Posted on October 14, 2026October 14, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Building the T3 Cayman: Developing a Production Porsche for Competition

Dirk's T3 Cayman with Porsche Performance showroom signage — Dirk’s #136 under the Porsche Performance banner — October’s Showroom Series car.

There is a particular kind of satisfaction in developing a race car that was never designed solely to be a race car. You begin with something already good, then start asking increasingly inconvenient questions about what happens when you operate it near the limit, lap after lap.

That has been the story of Dirk’s Cayman.

It began as a 2010 Porsche Cayman Base, a 987.2-generation street car with a naturally aspirated 2.9-liter flat-six and PDK transmission. Today, it is being developed as a serious SCCA Touring 3 competition car.

The goal was never simply installing race parts. It was developing a coherent competition car — chassis, brakes, cooling, drivetrain, data, safety and driver all working together.

The Cayman is a contender.

Now the fun part is figuring out how good we can make it.

Part of the RoR Showroom Series

Dirk’s Cayman is one of the first two cars featured in the new Racer on Rails Showroom Series, our monthly program built around bringing interesting cars out of the background and into the conversation.

October’s theme is Porsche Performance, and we’re putting this production-derived T3 Cayman alongside our Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR.

They arrive at racing from opposite directions.

Dirk’s car started as a street Cayman, developed inside a production-based rule set. The GT4 Clubsport starts much closer to the destination, engineered for motorsport by Porsche Motorsport and Manthey Racing.

Put them next to each other and they create a useful question:

What changes when the mission changes?

T3 Cayman and GT4 MR together in the RoR showroom — Two Caymans, two very different approaches to building a competition car.

Why We Love Touring 3

Part of the reason this car exists is that we genuinely love Touring 3.

T3 occupies a fun part of the racing universe: relatively modern, reasonably powerful cars, substantial enough to feel like serious machinery. Properly fast, without the speeds, budgets or complexity of a GT2 program.

In the grand scheme of racing, the performance remains manageable.

And the smiles-per-dollar equation can be very good.

What makes the class particularly interesting is the variety. The cars do not all solve the lap-time problem the same way: more power, less weight, better braking, better power-down, aero, wheelbase, transmission, tire usage, chassis balance. Different strengths, different weaknesses.

That means there is not one universal Touring 3 recipe.

You have to understand what your car already does well, identify where it is vulnerable, and develop around those characteristics.

That is exactly the kind of racing and engineering problem we enjoy.

Touring 3 national championship race start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — the variety of T3 machinery — The Touring 3 field at Indianapolis — production-based cars, national-level racing.

Why the Cayman?

When we started looking seriously at T3 options, the base Cayman kept checking boxes. Porsches rarely win on one enormous spec-sheet number — they arrive with enough power, then make the rest of the package work exceptionally well around it. That was exactly the attraction.

Enough Power

The 2.9-liter flat-six was never going to be the biggest hammer in the T3 toolbox, and that was fine. The question was whether it had enough power when combined with the rest of the chassis.

Our bet was yes.

A Strong Braking Foundation

Porsche’s production braking systems give us an excellent place to start.

We begin with thoughtful factory hardware, good pedal behavior and a platform that was designed from the outset to be driven hard.

That matters enormously in a production-based class, because braking is not simply about one stopping-distance number. It is about repeatability, temperature, confidence, pedal communication and what the car does as the driver starts releasing the brake and turning in.

Weight

The Cayman was one of the relatively lighter choices among the larger, more powerful production-based cars we were considering.

Less mass helps almost everywhere. The tires have less work to do, the brakes have less energy to dissipate, and the suspension has less mass to control every time the car accelerates, stops or changes direction.

The Shape

Then there is the shape.

The Cayman has a compact, clean aerodynamic profile that moves efficiently without enormous wings and splitters. We believed it would be one of the stronger T3 options both in clean air and in a draft.

On a class car that still needs to make good speed down long straights, that matters.

PDK

And then there was PDK.

For this car, we viewed the transmission as an advantage.

Every task we can simplify gives the driver a little more mental capacity for something else. There is no clutch operation on every shift, no heel-toe downshift to execute while threshold braking, and both hands can spend more time on the wheel. Left-foot braking is available naturally.

None of that makes racing easy.

It simply removes one mechanical task from a driver who is already processing cars, mirrors, flags, brake points, corner placement, grip, strategy and whatever unexpected thing just happened six feet in front of the windshield.

That matters.

The Cayman That Clinched It

There was also one experience that stuck with me.

At a February Hoosier Super Tour a few years ago, there was a newer-generation base Cayman racing in Touring 3. From watching the car, it looked like there was still meaningful lap time available through some of the more technical sections.

Then the road straightened out.

The thing was devastatingly effective.

That got my attention.

If the platform could give away time in parts of the lap and still be that difficult to deal with once everything opened up, there was clearly something there.

That was the clincher.

On paper, the 2010 Cayman Base seemed to have the right ingredients: enough power, good brakes, relatively low weight, an efficient shape, a mid-engine chassis and PDK.

So we bought one and decided to find out.

After its first race weekend and a handful of test and shakedown sessions, it has already shown that the idea works.

The #136 at speed — early shakedown laps confirmed the concept works.

The Rulebook Is Part of the Engineering

Touring-class development is interesting because the solution cannot simply be “replace everything.” The rulebook creates a box, and that box becomes part of the engineering problem: enough freedom to meaningfully improve the car, but not enough to erase the production platform’s character.

Where should we spend weight?

How much spring rate does the tire really want?

How much braking hardware do we actually need?

Which weaknesses need hardware, and which ones need setup?

The rulebook is not just a restriction.

It is part of the design brief.

Current State of the Car

We used a similar format documenting our T3 Nissan 370Z: less a parts list, more a snapshot of where the development program stands today.

Chassis

The foundation is a 2010 Porsche Cayman Base, 987.2, converted from a street car into a wheel-to-wheel competition platform.

Current chassis highlights:

2010 Porsche Cayman Base, 987.2
Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive
SCCA Touring 3 competition build
Full competition roll cage
Modified and reinstalled factory dashboard
Fabricated carbon-fiber block-off panels
Fabricated driver floorplate
Fender liners and undertray retained
MCS 3-Way Coilover and Shock Package
Fabricated rear trunk-release system

T3 Cayman clean exterior rear three-quarter — The #136 as it sits today — a production Cayman developed for competition.

Interior & Safety

The cockpit was built for wheel-to-wheel use, and for the way we believe a race car should feel when you sit in it.

Our reference point is not the improvised club-racing interior where everything technically works but looks added one weekend at a time. We take more inspiration from factory-built TCR, GT4, GT3 and single-make cars.

That means clean, tidy, functional and clearly organized. Wiring routed intentionally. Controls where they make sense. Labels clear. Safety equipment integrated rather than appended. The finished cockpit should feel like an evolution of the original road car, not a collection of unrelated race parts.

For us, that is not cosmetic. A well-organized race car is easier to operate, easier to inspect, easier to diagnose and easier to service. Good presentation and good engineering often reinforce each other.

The Cayman currently includes:

Full competition roll cage
Fixed-back competition driver seat with custom bracket and slider installation
Driver harnesses
Driver nets
KMP steering wheel
Integrated fire-suppression system
Low-profile SFI roll-bar padding
Rennline rear tow hook
Main power relay / cutoff provisions
Flagtronics in-car flagging system
Lifeline FIA rain light
Custom dashboard modification and wiring integration
Heater-core lines deleted and rerouted
Competition-oriented interior block-off panels and driver floorplate

One detail we particularly like: achieving the lowest practical seating position while retaining a slider took real fabrication, not just a bolt-in bracket.

That small detail reflects the larger theme of the build: the car should fit the driver and the mission, not simply the parts catalog.

T3 Cayman full cockpit — The office — built around the driver, not the parts catalog.

KMP steering wheel and driver controls — KMP wheel and driver controls — everything within reach, nothing extra.

Brakes

Brakes are one of the most active development areas on the Cayman.

The existing system has already received a proper baseline: rebuilt front and rear calipers, stainless-steel brake lines, fresh pads and rotors, and a flush with Endless RF-650 racing brake fluid.

That gives us a known starting point.

Apex forged wheel with drilled brake disc and bronze Porsche caliper on the #136 T3 Cayman — The #136’s front corner: Apex forged wheel, drilled disc, bronze Porsche caliper — the current brake baseline.

Now the interesting question becomes what, if anything, the car actually needs next.

Current brake configuration and development work includes:

Rebuilt OEM front and rear Porsche calipers
Stainless-steel brake lines
Competition pads and rotors
Endless RF-650 brake fluid
Brake-temperature and wear evaluation
Alternative rotor options under evaluation

Close-up of the bronze Porsche brake caliper and drilled disc through the wheel spokes — Porsche caliper and drilled disc, up close. Evaluation continues — the right answer is the simplest one that solves the problem.

Engineering is not choosing the biggest thing the rulebook allows. It is finding the simplest solution that actually solves the problem.

Suspension

The current suspension package gives us meaningful setup authority while keeping the Cayman’s fundamental character.

The car uses Motion Control Suspension (MCS) 3-way adjustable dampers, upgraded camber plates and an upgraded front sway bar. The front shock towers were also modified to create the necessary camber clearance. Alignment and corner balancing have been part of the setup process from the beginning.

Current suspension highlights include:

MCS 3-way adjustable dampers
Upgraded camber plates
Upgraded front sway bar
Front shock-tower modification for camber clearance
Competition alignment and corner balancing

We choose hardware based on what makes sense for the car and the program. MCS has earned its place on our serious competition builds because the engineering relationship matters as much as the hardware.

Suspension development gets complicated quickly — spring rate, damping, motion ratio, tire construction, aero load, roll stiffness, track surface and driver preference all interact — and a damper is only useful if the team understands how to use its adjustment range.

That relationship makes it a two-way development process: we bring them what the car is doing, what the driver is feeling and what the data is showing, then work through what the platform actually needs rather than treating the damper as a black box.

A three-way damper gives us significant control, but more adjustment is only useful if every click has a purpose. The objective is not maximum stiffness. It is controlling the platform, supporting the tire and giving the driver predictable behavior through braking, turn-in, mid-corner and exit.

A setup sheet full of dramatic numbers does not automatically create a fast car.

The tire does not care how impressive the alignment sheet looks, and the stopwatch definitely does not care what logo is printed on the shock.

