We’ll be sure to accept the award on your behalf and bring it out to the next round you’ll be at.
There will be some information in the next couple of days/weeks on what exactly the 2025 contingency for Racetreads/GT Radial entails. There are obviously the vinyl stickers, and then some finer details.
CSG should be finalizing their 2025 details as well for their contingencies shortly.
For Round 2, we head to Chuckwalla CCW! We don’t get to do Chuck that often and it’s a long drive for most, except for you SD/Temecula/San Bernardino area folk so we hope you can make it out! Cabins are sold out for the weekend so best to look elsewhere or find someone to bunk with that got some quick thinking!
See you all then!
86Cup: 86/BRZ Time Attack Series 