First race of 2026!

Friday Practice

I arrived at the track on Friday morning, ready to hit the track for a full day of testing ahead of the first race in my Spec MX-5 build, but Buttonwillow Raceway Park weather had other ideas. The track and surrounding areas were covered in a layer of dense fog, unable to see more than 15 feet in front of me. This caused all practice sessions to be held off until 1pm, when the fog finally cleared enough to safely drive laps on the Circuit. Though our sessions were cut short, I used the few sessions I had to maximize learning the track in a new car. At the end of the day, I was happy with the progress I had made and was ready to get to racing the following morning.

Saturday Qualifying

After waking up early on Saturday morning to get the car prepped for the morning warm-up session, I noticed that the fog had returned. Not much later, an announcement came over the loud speakers informing the paddock that racing would not start until the fog had cleared once again. Everyone waited with anticipation, until we were finally informed that we would begin at 12:30 and go straight into qualifying. Not only that, but this would be our only session of the day and we would be rewarded race points for our qualifying position. This was not good news for me, seeing as it was going to be my first session ever on the new Hoosier tire SMX compound.

After sitting on the grid for what felt like forever, I finally made it on track. I had some pretty clean laps to learn the new tire compound, with a P9 finish for the session. I was not satisfied with this, but I was ready to push harder for tomorrow’s race. Once I was back in the pits, I reviewed data, video, and ultimately decided to adjust the car setup and tire pressure.

Sunday Race

Sunday morning was no different than the previous two days. Dense fog once again delayed track time, causing sessions to be cut and our only session for the day to be the race. Using the previous day’s qualifying to determine starting position, I rolled off the grid in P9. After a solid race start, I quickly made my way to P7, but soon after the pace car came back out and we were under full course yellow due to two cars going off track. After the cars had been cleared, we were back to green flag racing! I ran in P7 for the majority of the race, when all of a sudden with just a few laps to go, my left rear hub failed, cutting my race short and causing a DNF.

Though this was a tough end to the weekend, I am happy with all of the experience I gained and am looking forward to the next race at the same place next month! Stay tuned for more race recaps like this one!