The value comes from understanding the system and having the right tools to improve it.

MCS damper detail at the rear — MCS 3-way dampers give us substantial setup authority, but the real value is the engineering relationship that helps us use that adjustment intelligently.

Wheels & Tires

The dry package uses APEX VS-5RS forged wheels in 18×9 ET46 with Hoosier R8 tires — a shorter 245/35R18 front, 245/40R18 rear.

That staggered diameter is the result of testing rather than aesthetics.

Earlier running showed too much front-to-rear wheel-speed difference with the previous tire configuration. After reviewing the data and consulting Porsche specialists, we moved to the shorter front tire while retaining the same section width.

That is exactly the sort of thing we enjoy about development work.

The specification sheet gives us a starting point. The car tells us what happens in reality.

Hoosier rubber on the #136's rear quarter — Hoosier rubber — where the specification sheet meets reality.

Engine

The engine remains fundamentally Porsche’s naturally aspirated 2.9-liter flat-six, but preparing a production engine for sustained competition requires much more than changing the oil and sending it.

The build has included a complete tune-up, spark plugs, cam and crank sensors, water pump replacement, seals and gaskets, engine mounts, exhaust development, dyno verification and Softronic 987.2 performance software tune.

The exhaust work is a good example of the thought process behind this build.

The rules allowed removing the catalyst material, but simply hollowing the factory housings would leave a large empty expansion volume in the exhaust path. Instead, we fabricated a properly sized straight section through the catalyst area, keeping a cleaner flow path and preserving exhaust-gas velocity.

Again, the question was not simply, “What are we allowed to do?”

It was, “Which legal solution best serves the engine?”

Up next: a larger-diameter race exhaust, which should unlock a few more ponies.

Custom-fabricated headers for the #136 — TIG work done in-house — Custom-fabricated headers, TIG-welded in-house — the kind of work the rulebook rewards.

Engine Cooling & Thermal Management

Cooling became a priority almost immediately.

Engine coolant temperatures were already a concern in early testing despite favorable conditions, so rather than waiting for summer heat, the car received a substantial cooling-system upgrade.

That includes:

CSF upgraded left radiator
CSF upgraded center radiator
CSF upgraded right radiator
160°F low-temperature thermostat
Center-radiator installation hardware
Front-bumper mesh protection
Racing coolant strategy
Cooling-system service and vacuum-fill equipment included with the track spares

Thermal management is not merely a reliability subject.

It is performance.

The drivetrain gets the same treatment. PDK is one of the reasons we chose the Cayman, but asking a dual-clutch gearbox to operate continuously at race pace creates a very different thermal environment than normal road use. The car now uses a BRS 987.2 PDK transmission oil-cooler system, with an active pump circulating fluid through a dedicated oil-to-water cooler, and an AiM temperature sensor so transmission temperature becomes something we can actually measure instead of speculate about.

Cold is not automatically better.

Controlled is better.

Electronics & Data

The development car needs to tell us what it is doing.

The current data system is built around an AiM Solo 2 DL with CAN, paired with an AiM eight-channel expansion hub, a 150 PSI pressure sensor and an additional oil/coolant temperature sensor. Custom mounting and sensor integration were completed as part of the build. We’re monitoring all the driver and car vitals including but not limited to brake pressure, steering angle, throttle position, engine RPM, wheel speeds, Yaw, coolant temp, coolant pressure, oil temp, oil pressure, diff fluid temp, and transmission fluid temp.

No SmartyCam yet — Dirk still happily triggers video manually before each session, so the data/video system has room to evolve.

For now, the important part is that the AiM system is not simply being used as an expensive lap timer.

We want data because we have specific questions to answer.

What happens to drivetrain temperature over a full session?

Did a setup change help one corner while hurting another?

Are we changing the car because we know what is happening, or because we think we know?

That distinction matters.

Drivetrain

The drivetrain is one of the pieces that made the Cayman especially attractive in the first place.

At the center is Porsche’s 7-speed PDK, now paired with an OS Giken Super Lock 1.5-way limited-slip differential.

Current drivetrain configuration includes:

Porsche 7-speed PDK
OS Giken Super Lock LSD, 1.5-way
OS Giken differential fluid
PDK service
Replacement inner and outer PDK carrier bearings
ARP differential-cover bolts
BRS PDK transmission cooler
Active cooling pump
Dedicated oil-to-water cooler
AiM transmission-fluid temperature monitoring

The 1.5-way gives us meaningful locking under acceleration without making the car as aggressive on deceleration as a full 2-way.

That suits a car we value for its willingness to rotate cleanly and communicate what the rear axle is doing.

The Tire Has to Do the Work

The tire rules are another reason this development is interesting: we cannot solve every handling issue with enormous rubber, so geometry, damping, roll control and extracting the most from the available contact patch matter more.

Camber, toe, ride height, spring behavior, damping, sway-bar balance and bump travel all affect what happens to that relatively small area of rubber touching the racetrack.

And none of those adjustments exists in isolation.

A change that improves front response can hurt braking stability. A geometry tweak that helps mid-corner can hurt brake release. A setup that produces one phenomenal qualifying lap may not give us consistency over a full race.

The goal is not to maximize any individual setting.

It is to make the entire chassis work together.

Front tire loaded up in the corner — sidewall doing work — Loaded up — the whole chassis working as one.

The Driver Is Inside the Development Loop

Development works better when the driver is treated as part of the system, not just the person holding the steering wheel.

Driver feedback matters.

Data matters.

Inspection matters.

Lap time matters.

Tire condition matters.

None should be used by itself.

If the driver reports instability during brake release, we want to understand why. If the data shows something unexpected, we correlate it with what the driver felt. If the tire disagrees with both, we investigate instead of deciding which source must be wrong.

The objective is not to prove the driver right or the data right.

It is to understand the car.

That relationship works both ways. As the car becomes more predictable, the driver can become more precise about what they feel, and the engineering team receives better information.

The driver develops the car.

The car also develops the driver.

Production-Based Development Has Its Own Appeal

Next to the GT4 Clubsport MR, the T3 Cayman remains visibly connected to the road car underneath it.

There is something deeply satisfying about asking how much more capable a very good production sports car can become inside a defined rule set.

You are not throwing away Porsche’s original idea.

You are evolving it for a new job.

That also makes the lessons unusually transferable.

What we learn about braking, geometry, thermal management, tires and chassis balance here transfers directly to a customer’s street Cayman, HPDE car or another production-based race build.

The T3 car becomes a laboratory.

The #136 is a laboratory — what we learn here goes straight into customer builds.

What We’ve Learned So Far

The biggest lesson so far is that the basic platform appears to be every bit as promising as it looked on paper.

It does not need enormous horsepower to be effective. The combination of low mass, aerodynamic efficiency, strong braking fundamentals, PDK and a communicative mid-engine chassis gives us a lot to work with.

We have also learned that the interesting gains are unlikely to come from one magic component.

Brake thermal capacity needs measuring and managing. The tire needs using well. Drivetrain temperatures need controlling. Alignment and damping need to complement the driver, not just look aggressive on a setup sheet.

The real opportunity is getting all of those things working together.

And after its first race weekend and early testing, the Cayman has already shown that it belongs in the fight.

#136 with company — race weekend action — In the fight — the Cayman holding its own on a race weekend.

Where We Go Next

The next phase is about widening the car’s usable performance window, not reinventing it.

We want to keep establishing brake-temperature baselines and determine whether the next step is better one-piece rotors, two-piece rotors, more airflow, different cooling geometry or a larger package.

We will keep developing the thermostatic transmission and differential cooling strategy, suspension geometry, alignment and tire utilization — validating reliability over longer races and using the AiM system to connect what the driver feels with what the car is actually doing.

The goal is not one heroic lap.

The goal is a car that is fast, predictable and repeatable enough that the driver can access that performance over and over again.

Posted on October 13, 2026October 14, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Runoffs 2026: Chasing the Podium at Road America

The #109 Racer on Rails 370Z on track at Road America during the 2026 SCCA Runoffs

The Runoffs. Road America. The big one.

If you’ve followed this team for a while, you know this race has been living rent-free in my head for three years now. Three years of hauling across the country, breaking things, learning things the hard way, and coming home with our tails between our legs. This year felt different walking in. The car was the best it’s ever been. We finally understood what it wanted.

And then Turn 5 happened. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

#109 370Z dicing with the #73 Mustang at Road America — The #109 going door-to-door with the #73 Mustang. This is what we came for.

How we got here (the short version of a long story)

Three years ago we ran our first two Runoffs in a row in the Spec E46. The first one was 2021 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and honestly we did pretty well. I qualified fifth. Then I got taken out on lap 1, turn 3 and that was basically the end of our weekend. Sigh.

The next year we went to VIR, and that’s where we learned the hard truth: the Spec E46 just wasn’t the right weapon for the Runoffs. Not enough power, not enough gear, especially at a track like VIR. Great car. Wrong tool for the job.

So we went car shopping. And I mean really shopping. We looked at everything that was winning in T3. The EcoBoost Mustang. The newer V6 Mustangs (though we didn’t know much about Mustangs, if I’m being honest). The BMW Z4M Coupe, because those things had done well and actually won the Runoffs at VIR. The Nissan 370Z, a few Z’s were campaigning regularly and finishing top five at national races, so there had to be something in the chassis.

And then I was reading the spec lines and saw the Porsche Cayman base, and that one stopped me cold. Good power, the best braking system of the bunch, good gearing, and it’s a Porsche with a fantastic dynamic profile. I actually bought one. That’s the car that’s now Dirk’s T3 Cayman, sitting in our showroom. That was my lead contender.

But when it came time to actually build a car for the next Runoffs, I went with the 370Z. Here’s why: Chris Hart had bought one of those well performing 370Z’s and was doing really well with it, with continued development behind it. My thinking was simple. Maybe too simple. Copy and paste Chris’s chassis and setup into my car, accelerate through the learning curve, go fast immediately.

Welp, that plan didn’t pan out too well. haha!

We went to VIR that year and basically finished building the car during the test days. Second or third session, just shaking the thing down, and I got ice mode going into the braking zone for Oak Tree. Straight into the tire wall at 65 mph. First significant damage to the car. It really, really hurt.

