86 Challenge Round 7 Results
Buttonwillow – Sep 15, 2024
We barely had time to cool down after the scorching day at Thunderhill, and it was already time to head south to Buttonwillow. As usual, it was fun to meet our SoCal 86 Cup folks for a joint event! Over 40 BRZs, 86s and FR-Ses all but took over the track, with a dedicated 86 Cup / 86 Challenge run group (thanks Speed Ventures!!) and about a dozen more spread across other run groups.
Buttonwillow welcomed us with surprisingly pleasant weather in the morning, which meant the track was expected to be very quick in the first session or two. On the other hand, most participants have never driven the Buttonwillow in the CCW direction (let alone the Race 1 configuration with the Star Mazda corner!) and needed some time to build up pace. Since this was also the first time we ran 86 Challenge at this track configuration, any P1 would be a lap record!
In GT Radial Stock class, Saurabh Kulkarni set the benchmark with the adjusted time of 2:15.851 in his first session. But he ended up only P3 after the second session where Ivan Larionov snatched P1 with 2:15.573 (still complaining that the gen2 handicap is too low) and Brian Armstrong got P2 with an adjusted lap time of 2:15.722. That’s less than 0.3 seconds between the top 3 results!
In GT Radial Street class, Timur Iskhodzhanov got so excited after having that Starbucks coffee that he set a class-winning time on his lap 3… and then immediately beat it by more than a second on the next lap, with the final result of 2:11.270. Our SoCal friend Luke Daley grabbed the P2, completing the lap in his almost-but-not-quite-Stock BRZ in 2:12.800. Bill Wu completed the podium with 2:12.810, a mere 10 milliseconds behind Luke.
In Touring class, Will Lorne got the P1 with an adjusted lap time of 2:12.635 and disappeared in the dust cloud coming out of the Riverside corner. Kevin Schweigert grabbed the P2 spot with an adjusted time of 2:13.371 (and the quickest unadjusted time of 2:09.471), and Tor Anderson took P3 with an adjusted time of 2:17.709 (probably going sideways most of the time).
It’s time to start preparing for another unusual track configuration, as we’re heading to Thunderhill West CW on October 5th!
Published by Timur Iskhodzhanov on September 19, 2024 21:52