Gonna start off this post by actually showing a little bit of the prep that went into this round. I wasnt fully prepared to make the purchase on the upgrades that I need, so I decided to do some cheap supporting mods that would still help in that area. For example, I got a finned diff cover with a larger capacity in hopes of keeping the differential temps more consistent so the OEM torsen performance doesnt degrade as the session goes on.
Another small prep item that I decided to tackle was to prepare a 2025 GR86 axle for the left side of the car, since blowing axles on that side has been an annoying issue. My friend Jayson (jay_reef15) from 787Garage provided me with this axle that he repacked himself with redline CV1 grease.
Now lets skip straight to the track. First things first we swapped out the GLTC large wing for the new Epsilon Aero TC Wing in Medium. At first I was scared the car would feel too unstable with the smaller wing, but it was totally fine, the Epsilon Aero guys helped me tune it, it just needed a little angle. They are one of my primary sponsors and are in charge of the aero department in my program, check out their site; https://epsilon.plus/
During the first practice session on friday I did my best lap time of the weekend 1:40.1 . That put me in p12 in a huge field of 35 cars. During qualifying I managed to clock a 1:40.2, but for some reason the official timing didnt catch it, not sure if I went over the track limits or posted it after the session was checkered, either way I ended up with a 1:40.8 which bumped me back to p20.
The races were hectic, and we were constantly battling the whole 20 minutes. It was hard to charge up through the field and make up spots like usual since everyone was on pace at this race. Race 1 I finished p18, ended up only gaining 2 spots after fighting for my life back and forth.
Shoutout to all the Western Touring Car Championship drivers for putting on some amazing racing; as well as congrats to Tony Rodriguez from Edge Motorworks for holding it down for us locals and put on a dominating performance.
credit to Jeremy Deines form @PureFlowPhoto on Instagram for these shots!
Unfortunately, Race 3 ended on Lap 1 after an incident heading into Turn 1. Luckily, the damage looks relatively minor and the car should be back together without too much trouble for GTA with WTCC in November.
Again, huge thanks to everyone who helped make this weekend possible. Weāve got a lot of work to do during the offseason, and Iām already looking forward to coming back faster. Getting more wheel-to-wheel experience with the national guys and talking to them gave me a much better idea of where we need to focus going into the offseason. Iāve been running the car on the stock ECU and Diff so thats definitely the next area of development that we will address.
As always thanks @bloodarrow13 for the Media.
Check out this amazing shot by the talented Susan of SVS Photography. Check out her website for the full gallery and contact her for any media needs! https://svsphotography.pixieset.com/
Results
Practice – P12 (1:40.1)
Qualify – P20 (1:40.8)
Race 1 – P18
Race 2 – P19
Race 3 – DNF
Race 4 – DNS
This photo is from the official gridlife media
Check out LAST YEARS Gridlife Laguna adventure! https://sergioorestes.com/2025/10/01/sergioorestes-gridlife-touring-cup-laguna-seca-sergio-orestes/