We came home, fixed the car, and campaigned it properly the next year — fighting the brakes all season, because the ABS system in these cars simply isn’t as good compared to BMW, Porsche, Ford, all of them. We managed it well enough to get to the Runoffs at Road America feeling okay. Qualified around sixth, got a great start… and the engine blew up before we even got to Turn 3. On the start. I ended that year crying at the side of the track while the race drove away without us.

What followed was the engine saga. A fresh engine over the offseason, then a head gasket showing up on the dyno before the season even started — pulled it before it could blow, and I missed the whole beginning of the year. Then a used engine that broke the Portland track record in the morning session and blew up in the afternoon. Turns out we’d left metal debris in the old oil cooler and lines, just waiting to kill the next motor. My fault. Expensive lesson.

Done rolling the dice on used engines, I bought a certified remanufactured VQ37 straight from Nissan. As close to brand new as you can get. Dropped it in, fought through the electrical gremlins, and finally got the car running right. Went back to Road America that July for a Majors weekend — podium on Monday, won the race on Tuesday. The car was really, really good.

Catching the overall theme here? Every time this car got good, something broke. Every time something broke, we learned something.

The tire lesson (2025 Runoffs)

We went back to Road America for the 2025 Runoffs feeling like we knew how to go fast. Problem was, we weren’t going fast enough. I was risking my life in basically every corner and just could not keep a tire underneath the car.

We qualified somewhere around sixth or seventh, had a good start, and I think I was running fourth or battling for fourth by the end. But the tires were just gone. We were burning them off, and we didn’t understand why.

Over the offseason we finally stopped guessing and started engineering. Full suspension analysis, and what we found wasn’t pretty — the geometry was working against the tires in ways we couldn’t feel from the driver’s seat.

So we made two big changes. We raised the car to get the suspension working in a happier window, and we got serious about the tire program — nitrogen only, with a proper procedure to keep moisture out and temperatures under control. For the first time, we actually understood what the tires were doing.

We went to Portland and Pacific Raceways with those changes and the car was fast. Like, really, really fast. We finally felt like we’d solved it.

Then we spent about a month and a half prepping for this year’s Runoffs. Full refresh. Brand new wrap. Every detail. It was the best prepared this car has ever been, and it looked amazing.

#109 370Z head-on in the paddock with its fresh wrap — Best it’s ever looked. Best it’s ever been. We were ready.

The week

One big change this year: instead of hauling everything ourselves, we partnered with Scotty B White and Knight Transportation to transport the car and paddocked with his operation. Just me going from our team, which kept things simple. And I have to say, it was a great call. Scotty runs a really well-oiled operation, and we’re super grateful. There’s a real chance we work together again in 2027, which I’m excited about.

The red Knight Transport truck and trailer at Road America — The big red Knight Transport rig — Rob’s office for the week.

We showed up with a full test plan. Monday and Tuesday for testing, which would set up our qualifying plan for Thursday and Friday. Simple on paper.

Monday was clear and awesome all day long. Four sessions, full dry, lots of track space. We ended the day feeling good about our race pace on older tires — and expecting to go quicker on Tuesday with fresh rubber.

Tuesday gave us three practice sessions, and every single one got black-flagged after a couple of laps. Limited running, and the fresh rubber never got a proper chance to show us anything. Not the feeling we wanted.

Wednesday: two sessions, rained all day. Thursday: two qualifying sessions, rained all day.

With Friday morning’s third qualifying session forecast full dry — just our class on track, plenty of space — and Saturday’s race forecast dry, there was no point risking the car in the wet. We sat out the rain days and kept working.

The crew with the #109 in the paddock at Road America — The crew with the #109 in the paddock.

During those wet days we found a simulator center about an hour from the track in West Bend, Wisconsin. Place called the Racing House. Really cool spot. They had proper non-motion rigs with all the right components for real driver training, and then they had this 6-degree-of-freedom motion rig with the most insane brake pedal I’ve ever felt. Hydraulic, with real ABS feel. Like two grand just for the pedal, and worth every penny if you’re serious about training.

Tyler and I went over there in the evening and I put in work on that rig, training for Friday’s qualifying. Anything to show up prepared, right?

Gama strapped into the #109 cockpit — Strapped in and ready. The office for the week.

Friday: one shot

Friday morning was it. Our first and last real chance to qualify. Around 9 o’clock, dry track, sticker tires on, best possible shot.

First flying lap: okay. Not great, but okay. Second lap: time’s coming down, tires are coming in, but not fast enough. Third lap: I put down something like a 1:31.8, and man, I was risking stuff to get that. It didn’t feel like enough. We should have been faster.

I came around for another lap and watched the predictive timer start going the wrong way. Slower and slower. Part of it was losing the draft I’d had on the fast lap, but going through the handling sections I was losing time in every single braking zone. Something was off.

Maybe I’d overheated the tires? We’d run pressures a little higher than normal to get them to come in faster. So I pitted, Jordan checked the pressures and let them down, and I went back out for another attack.

Didn’t even need to complete the lap. I could feel it immediately. The tires were cooked. Late in corner exit, almost to full straight on the steering wheel, using all the exit curb, and I’m still counter-steering because the rear just won’t hold. Specifically the left rear, on all the right-hand corners. It kept giving up.

I’m on the radio to Tyler going, I don’t understand why the left rear feels like it’s giving up, it’s 60 degrees out and we’ve done four or five laps, this doesn’t add up. Tyler went over and hand-checked the tires. His words: holy crap, this thing is on fire. Compared to the others, something was definitely wrong. We were still just overheating tires.

After qualifying, standing there in impound, one thing was clear: we were near maxed out in our current development direction. Don’t get me wrong — 2:31s at Road America is fast. Just not fast enough. Not for this field.

We needed to explore a fundamentally different approach. So overnight, we changed everything we could with what we had: tire pressures, shock damping, sway bars. Jordan put the car back on the setup pad and made sure the setup was exactly as we wanted it from the setup sheet.

Tyler and Jordan both told me later they slept like crap that night. Just lying there second-guessing every change. Were we about to ruin a good car? We had no idea if any of it would work.

Crew working through data on a laptop in the paddock — The engineering never stops. Data, changes, second-guessing, repeat.

The race

Race morning. Formation lap. And I could tell immediately. Even on pre-grid, the car was driving straight. Felt planted. Felt confident. Warming up the tires on the formation lap, cleaning them off, and the thing was just carving. Beautiful.

I got a really good start, but then got bottled up behind a GR86. No room on the right for the inside, checked left, nothing there either. Probably cost me a couple positions before Turn 1, but I wasn’t going to force contact. Not on lap one. Not at the Runoffs.

My mindset was simple. I didn’t think I had anything for Hammann or White based on their pace. But John LoGiudice, who I’d raced hard and clean with before? I should be able to give John a run for his money. Get to P3, and I’d be thrilled. So: get through the first couple laps clean, work through the field, get to John, and then… whatever happens, happens.

And the car was amazing. After the first lap or so, every lap just kept coming down. Faster, faster, faster. The car was responding to me, and it kept getting better as the fuel burned off and I found the new limits. I was right on John’s bumper after a few laps from the start, in his draft, pressuring him for that last podium spot. Five laps of it. Exactly where I wanted to be.

Then came lap 6. Going into Turn 1, he didn’t protect. I’m right on him through 2 and 3. Coming up to Turn 5, he starts moving left to cover the inside, and I’m thinking: perfect. I’ll go right. Set up wide, and I’ve got options. Maybe an over-under into 6. At minimum, a mega run out of 5 and I’ll be on his bumper all the way through the kink, and I can get him at Canada Corner. Or worst case, next lap at Turn 5. My kind of corners were coming. The carousel, the kink, that’s where I pull away from people.

I set up wider than normal going in. About 8 feet wider than usual, according to the data later. Fifth gear, on the brakes, everything’s good. Down to fourth, still on the brakes, and then I feel the right-side tires touch the curb on the right. While I’m still in the first phase of braking.

And they locked up.

I can only describe what happened next as this horrible cocktail of your heart dropping, fear, disbelief, and sadness, all at the exact same time. Like, what’s happening!?!?!?!?!? No. No no no!!!

John’s car is right there in front of me. I don’t want to hit him, so I move a little more right. Now I’m on the dusty concrete on the outside of the curb. I think I scraped the wall a little. The car’s slowing, I’m trying to turn it, and then the grass is just there in front of me.

Dewy grass. It had rained the day before, overnight dew, and the moment the tires touched it, it was game over. Straight into the tire wall. Honestly the impact wasn’t that bad. I drove the car out of it. But something broke in the steering. We lost all the steering fluid, no power steering, and the car went into limp mode. Wouldn’t go more than 5 mph.

Lap 6. Done. Five laps completed, running P4 the whole way, and the official results list me as DNF, handing fourth to Piekarczyk.

I limped it back to the paddock. Got there before the race was even over. Sat there and watched the end on the screens. And what an end it was: Hammann and White dueling to the final lap, contact at Turn 14, Hammann in the wall under the bridge, White first across the line but relegated to last after the stewards’ review. John, the rookie, the winner. A 37-second margin of victory that tells you everything about how chaotic those last laps were.

Panning shot of the #109 at speed at Road America — Before Turn 5. The car was the best it’s ever been.

The feeling

I wasn’t angry. I was just sad.

I sat there in the car and cried. Later I cried with John too. He’d just won the whole thing, his first Runoffs win, after all kinds of last-lap drama. And I was genuinely so happy for and with him. We’d battled so hard and so clean over the years. There’s nobody I’d rather share a track with.

Gama in helmet and race suit at Road America — Not the hardware we came for. The heart’s still full.

The crew

None of this happens without the people, and I need to say that properly.

Jordan and Tyler. These two basically lived at the setup pad all week, second-guessing themselves at 2 AM, then showing up and nailing it anyway. The overnight compliance changes, the toe fix, the steering wheel, all of it. They never stopped working the problem.

Jack Doherty came out with us to learn wrenching on the 370Z, and the kid was genuinely helpful. Extra hands, good attitude, soaked up everything. That’s what this is supposed to be about.

Scotty B White’s crew gave us their whole weekend. Marshall Mast, Rob Scholl, Todd. Having that operation around us made the whole week better.

And I need to stop here and talk about Rob and Christine Scholl properly, because they were a huge part of why this trip worked.

Rob is a retired police officer who got into the racing world several years ago. He was actually our first commercial truck driver at Racer on Rails. Then he started doing commercial transport driving in racing, and got the opportunity to work with Scotty B White. And look, I would never stand in the way of someone’s economic opportunity, so off he went. He’s been working with Scotty for the last couple years now.

