recap: trd series r1.
TRD Series kicked off the 2022 season at Buttonwillow Raceway Park on January 30th, but instead of the popular CW13, round 1 would run the unfamiliar CCW13. And unlike the fog bowl of the final round in 2021, we had clear skies and perfect 65°F weather.
Although I’ve never done CCW13, just being here once for CW13 gave me enough information to know the track layout now, and a better head start on it than the last time. Also with our own run group, I wasn’t getting ran over by sub2 cars.
TRD Series dedicated run group at Buttonwillow CCW13 - Image by Kevin Natividad @ Feend Media.
Round 1 also saw many new GR86/BRZs on track, most still with only paper temporary license plates. This gave me my first chance to not only see them in action, but TRD Series co-founder @jerel.natividad brought out @artofattack Track bRED GR86 of which I was able to sit in, and check out closely - The WANT is deep for this car.
On the track, they were very quick out of the box. From what I’m told, it is everything the old car was, but just better in every way. And as we’ll see from the final results, they proved it on track.
@artofattack’s stunning Track bRED GR86 - Image by Kevin Natividad @feendmedia
The morning sessions started off with most people feeling out the track. Going counter-clockwise, the esses tightens up instead of opening, Phil Hill is as gnarly as always, Bus Stop is still challenging, and Off Ramp is now blind. After the first session, I put down a base line of 2:08.813s - which was already significantly faster than the two sessions I got in 2021.
Me trying to chase down the many new 2022 GR86/BRZs - Image by Kevin Natividad @Feend Media
This was also my first event with the new coilovers, so I was still feeling out the car and getting comfortable with the new setup. I had started with both front and rear four clicks from full stiff, but went less and less rebound as the day went on because I felt it was getting too unbalanced on certain bumps. The second session saw another improvement, with a 2:07.339s.
By the third session, I was gaining a lot of time through the esses as I was able to basically keep it flat through there. However, we can see how tentative I am at the end of the esses too, as I’m lifting and coasting a bit before hopping on the brakes. I was slowly inching my way up through Riverside and Bus Stop, and figuring out how to take Off Ramp. We can see from the data that thats where most of the improvements (and time) was coming from.
With each passing session, I was getting more and more comfortable with carrying more speed. This track challenged me in very different ways than what I was used to at Streets of Willow. The shorter and more intricate layout of Streets has me attacking the entry more, and working on lower speed rotation. However at Buttonwillow, I had to get comfortable with the generally higher speeds of the track.
I ended the day with a best lap of 2:06.273s, which was good enough for P3, losing out P2 by only 0.010s. P1 was taken by you guessed it…..a brand new 2022 GR86.
Results from Round 1 of TRD Series
Next up, round 2 will be taking us to the oval of Auto Club Speedway where we can do our best Ricky Bobby impressions!
See you guys next time. If you want to be notified when new posts are up, be sure to subscribe to our email list below. Thanks everyone.
Fast In, Fast Out.
-PB