After Lime Rock Park and our 2nd place finish, we decided to add some additional events to our season and to make the big trip out to Laguna Seca in California. Making the 6000 mile round trip is no small feat, but getting another opportunity to race at this iconic race track just wasn't something I couldn't pass up, especially with the car delivering as well as it has at our recent events!
This race track is probably one of the most difficult tracks on the GridLife calendar. Last year I was blown away by how challenging this track was. You have large amounts of elevation, technical sections, high speed, low grip and punishing consequences for small errors. There's a reason why local cars seem to dominate this event, so having another opportunity to build experience at this track was something I was really looking forward to.
The weekend wasn't without its issues, but overall the car really delivered at this event. Our first session was cut short with a small oil leak from the transmission and the 2nd session of the day was red flagged for a pretty major crash with Robin Shute's formula car getting air born into turn 2. This meant our first real session was the last session of day 1. Luckily we've made some huge improvements to our cars cooling ability so we can turn tons of laps in each session and I managed to run the full 3rd session which allowed me to break my previous TrackMod FWD record running a 1:34.8 which was a great way to start the weekend!
Day 2 had 2 sessions and we started the day off really strong. Being able to turn lap after lap I was able to push my record down further by running a 1:32.9 and continuing to build confidence lap after lap. I was hopeful that I'd get a chance to push things even further in the 2nd session of the day, however we lost the alternator in the session and I wasn't able to turn any real laps. We quickly diagnosed the issue to a broken wire which we easily fixed and got ready for Day 3 and our final session of the weekend.
Day 3 had 1 more qualifying session and then the podium sprint session which we were just outside of qualifying for sitting in 6th place. I knew that we had more time in the car and I prepared for the last qualifying session, as I started I knew the areas I needed to improve on and focused on executing my plan. I started my lap and things were going really well, I could see the predictive lap dropping sector by sector, the time showing a 1:31 predictive, however as I came to finish the lap I lost the ability to upshift gears, locking the car in 3rd and ruining the lap. Once we got the car into the pits we quickly diagnosed the issue as a blown fuse for the air compressor used for the paddle shifters from the failed alternator in the previous session. We quickly got the fuse replaced and tried to get back out on track but a full course caution had been thrown and the rest of the session was scrapped.
This was really unfortunate as it meant we weren't going to qualify for the podium sprint, it was a tough pill to swallow knowing I was on a lap that would have easily gotten us in, but at the same time I was really proud of my 1:32.9 lap and really happy with how the weekend went for us. We managed to finish the weekend in 6th place which was pretty impressive given the quality of the cars ahead of us and also the monster size of the TrackMod field for this event, 18 total cars for our group. We had some challenges, but overall this was leaps and bounds a more successful event for us this year then last and the car was an absolute dream to drive. It was crazy to see Group A full of RWD cars and our little 1999 FWD Honda Civic still managing to give some of these cars a run for their money!
We've really built one of the best versions of this car and I'm excited to continue to push the development even further as we go into 2026. I've made the decision to extend our 2025 season by one more event, closing things out at Pittsburgh International Complex in October with GridLife.