This week, the transport operation was excellent largely because Rob was the one running it. I could trust the entire operation because I knew Rob was handling it. That’s what trust looks like after years of working together. You just know. Honestly, Rob and Christine were critical to the whole week being as positive as it was — working alongside Scotty’s team with people you trust in the middle of it changes everything.

And Christine? Christine is an absolute gem and a joy. Always. She’s there helping with the transport stuff, but also the hospitality, the cooking, the project management, keeping everything and everyone together. And she took amazing pictures for us all weekend long. The woman does it all, and she does it smiling.

Christine Scholl photographing the paddock — Christine doing what she does — capturing the weekend.

I got to do the Runoffs with them because of Rob and Christine. I don’t take that lightly. So grateful.

David Orem came out just to watch and hang out. Didn’t have to. That’s family.

And Ann Doherty came out too, not even racing this year, and brought her son Jack for the experience. Watching a kid fall in love with the work, the engineering, the craft of it? That’s the good stuff.

Gama, Jack and Tyler selfie under the Knight Transport tent — The crew — Gama, Jack and Tyler under the Knight tent.

The RoR team gathered around the #109 — The team around the car. This is the whole thing, right here.

Marshall Mast, Rob Scholl and Todd unloading the #109 370Z at Road America — The operation behind the operation — Marshall, Rob, and Todd getting the car unloaded.

What it meant

Here’s what I keep coming back to. I’m super bummed about the result. Of course I am. In some other universe there’s a timeline where I don’t hit that curb, I get past John, things shake out, and I’m standing on the top step of a national championship.

But that’s not how I think about things.

That trip was incredibly successful and necessary. We were never going to win at this level without learning what we learned. The compliance breakthrough, the tire program, the roll center work, understanding what a truly national-level setup looks like when you see it sitting in impound next to you. You don’t learn that from a forum. You learn it by getting your butt kicked by the best and being humble enough to look at their car and go… oh. Oh.

This sport is about trophies, sure. But the Runoffs aren’t just about us. It’s where all the fastest drivers in the country end up in the same place. I got to catch up with Ryon from the 4048 Racing team. Ryland Hazelton came over from California with his cars. Will Bolt was paddocked with us, great getting to know him and his team, and he drove a hell of a race to P2 in T2 right behind Scotty. Robert Wellington, our “Beef Wellington,” was there racing up and down the East Coast all year in the Racer on Rails-backed M235iR. His race ended before it really started, car’s hurt but he’s fine, and we got to be there for him. And Asad, car 144, a local kid we’ve worked with on sim training and real-world coaching, was out there in Spec Racer Ford running third when a racing incident ended his day. That’s racing. Proud of him for being there. Scotty went out and won T2. Not second. Won. Pole, led all 13 laps, new track record. After everything that happened in the T3 race, he put his head down and drove the wheels off that Mustang. I was genuinely happy for him. Jason Fiorito, who owns Pacific Raceways, was out there in his wild GT1 car and finished second as well. And Michael McAleenan, a friend of the show who was paddocked with us, was running the Lowe Group Racing Lamborghini Huracan in GT1 and had a podium in his hands until the fuel ran short in the closing laps. Gutting. He deserved that spot.

Our partners showed up too. The SCCA national staff who put these events on. The Hoosier Midwest folks who keep us in tires. Mike and Greg from Carbotech, our brake pad people out of North Carolina. This whole paddock is a community, and getting to be in the middle of it for a week is a privilege.

Fans checking out the #109 in the paddock after the race — They didn’t care we DNF’ed — they just loved the car and the racing.

Candid of Gama with the crew at Road America — Full heart. That’s the whole report, really.

What’s next

We go again.

2027 is already taking shape in my head. Road Atlanta, twice. The Super Tour in March, which feels like a homecoming for the Cayman program, and then the Runoffs back at Road Atlanta in October. One track, three programs — the 370Z’s T3 podium chase, our GT3 Cup customers, and the Spec E46 Silver Bullet — and a full season to build toward it.

The 370Z is the best it’s ever been. We finally understand what it wants. And now we know what the next level looks like, because we saw it in impound with our own eyes.

Different cars. Different goals. Same stopwatch. We’ll be ready.

Mega thanks to Jordan, Tyler, and Jack. To Scotty and his whole crew. To everyone who came out, everyone who helped, everyone who believes in what we’re building here.

Goals. Smiles. Memories. Let’s go!!!

Rear chase view of the #109 on track at Road America — Chasing. Always chasing. See you in 2027.

Posted on October 10, 2026October 14, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Two Porsche’s, One Mission – Introducing the Racer on Rails Showroom Series – October 2026

Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR and Dirk's #136 T3 Cayman side by side in the Racer on Rails showroom

Two Caymans. Same manufacturer. Very different briefs.

For October, we’re kicking off the Racer on Rails Showroom Series with Dirk’s SCCA Touring 3 2010 Porsche Cayman Base and our Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR. Park them next to each other and the family resemblance is obvious. Spend a little more time with them and the differences become much more interesting.

One started life as a production Porsche and has been developed into a serious competition car within the boundaries of a rule set. The other also traces its roots back to a production Cayman, but Porsche Motorsport and Manthey Racing take that architecture through a much more radical transformation.

Neither approach is inherently better. They simply solve different problems.

Before getting into those differences, though, there are two useful questions to answer: why Porsche, and why are we putting these cars in a showroom in the first place?

Introducing the RoR Showroom Series

We have a lot of interesting cars move through Racer on Rails. Some are ours, some belong to customers, and some exist as part of larger driver-development and competition programs. Too often, though, the cars come into the shop, get worked on, go racing, and disappear again without creating much opportunity for people outside the immediate program to see them closely or understand why they were built the way they were.

The RoR Showroom Series is our attempt to change that. Each month, we’ll feature a couple of interesting cars in our Bay 114 showroom and use them as the starting point for stories, technical deep dives, conversations and community events.

The goal is not to turn the shop into a museum. It is to make the cars, the thinking behind them and the pathways into motorsport easier to access.

We want someone walking through the door to be able to look at a car and ask, “Why did you do that?” We want another person to ask, “How would I get into something like this?” And we want somebody else to tell us, “My car does this weird thing under braking. Can you help me understand it?”

October’s theme is Porsche Performance, and these two Caymans give us a particularly good place to start.

October's Porsche Performance edition of the RoR Showroom Series puts two very different Caymans side by side. — October’s Porsche Performance edition of the RoR Showroom Series puts two very different Caymans side by side.

Why Porsche?

There is a reason Porsche occupies such an outsized place in enthusiast and motorsport culture. The company has spent generations building road cars and competition cars alongside one another, and you can feel that relationship in the products. The steering, braking, chassis, controls and packaging tend to feel like parts of the same idea rather than a collection of impressive specifications.

For me, admitting that took a little resistance.

The first time I was handed a glass of Dom Pérignon (fancy champagne), I remember hoping I wouldn’t like it. If it tasted more or less like everything else, I could confidently walk away thinking, See? I knew it wasn’t worth all that money.

Unfortunately, it was wonderful. It felt like pouring gold silk across my tongue and down my throat. Dang it!

I had almost exactly the same experience the first time I really drove a Porsche. I wanted to discover that some of the mythology was just mythology. That would have been much cheaper.

Instead, I found myself thinking, Dang it. They really are that good.

Everything seemed considered and correctly packaged, but the thing that struck me most was how directly the car responded to what I asked of it. The steering in particular changed my frame of reference. Turn the wheel in a Cayman and the car just carves.

The Porsche that really drove that lesson home for me was actually Dirk’s Cayman, before it became the T3 race car sitting in our showroom today. Driving it helped me recognize something I had spent years accepting as normal in the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive cars we love, particularly BMWs: that inherent tendency toward understeer was suddenly much easier to feel.

The Cayman wasn’t exempt from physics. It simply gave me another reference point. Once you experience another way of placing the mass, loading the tires and communicating through the steering, your internal calibration changes.

That makes Dirk’s car an especially appropriate place for us to begin this series. It helped change the way I understood cars before we ever started turning it into a race car.

Dirk's 2010 Porsche Cayman T3 race car #136 in the Racer on Rails showroom — Before becoming an SCCA T3 race car, Dirk’s Cayman was the road car that helped recalibrate how we thought about steering and chassis balance.

Porsche Gives Drivers Somewhere to Go

There is another reason Porsche matters to us beyond the quality of the cars themselves. There is an unusually deep ecosystem around actually using them.

A Porsche can be an extraordinary street car. It can become an HPDE or track-day car. It can become a production-based competition car like Dirk’s T3 Cayman. Or a driver can step into purpose-built Porsche Motorsport machinery such as a Cayman GT4 Clubsport or GT3 Cup car.

Even inside the Clubsport world, Porsche recognizes that not every serious driver needs the exact same thing.

A driver who wants to spend a lot of time at the track, drive hard and use real motorsport hardware does not necessarily need every system required for campaigning the car in a formal competition series. That is where the GT4 Clubsport Trackday concept becomes interesting.

Porsche starts with the GT4 street-car architecture and turns it into a real race-bred track machine, but some competition-specific systems can be left out if the owner is not planning to campaign the car in a series. Things like air jacks, a larger fuel cell and a fully integrated competition fire system become much more important when you are supporting pit stops, endurance operation or formal competition than they are for someone whose primary goal is serious non-competitive track use.

That gives the owner a machine built to tolerate the punishment and workload of track driving without necessarily paying for every piece of hardware required by a full race program.

We know that version well because our previous GT4 Clubsport was the Trackday edition.

Previous GT4 Clubsport Trackday Edition #414 on track — Our previous GT4 Clubsport was the Trackday Edition, built for serious track use without every system required for a full pro-level competition program.

Our current car goes a couple more steps beyond that. It is a full GT4 Clubsport MR, equipped with the complete Manthey Racing MR package and the SRO power package. By the time you reach this level, you are no longer talking about a very serious track-day car. You are talking about machinery configured around actual GT competition.

That progression is part of what makes the Porsche ecosystem so interesting. The equipment can evolve as the mission and the driver’s goals evolve.

GT4 Clubsport MR front view with raw unpainted carbon front clip — The current car: a full GT4 Clubsport MR with the complete Manthey Racing package and SRO power package — configured around serious GT competition.

Porsche Ginetta Cup – Racing the Cars Without Destroying Them

Locally, we’re also working to help create places where owners can actually enjoy cars at the more serious end of that spectrum.

One example is the Porsche Ginetta Cup, a new racing series whose priorities line up closely with how we think motorsport should work: the racing should be competitive, but it should also be fun, sustainable and respectful of the machinery people have invested in.

A defining principle of the group is no-contact racing. These are extraordinary and expensive cars, and the point is to give their owners a place to race them without treating body contact as an unavoidable cost of participation.

The group’s approach is intentionally simple. If contact happens, the drivers involved are black-flagged from the session. The emphasis is not on turning every incident into a courtroom argument about fault. The emphasis is on creating a culture in which avoiding contact is everybody’s responsibility.

That changes the character of the racing. You can compete, develop as a driver and enjoy real wheel-to-wheel action while understanding that respecting the other driver and their equipment is part of the job.

For us, that connects directly to the larger Racer on Rails goal of helping people get the right return on their motorsport investment, both in money and in time. The objective is not simply to own interesting machinery. It is to build a program around it that lets you use it, learn from it and enjoy it.

Porsche Ginetta Cup starting grid at the inaugural race — The Porsche Ginetta Cup grid at its inaugural race — competitive, no-contact racing for serious Porsche machinery.

Start With the Mission

That brings us back to the two Caymans sitting next to each other in the showroom.

A great road car has to do a staggering number of things well. It needs to start every morning, deal with traffic, survive potholes and temperature swings, handle long drives and short trips, remain serviceable and provide some degree of comfort. Somewhere inside that enormous list of requirements, it also needs to be fun.

A race car receives a much narrower job description. Lap time, consistency, safety, durability within its operating environment, serviceability between sessions and feedback that helps the driver use the car at its limit all become dominant priorities.

That narrower mission changes nearly every engineering decision.

The fascinating part about the two Caymans in our showroom is that they reach competition from opposite directions.

The T3 Cayman: Develop What You Have

Dirk’s Cayman started as a production car, which means its development process begins with an architecture that was never designed solely around racing.

That is not necessarily a weakness. In many ways, it is what makes the project interesting.

The challenge is understanding the original platform deeply enough to know what needs to change, what should be left alone and where the rules allow meaningful development. The work becomes a series of interconnected questions. For example, how much brake capacity does the car actually need? Where are we generating heat? How does the chassis behave under braking? What does the driver feel during brake release and turn-in? How does a geometry change affect the tire several laps later? Can we solve one performance problem without creating a durability problem somewhere else?

That process is iterative. We change something, drive the car, look at data, listen to what the driver reports, inspect the car and decide what the next problem really is.

That is development. It is rarely one enormous breakthrough. More often, it is dozens of smaller decisions that gradually make the entire system work better together.

T3 Cayman rear quarter showing MCS suspension branding and race wheel — Dirk’s T3 Cayman: developed, not just modified — every change answers to a rule book and a lap timer.

The GT4 MR: Start Much Closer to the Destination

The GT4 Clubsport MR reaches the same broad world of competition from a very different starting point.

At the foundation is Porsche’s Cayman GT4 street car. Porsche Motorsport then takes that architecture and transforms it into the GT4 Clubsport, replacing the road-car mission with a much narrower motorsport brief.

The Trackday edition shows how deliberate that transformation is. It gives a serious driver most of what they need to repeatedly beat on the car at the track without requiring every piece of competition hardware necessary for a formal race program.

Our car goes beyond that. It is a full GT4 Clubsport MR with the complete MR package and SRO power package, so the mission is no longer simply sustained track use. The car is configured around serious GT competition.

By this point, the safety structure, cockpit, suspension, braking, cooling, serviceability, fuel system and other systems are being considered through the lens of motorsport rather than road-car compromise.

Purpose-built still does not mean effortless, though. A car at this level needs preparation, maintenance, setup, alignment, tire management, brake management and disciplined operating procedures. It also needs a driver capable of accessing what the chassis is offering.

The problems change. They do not disappear.

GT4 Clubsport MR cockpit with carbon steering wheel, Recaro seat and roll cage — The GT4 MR cockpit: Porsche Motorsport’s answer, starting much closer to the destination.

Two Cars, Two Different Kinds of Engineering

This is why we wanted these cars together for the first RoR Showroom Series.

The T3 Cayman asks: How far can we develop a production platform for a specific competitive mission?

The GT4 MR asks: What changes when Porsche Motorsport and Manthey Racing start much closer to the final destination?

Look at the brakes, suspension, cockpit, cooling, safety systems and serviceability. Each difference exists because somebody was solving a different problem.

And that is the lesson that matters far beyond these two Porsches.

T3 Cayman cockpit with KMP steering wheel and roll cage

GT4 Clubsport MR cockpit with PDK shifter and Schroth window net — Same mission, different starting points: the T3 cockpit and the GT4 MR cockpit.

The Same Question Applies to Your Car

Most of our drivers are not deciding between building an SCCA Touring car and buying a GT4 race car. The same thinking still applies to a street Porsche, BMW, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Honda, Mazda, Ford, etc….

Before choosing parts, we want to understand what bothers you about the car, what you already love about it, where you drive it, what you want to preserve and what you are willing to compromise.

Sometimes “better” means faster. Sometimes it means better brake feel or more predictable rotation. Sometimes it means correcting a car that has accumulated modifications without a coherent plan. Sometimes it means making a great sports car feel factory-fresh again.

The solution should follow the mission, not the other way around.

Throughout October, both cars will be part of the RoR Showroom Series: Porsche Performance at Bay 114 at Pacific Raceways. We’ll also publish deeper build overviews of each car and use them throughout the month to dig into the engineering decisions that separate them.

If you’re at the track and see the Showroom Open sign, come in, look around and ask questions. Want to schedule a specific time to check out the cars and make sure we’re around to chat and ask questions – shoot us an email or call.

Then tell us:

What do you want your car to do better?

And if the answer is really about you rather than the machine:

What’s your next driving goal?

Looking forward to seeing you all swing by the showroom!

Posted on September 14, 2026September 14, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Progress Looks Different for Everyone – IRDC Tribute to the Volunteers 2026

Dirk Groeneveld driving the white #136 2010 Porsche Cayman Base Touring 3 race car at The Ridge Motorsports Park.

IRDC’s Tribute to the Volunteers at The Ridge August 2026

A weekend of new baselines, mechanical problem-solving, family racing, an almost-first win, a new T3 Cayman coming alive, and one final lap we didn’t know was a goodbye.

IRDC Tribute to the Volunteers at The Ridge Motorsports Park, August 15–16, 2026.

First, a tribute where it belongs

Before the drivers, the lap times, the setup changes, or the mechanical drama, this weekend belongs to the volunteers.

IRDC’s Tribute to the Volunteers weekend at The Ridge Motorsports Park is named for the people who make club racing possible: corner workers, grid, timing and scoring, tech, registration, safety crews, stewards, and everyone else who gives up a weekend so the rest of us can go racing. There is no green flag without them, and there are no stories like the ones below without them either. Thank you!!

The weekend also had a little extra energy this year. The Conference calendar is different enough that this wasn’t quite the usual end-of-season punctuation mark, and IRDC used the weekend to debut a new Porsche & Ginetta Cup concept. More than a dozen Porsches and Ginettas took the green on Sunday, which made for a pretty remarkable first outing for something that had come together on a very short runway.

For Racer on Rails, though, the biggest theme of the weekend was something we talk about constantly: development does not look the same for every driver. Sometimes progress is a faster lap. Sometimes it is doing the same lap over and over. Sometimes it is learning to race at the front. Sometimes it is keeping a difficult weekend from unraveling. Sometimes it is simply remembering why you love driving the car in the first place.

We got a little bit of all of it.

Matt Apeland: first make it repeatable

Matt Apeland’s #54 Spec E46 at The Ridge.

Matt came into the weekend still early in his racing journey and excited after a strong previous outing with us. He now has a properly developed Spec E46 underneath him, which means the biggest opportunity is increasingly the same one every driver eventually confronts: turning isolated good moments into a repeatable process.

Friday gave us the baseline. Matt could produce a good lap, but the spread between laps was still too wide. So the assignment for Saturday was deliberately boring: consistency.

Before we can ask a driver to change one braking point, one turn-in, or one throttle application, we need confidence that the rest of the lap will stay reasonably constant. Otherwise you are changing five variables at once and trying to learn from static.

We went deep on that idea with Matt, including one of the exercises Gama used when he was first learning: sit in the race car, watch onboard video from a faster driver, and physically mimic the steering, shifts, brake release, and throttle application. Not because the motions need to be copied robotically, but because repetition starts teaching the body what a lap is supposed to feel like.

Matt committed to it. By Sunday, the stopwatch started reflecting the change. He got into the 1:57s, including an official 1:57.820, and more importantly began backing the pace up with a string of laps in the 1:58s rather than one lonely hero lap surrounded by much larger swings.

When he climbed out and saw what he had done, his summary was better than anything we could write for him: “I’m a believer. The process works.”

That was the win.

Montey Mathison: earn the pace twice

Montey Mathison’s #147 Spec E46.

Montey is 18 and has been building real momentum this season. Over the previous couple of weekends he had started closing the gap to some of our quickest Spec E46 drivers, so he arrived at The Ridge with confidence and, naturally, expectations.

Then Friday handed him a car that simply would not make the power it should.

We worked through the usual suspects until the trail finally led to the ECU connection, where we found corrosion. Swapping in our spare ECU brought the car back to life. It cost Montey track time, but once the problem was solved he did exactly what we wanted to see: he reset, got back to work, and returned to pace.

Sunday qualifying produced a 1:52.565, and he finished third in Spec E46 with a 1:52.975 best race lap. Those numbers put him right back in the conversation with the front half of our group after spending a meaningful chunk of the weekend troubleshooting instead of driving.

That is a different kind of development. The fast lap matters. So does the ability to have the weekend go sideways, get the car back, and immediately resume the work.

Ron Tanemura: the weekend kept trying to stop him

Ron Tanemura’s #63 Spec E46.

Ron was quick essentially from the moment the weekend started. On Friday we could see that he had the pace to run near the front of the Spec E46 field.

Naturally, that is when the shifter selector rod decided to leave the chat.

The CAE shifter’s selector rod came apart late in the test day and left Ron without a way to select gears. We overnighted a replacement. It arrived too short. So on Saturday morning René made the run back to the shop for Silver Bullet, our E36, so Ron could keep racing.

Then Silver Bullet developed an electrical problem and shut off late in Saturday’s race.

Race cars have timing.

The good news was that by then we had sourced the correct selector rod for Ron’s own Spec E46. Sunday he was back in the #63, qualified fourth in class, and raced his way to second place, finishing just 0.641 seconds behind the winner. There were still learning moments, including an ambitious move that cost him momentum, but that is exactly the point. He was racing in the part of the field where those decisions matter.

The part that stuck with us most did not come from the timing sheet. Multiple people independently came up during the weekend to tell us how impressed they were with Ron’s development. They have watched him try different cars, put in the work, take coaching seriously, and keep showing up. Now they are watching the pace and racecraft arrive with it.

Respect in a paddock is difficult to shortcut. Ron has earned his.

Anthony Lo: the result hurt. The driving didn’t.

We were not providing Anthony’s trackside support this weekend, but he is absolutely a Racer on Rails driver, and we need to pause here for a massive shoutout.

Anthony qualified second in Spec E46 with a 1:52.098. In the race he ran a 1:51.459, the fastest Spec E46 lap of the race, and put himself in position to take his first class win.

Then, on the final corner of the final lap, contact sent him around and the result disappeared.

That part is brutal. Racing can be brutally literal about where you cross the line, even when that line does a terrible job of describing how you drove.

Anthony’s result was disappointing. His performance was anything but.

He showed that he now has the pace to race at the very front, the composure to stay there, and the speed to win. The first victory will matter when it comes, but this weekend showed that the capability has already arrived.

Dirk Groeneveld: the T3 Cayman comes alive

Dirk Groeneveld’s 2010 Porsche Cayman Base, now developed as an SCCA Touring 3 car.

Dirk’s weekend was a milestone for both driver and car: the first official race weekend for his 2010 Porsche Cayman Base that we have been developing into an SCCA Touring 3 car.

The previous test days had been productive but each uncovered another small issue to solve. The biggest lingering problem was an intermittent power cut that appeared to be torque limiting when the car moved outside the operating assumptions Porsche built into a street car. Before this weekend we updated the tune, put fresh tires on the car, and moved to a staggered tire setup.

Friday was the first time everything simply worked.

Dirk initially came back describing the car as if he were still wrestling with it. Then we asked the obvious question: what are the lap times?

Low 1:50s. Then the 1:49s.

That changed the conversation. The Cayman was already seriously quick, and Dirk was doing it on Hoosier R7s rather than a qualifying-style A7. Over the rest of the weekend he continued learning what the car wanted and where the next limits lived. By Sunday, the questions were less about whether the concept worked and more about tire capacity, brake thermal management, and how much more performance is still buried in the chassis.

Dirk won ST both days, but this weekend was never really about collecting class wins. It was a shakedown, and it gave us a new performance baseline for a car we have only begun to optimize.

There was also a much more important layer to the weekend. Dirk’s dad was visiting from Germany and was able to be there to see the car, experience the paddock, and watch his son properly lean on it. Dirk has not had a huge amount of seat time over the last year and admitted that his physical race fitness still needs rebuilding, but the driving itself was at a very high level.

Fast car. Fast driver. Dad there to see it. That one felt special.

Matt Dawson: Assignment -> Maximum Fun

Matt Dawson stretching the legs of his BMW Z4 M Coupe.

Not every weekend needs to be a crusade for the last tenth.

Matt Dawson brought his BMW Z4 M Coupe with a beautifully straightforward objective: drive the thing, enjoy it, and have fun.

We did have to earn some of that fun. A power-steering fitting began leaking on the test day and cost him some track time while we repaired it. Then Matt introduced an unexpected coaching exercise of his own by showing up with a set of Toyo R888s he wanted to use up.

Those tires offered dramatically less lateral grip than the Hoosiers he normally drives, which meant the technique had to change. We talked about approaching it almost like a wet track: do more of the braking and acceleration with the car straight, reduce the demand for combined grip, and square off corners where appropriate.

It became a useful experiment in adapting the driver to the grip available rather than waiting for the car to feel the way you want it to feel.

Then he bolted the Hoosiers back on and went back to enjoying the Z4. On Sunday he finished third in SPM with a 1:50.921 best lap.

There are worse ways to spend a weekend than learning something useful and repeatedly revving an S54 toward the top of the tach. Man that car sounds good!!!

John and Mat Hennessy: the part you remember

The Hennessys’ #58 Spec E46.

John and Mat Hennessy have been racing with us for years, sharing their #58 Spec E46 across different groups and coming together for the mini enduro.

The car itself has lived a full race-car life and has a list of service work waiting for it, but it kept doing its job this weekend. John had some excellent battles, including time near the front of the Spec E46 fight and exchanges with Ron. Matt ran around his usual pace and got his own share of good racing. The #58 also came home second in ME1 in Saturday’s mini enduro.

The lap times and positions are nice. They are not the reason this story matters.

Watching a father and son share a race car, split sessions, debrief together, and keep coming back to do this year after year is one of those things that quietly reminds you what the sport can be. Gama told them as much over the weekend: he hopes that when his own kids are older, he gets to share some version of this with them.

A race result lasts until the next race. Getting to do something you love with your kid can become part of a family’s language.

Harry and Lola Hollander: an unexpected addition to the tent

The Hollanders’ Bastos-liveried #04 PRO3 BMW in traffic.

Harry and Lola Hollander were not originally part of our weekend plan.

We had met them previously while they were finishing novice licensing and exploring where they wanted to race. They ultimately went the PRO3 route and bought the familiar Bastos-liveried #04 BMW. At The Ridge they found themselves needing some last-minute trackside support and asked if we could help.

We were clear about the deal: we had not seen the car before, we did not know its condition, and our technician resource would be shared. But we had capacity to help, so we would tackle one problem at a time and do everything we could to keep them driving.

The car made sure we had problems to tackle.

Despite that, Harry and Lola made essentially the whole weekend, missing only one session, and more importantly they were able to focus enough on their driving to make real progress. Both improved their personal bests by multiple seconds.

Lola’s Sunday race included a 1:59.453, putting her under the two-minute mark at The Ridge. Harry’s PRO3 best that day was 2:01.236.

Which means the official family leaderboard now says Lola beat Dad by 1.783 seconds.

We will allow her to decide how frequently that fact needs to be mentioned.

For us, this was a good reminder of what track support is supposed to accomplish. The goal is not simply to make a broken thing unbroken. It is to create enough stability around the driver that the weekend can still become productive, enjoyable, and worth remembering.

One last run in the Cayman

The #414 Cayman during what unexpectedly became its final race weekend with Racer on Rails.

Gama’s assignment for the weekend was supposed to be straightforward: prepare for the upcoming Gridlife GLGT race at Laguna Seca.

We could not get the required series tires in time, so the Cayman went to The Ridge on old Yokohama A052s, both sets date-stamped in 2023 and already carrying plenty of heat cycles. The plan was to re-establish a driver baseline, work on setup, then return the following weekend with reduced power and the correct tires for a much more representative Laguna test.

Friday went well. On the first set of old tires the car felt good and ran in the 1:44 to 1:45 range while we worked through setup changes.

Saturday was stranger. We installed the set that visually looked healthier because it had more tread, only to discover that it was actually even older. The car developed enormous front-end push, especially in the left-hand corners that make up so much of The Ridge. At first we went hunting for setup or mechanical problems. By the end of the day the answer was wonderfully unglamorous: the tires were simply done.

Sunday we went back to the less-dead set, and the car came back underneath Gama immediately.

That afternoon brought the inaugural Porsche & Ginetta Cup race. The Cayman was in an awkward performance island: not quick enough on those tires to fight the 991.2 and 992 Cup cars, but significantly faster than much of the rest of the field. So instead of racing another car, Gama spent the stint racing the lap.

He qualified at 1:45.183. Through the race, he kept finding small pieces, convinced there were still a few tenths scattered around the circuit. On lap eight, the final lap, he put together a 1:45.502, his fastest lap of the race.

He climbed out excited about coming back the following weekend with fresh tires and the next round of changes.

The Cayman sold the next day.

We thought we were establishing a baseline for what came next. It turned out we were putting a period on the end of the Cayman’s chapter with Racer on Rails.

There are worse ways for a race car to say goodbye than setting its best lap of the race on the final lap.

Development is bigger than a result

Looking back, that is what we will remember about Tribute to the Volunteers.

Matt Apeland learned that speed becomes useful when it is repeatable. Montey Mathison lost track time and then immediately found his pace again. Ron Tanemura fought through two different cars trying to strand him and still finished second. Anthony Lo showed race-winning speed even though the result did not survive the final corner. Dirk Groeneveld and the T3 Cayman established an entirely new performance baseline. Matt Dawson used a low-grip tire experiment as an excuse to learn and then went back to having fun. John and Matt Hennessy reminded us why sharing this sport with family matters. Harry and Lola Hollander turned a last-minute support request into personal bests and a little father-daughter scoreboard drama. And the #414 Cayman gave us one final great lap before moving on to its next chapter.

That is driver development to us.

It is not just making the stopwatch smaller. It is engineering, preparation, coaching, racecraft, physical readiness, problem-solving, repetition, reflection, and knowing when the objective for the day is simply to enjoy the machine.

And none of it happens without a community willing to make racing possible.

So one more time: thank you to IRDC, Conference, The Ridge, and especially every volunteer who worked the weekend. We got to do the fun part because you were there.

See you at the track.

— Racer on Rails

If you are building a track or racing program around your own goals, reach us at gofaster@raceronrails.com.

Posted on July 30, 2026July 26, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

More Than a Race Weekend: Competition, Development and Community at the 2026 IRDC Summer Classic

Racer on Rails-supported Spec E46 BMW race cars beneath paddock tents, reflected in rainwater at Pacific Raceways.

The IRDC Summer Classic is not just another race weekend at Pacific Raceways.

IRDC’s May event can produce excellent racing, but spring in the Pacific Northwest always arrives with an asterisk. Cold temperatures and rain can thin the entry list, scramble preparation plans and turn the weekend into an exercise in weather-radar interpretation.

The Summer Classic, traditionally held in late June or July, carries a different energy.

Good weather is never truly guaranteed around here, but the odds are much better. The fields grow, the paddock fills and the competition becomes stronger. It is one of the cornerstone events on the International Race Drivers Club calendar and, in many ways, the weekend when the local racing community is most fully assembled.

The 2026 Summer Classic took place June 26 through 28, with Friday testing leading into two days of qualifying, championship races and a one-hour mini-enduro on Pacific Raceways’ 2.25-mile road course. The event was held under the umbrella of the International Conference of Sports Car Clubs, the Pacific Northwest sanctioning body commonly known throughout the paddock as Conference.

For Racer on Rails, the weekend became a concentrated example of nearly everything we are trying to build.

We supported drivers fighting at the front of Spec E46. We helped another driver make systemic progress through coaching. We introduced a new novice to wheel-to-wheel competition. We kept Stefan Tomalik race-sharp while his own car was being prepared for GRIDLIFE GT competition. We welcomed NASA Northwest’s Jay Perry to Pacific Raceways for the first time and watched him progress from learning the circuit to winning on it. We helped Ellen Porter and Mathieu Martin fit racing into the realities of careers and parenthood. We supported more than half of the Spec E46 field in one form or another.

Then, after the engines went quiet, we partnered with Racecentric to bring racers, volunteers, tuners, time-attack competitors and automotive enthusiasts together at the Racer on Rails facility.

It was more than a race weekend.

It was competition, development and community sharing the same piece of pavement.

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A Difficult Start to the Weekend

Saturday morning’s qualifying session provided an immediate reminder that even the Summer Classic can retain a little Pacific Northwest unpredictability.

The track was mixed and drying.

Everyone faced the same decision: wait for the surface to improve, choose wet-weather tires that might quickly overheat, or go onto the circuit with dry tires and accept that parts of the lap were not ready for them.

Most of the field chose dry tires.

The front half of the track was beginning to develop a usable line, but the back side remained damp in places. That mattered because the moisture was concentrated around the part of Pacific Raceways where drivers least want uncertainty: Turns 5A through 6.

That sequence is fast, committed and unforgiving. The car becomes light as the road falls away, the walls feel increasingly close and a driver must trust that the grip waiting on corner entry will still be there when the car reaches the apex.

Damp patches in that section are not merely inconvenient. They change the entire risk calculation.

Everyone had to balance the same questions. How quickly was the track improving? Where was the remaining water? How much commitment was justified when conditions could change from one corner to the next?

No risk, no reward.

Stefan Tomalik navigated the conditions with a 1:38.551, taking the top Spec E46 qualifying position. Dan Gavrila followed with a 1:38.645.

After an entire lap of changing grip, the difference between them was only 0.094 seconds.

It was an early indication that the two of them were going to spend the weekend operating in the same narrow window.

Keeping Stefan Race-Sharp

Stefan has spent much of the season rebuilding his BMW M3 for GRIDLIFE GT competition at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in September.

Preparing the car is only one part of that project.

The driver also needs preparation.

GLGT will place Stefan in a fast and varied field, surrounded by cars that generate lap time in very different ways. He will need to manage traffic, adapt to changing situations and make good decisions while racing against unfamiliar competitors.

That cannot be recreated through casual track time alone.

The best preparation for racing is racing, especially against people who demand your best.

For the Summer Classic, Stefan returned to the Racer on Rails Silver Bullet in Spec E46. The goal was to keep him competing, keep the decision-making muscles active and measure him against some of the strongest club racers in the region.

Dan Gavrila provided exactly that benchmark.

Dan is exceptionally fast at Pacific Raceways. He knows the circuit intimately and is capable of extracting pace from the car almost immediately. Stefan’s ability to qualify within a tenth of him in difficult conditions was impressive, but Saturday’s race would require something different.

Qualifying rewards the fastest individual lap.

Racing rewards the driver who can keep doing the work while managing traffic, pressure, tires and the changing behavior of the car.

Stefan converted the mixed-condition pole into a Spec E46 victory.

According to the official Saturday race results, he completed 17 laps with a best time of 1:31.346. Anthony Lo finished second, Dan third and Matt Dawson fourth, putting four Racer on Rails-supported or managed cars into the first four positions in class.

The strength of Stefan’s race was not limited to one lap.

The Saturday lap chart showed him repeatedly operating in the low 1:31s, 1:32s and 1:33s, continuing to apply pressure without allowing the quality of his driving to unravel.

That ability to repeat pace is essential.

A driver preparing for a larger, more unpredictable competition environment does not need a single firework of a lap. He needs an entire box of matches.

Sunday morning shifted the order.

With a dry circuit, Dan qualified on the Spec E46 pole with a 1:31.239. Stefan followed at 1:31.574, just 0.335 seconds behind.

Charles Beach qualified third at 1:32.197, while Anthony’s 1:32.199 left him only two thousandths of a second from the second row. Matt followed at 1:32.923, according to the official Sunday qualifying results.

The stage was set for another battle between Dan and Stefan.

Unfortunately, a mechanical concern that had been following Dan’s car throughout the season finally caught up with it.

The engine had regularly produced blue smoke on startup, suggesting that something inside was no longer entirely happy. Dan remained fast despite the warning signs, but the problem ultimately developed into a head-gasket failure and engine damage.

Even with the car deteriorating, Dan recorded a 1:32.031 during Sunday’s race. The speed remained, but the machinery could not carry him through to the finish at the front.

Stefan could.

The Sunday race results showed Stefan completing 17 laps and earning his second Spec E46 victory of the weekend, finishing 15.341 seconds ahead of Charles Beach.

Anthony placed third, Matt fourth and Wes Griffith seventh. Dan was classified eighth after completing 15 laps.

Stefan left the Summer Classic with two victories against serious competition.

More importantly, he had spent the weekend practicing exactly the kind of driving he will need at Laguna Seca: adapting to changing conditions, operating under pressure and delivering pace repeatedly rather than occasionally.

Anthony Lo’s Quiet Level-Up

Anthony Lo’s weekend deserves more attention than a pair of podium finishes alone might suggest.

Although we were not providing Anthony’s full trackside support program at the Summer Classic, Racer on Rails manages and maintains his car. That has given us a close view of the work he has put into his driving and the progress he has made over the past year.

The difference is visible from outside the car.

It is also visible in the timing sheets.

At the 2025 Summer Classic, Anthony qualified third in Spec E46 on both days. His Saturday qualifying time was a 1:32.751, followed by a best race lap of 1:33.002 and a second-place finish in the Saturday race.

On Sunday, he qualified with a nearly identical 1:32.752. His race ended after 13 laps, leaving him classified sixth, with a best lap of 1:33.018. The full progression can be seen in the 2025 Sunday qualifying, race results and lap-time report.

One year later, Anthony returned and delivered a more complete weekend in a nine-car Spec E46 field.

Saturday’s damp qualifying session does not provide a meaningful year-over-year comparison, but once the circuit dried, Anthony recorded a 1:32.637 during the race.

That was more than three-tenths quicker than his best race lap from the same event in 2025, and it helped carry him to another second-place finish.

Sunday provided the clearest measurement.

Anthony qualified with a 1:32.199, improving on his 2025 Sunday qualifying time by 0.553 seconds. That placed him only 0.002 seconds behind Charles Beach and less than one second from Dan’s class pole.

He followed qualifying with a third-place finish and a best race lap of 1:32.677, completing all 17 laps.

At this point in a driver’s development, progress is rarely measured in enormous chunks of lap time.

It lives in tenths.

It appears in consistency, confidence and the ability to execute across an entire weekend. It shows up when the driver is no longer searching for a fundamentally different technique, but refining braking points, releases, minimum speeds and the quality of every transition.

Anthony has put in the work, and he has genuinely leveled up.

Last year, the pace of drivers like Stefan and Dan represented something Anthony was chasing.

Now he is close enough that they need to keep checking their mirrors.

Systemic Progress for Wes Griffith

The Summer Classic was our first weekend working directly with Wes Griffith as a coaching client.

The objective was not to manufacture one spectacular lap. It was to understand the underlying behaviors limiting his performance and help him build a process that could produce repeatable improvement.

There is an important distinction between finding speed and learning how to become faster.

A driver can stumble into a personal best through favorable traffic, fresh tires, a particularly brave moment or a lap where several variables happen to align. That lap may be real, but it is not always transferable.

Systemic progress appears when the driver understands what changed, why it worked and how to reproduce it.

That was the work with Wes.

We focused on giving him clearer references and a more structured approach to the lap. Rather than trying to attack every corner at once, the goal was to reduce ambiguity, identify the largest opportunities and make deliberate changes that could be evaluated through data and driver feedback.

The results began appearing immediately.

Wes recorded a 1:36.135 during Saturday’s race, breaking through his previous personal-best territory. On Sunday, he lowered the mark again with a 1:35.927.

The lap times were exciting, but the more meaningful development was the process behind them.

Wes was not simply trying harder. He was becoming more precise about where and how he applied that effort.

He began improving his understanding of what the car needed, how the corner phases connected and where commitment would produce speed rather than merely additional risk.

He did not beat his personal best once and spend the rest of the weekend admiring it.

He reset it, learned from it and moved it again.

That is the kind of progress that can continue long after the weekend is over.

Matt Dawson and the Joy of 8,500 RPM

Matt Dawson arrived at the Summer Classic with two very different BMWs and two very different assignments.

In Spec E46, he continued developing within one of the weekend’s most competitive classes. Matt finished fourth on both Saturday and Sunday, recording best race laps of 1:33.069 and 1:33.645.

Then there was the Z4 M Coupe.

Matt purchased the car earlier this year, adding a machine with an SCCA National Championship-winning history to his collection.

It is a wonderfully distinctive race car, powered by an engine that rewards commitment all the way to its 8,500-rpm redline.

Tyler Campbell and Matt Dawson talk beside a race car in the Pacific Raceways paddock. — Tyler Campbell and Matt Dawson catch up in the paddock during a busy weekend of Spec E46 racing and seat time in Matt’s BMW Z4 M Coupe.

Matt was more than happy to explore the entire tachometer.

He entered the Z4 in the one-hour mini-enduro, completing 36 laps and finishing fourth in the MEO class. His best lap was a 1:30.689.

Learning a new race car is serious work.

The driver must recalibrate nearly everything: braking references, control effort, visibility, gearing, tire behavior and the subtle signals that indicate whether the car has more to give.

It can also be enormous fun.

Every time Matt climbed out of the Z4, he was grinning from ear to ear. Some cars make their case through engineering diagrams and trophy cabinets. Others make it every time the engine reaches the top of the rev range.

The Z4 managed all three.

Jay Perry’s First Visit to Pacific Raceways

The Summer Classic also welcomed Jay Perry from NASA Northwest for his first opportunity to race at Pacific Raceways.

Jay arrived with his C7 Corvette and a substantial learning assignment ahead of him.

Pacific Raceways is not a circuit that reveals all of its secrets immediately.

Its elevation changes obscure sightlines, several important corners are connected in ways that are not obvious from behind the wheel, and the fastest sections require a driver to build trust gradually.

Learning the track is one challenge.

Learning it while racing a powerful Corvette against experienced local competitors adds several more layers.

Jay embraced all of it.

He became quicker and more comfortable throughout the weekend, gradually piecing together the circuit while learning where the Corvette’s power, braking capability and balance could be used most effectively.

By Saturday’s race, Jay was already battling Dan Rogers in his BMW M3 GTR at the front of the SPO class.

Dan won, but only barely.

After 14 laps, the two cars were separated by just 0.347 seconds, with Jay recording a best lap of 1:27.930 in his first race at the circuit.

Jay returned Sunday with another day of knowledge stored away and immediately put it to use.

He lowered his best lap to a 1:25.046 and beat Dan to the finish by 1.894 seconds, splitting the weekend’s two races with a driver who brought both serious pace and extensive Pacific Raceways experience.

That is a serious achievement.

Jay Perry holds a first-place trophy and checkered flag beside his black C7 Corvette at Pacific Raceways. — NASA Northwest’s Jay Perry celebrates an SPO victory beside his C7 Corvette after learning Pacific Raceways and splitting the weekend’s races with Dan Rogers.

Jay did not simply visit a new track, collect some laps and head home. He learned quickly enough to challenge an established local front-runner, race him closely on Saturday and then find the additional performance needed to reverse the order on Sunday.

It was also exactly the kind of crossover we want to see more often.

Organizations such as NASA Northwest, IRDC and Conference may operate their own events and championships, but they are all part of the same regional motorsport community.

Drivers moving between them bring new cars, different experiences and fresh competition into each paddock.

Jay arrived to experience Pacific Raceways for the first time.

He left with a victory, a rapidly expanding notebook and a very good reason to come back.

Federico Mira Picone’s First Novice Weekend

Federico Mira Picone arrived at Pacific Raceways for his first novice race weekend in the Racer on Rails Jägermeister-liveried PRO3 car.

A first wheel-to-wheel event asks a great deal from a driver.

There are race starts, flags, traffic, passing decisions and procedures that cannot be fully recreated during a track day. The driver must learn to allocate attention across the entire environment while still operating the car quickly and accurately.

The objective is not simply to go faster.

It is to build awareness, judgment and capacity without allowing enthusiasm to outrun experience.

Federico’s first qualifying session took place on the same mixed and damp circuit that complicated the Spec E46 session.

He recorded a 1:55.205, but the time was much more representative of the conditions than his actual dry-weather potential.

Once the circuit dried and Federico became more comfortable, the stopwatch began shedding seconds in large handfuls.

During Saturday’s race, he recorded a 1:40.098, completed all 16 laps and won the novice class.

The roughly 15-second difference from qualifying was not the result of a magical transformation. It reflected the enormous contrast between a damp, mixed-condition session and a dry race, combined with Federico’s growing understanding of the car and the environment around him.

He returned Sunday and continued moving forward.

Federico qualified with a 1:40.674. In the race, he lowered his best to a 1:39.219 and earned his second novice-class victory, finishing only 0.952 seconds ahead of Kevin Sun after 13 laps.

Federico’s family and friends were present throughout the weekend, turning the occasion into more than a licensing exercise.

They were able to see the work, the nerves, the progress and the satisfaction that came with completing his first races successfully.

The car’s reliability also played an important role.

During earlier weekends with Ron Tanemura, we had worked through the transmission issues that previously affected the PRO3 car. That work meant Federico could focus on learning how to race rather than wondering which gear the car might choose to surrender next.

He is scheduled to complete his remaining two novice weekends with Racer on Rails this year, earn his full competition license and then decide what the next stage of his racing journey should become.

The first chapter was a strong one.

Ellen Porter and Mathieu Martin Make Space for Racing

Motorsport has a habit of consuming every available hour.

That makes participation especially challenging for Ellen Porter and Mathieu Martin, who are balancing demanding professional careers with raising two young daughters.

Getting both of them to the racetrack required its own exercise in scheduling, logistics and teamwork.

At the Summer Classic, they split the championship races. Mathieu competed in the large PRO3 field, while Ellen raced in CT4.

Ellen completed 15 laps in Saturday’s race, finishing 12th in CT4 with a best time of 1:39.887.

They then combined their efforts for the one-hour mini-enduro.

Mathieu and Ellen shared the No. 26 car, completing 32 laps and finishing third in the ME2 class. Their best lap was a 1:39.874.

Couples who race together may not eliminate every disagreement, but at least they can arrive at the discussion with timing data.

More importantly, Ellen and Mathieu demonstrate that motorsport does not need to be an all-or-nothing pursuit.

With the right equipment, planning and support system, racing can remain a meaningful part of a busy life.

Sometimes that means competing in separate classes. Sometimes it means sharing a car. Sometimes it means handing the steering wheel to your partner and trusting them to bring it back in one piece.

They made the space, shared the work and left with a podium.

Supporting More Than Half of the Spec E46 Field

The Spec E46 results also illustrated how deeply Racer on Rails has become connected to the local class.

We were providing trackside support for Stefan, Dan, Montey Mathison and Matt. Wes was working with us through coaching, and Anthony’s car remained under our management and maintenance program.

In one form or another, Racer on Rails was connected to six of the nine cars in the Spec E46 field.

The purpose is not to create a protected island inside the paddock.

It is the opposite.

When more drivers have access to strong preparation, dependable trackside support, engineering and coaching, the entire class improves.

Cars become more reliable. Drivers become more capable. The racing grows closer, and everyone is required to continue raising their level.

Saturday’s first four Spec E46 finishers were Stefan, Anthony, Dan and Matt.

On Sunday, Stefan won again, Anthony finished third and Matt fourth. Wes lowered his personal best multiple times, while Dan demonstrated race-winning pace before the engine problem ended his challenge.

That is the kind of environment we want to help create.

Competitive on the racetrack.

Collaborative in the paddock.

Relentlessly focused on improving both the drivers and the machinery.

Connecting the Motorsport Ecosystem

The weekend’s most important activity may not have appeared on a timing sheet.

Racer on Rails partnered with Racecentric to host a club and volunteer dinner and mini car show at our facility.

There was barbecue, cold soda, race cars, beautifully prepared show cars and people from several different corners of the automotive world.

Racers and volunteers spent the evening alongside tuners, builders, enthusiasts and time-attack competitors who might not ordinarily occupy the same paddock.

That mixture was intentional.

Motorsport is often presented as a pyramid, with professional racing at the top and every other form of participation stacked somewhere beneath it.

In practice, it behaves much more like an ecosystem.

Club racers need mechanics, engineers, fabricators, photographers, organizers and volunteers. Tuners benefit from lessons developed through competition. Time-attack drivers may eventually become wheel-to-wheel racers. Show-car owners can become track-day participants. Young enthusiasts can discover careers they did not know existed. Volunteers can build relationships with teams, and teams can become stronger members of the clubs that make their racing possible.

Every part feeds another.

The goal of the evening was to celebrate the club, thank the volunteers and create more opportunities for those different communities to rub shoulders.

Not through a formal conference or a carefully scheduled networking exercise, but over food, cars and the shared language of people who care deeply about machines.

For one evening, the Racer on Rails facility became more than a place where race cars are stored, prepared and repaired.

It became a gathering point for the broader automotive community.

That matters because the long-term health of racing will not be determined solely by what happens between the green and checkered flags.

It will also depend on whether there is an inviting, connected world surrounding the competition.

Progress in Every Direction

The 2026 IRDC Summer Classic produced strong results for Racer on Rails, but no single trophy or finishing position captures the weekend.

Stefan Tomalik won both Spec E46 races while sharpening the skills he will need for GRIDLIFE at Laguna Seca.

Dan Gavrila demonstrated front-running speed before a known mechanical concern developed into an engine failure.

Anthony Lo turned the promise of his 2025 Summer Classic into a more complete 2026 performance, improving his dry-weather pace and earning podium finishes on both days.

Matt Dawson raced hard in Spec E46, then spent the mini-enduro exploring the upper reaches of the Z4 M Coupe’s tachometer.

Jay Perry learned Pacific Raceways at remarkable speed, battling Dan Rogers throughout the weekend and leaving his first visit with an SPO victory.

Wes Griffith broke through previous limitations and lowered his personal best multiple times during our first coaching weekend together.

Federico Mira Picone completed his first novice event, won his class twice and took a major step toward earning his full competition license.

Ellen Porter and Mathieu Martin found a way to balance careers, parenthood and competition, then shared a podium finish in the mini-enduro.

Around them was a Racer on Rails operation preparing cars, coaching drivers, solving problems and supporting more than half of the Spec E46 field.

Then, when racing finished for the day, we opened the doors and brought the wider community together.

That was the real story of the Summer Classic.

Competition, driver development, vehicle preparation and community building do not need to exist as separate activities.

When they are connected intentionally, each one makes the others stronger.

That is the ecosystem we believe in.

And that is exactly what we are trying to build.

Posted on July 26, 2026July 26, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Confidence, Consistency and Podiums at Watkins Glen – Porsche Club of America (PCA) July 2026

Racer on Rails team with Ann Doherty’s black Porsche race car, Thad Berger’s red Porsche and their podium trophies at Watkins Glen.

Watkins Glen International is a circuit that demands confidence.

Across its 3.45-mile Grand Prix layout, the speed is high, the consequences of hesitation are real and the car is almost always being asked to do more than one thing at a time. Braking zones arrive while the chassis is still loaded, elevation changes alter the balance beneath the driver and many of the most important corners require commitment well before the exit comes into view.

It is also one of North America’s most historic racing venues. Competition around Watkins Glen dates back to the first postwar road race through the village in 1948, and the circuit has remained one of the country’s defining motorsport destinations ever since.

For Racer on Rails, the Porsche Club of America Club Racing weekend presented two very different driver-development stories.

Longtime friend and client Thad Berger was returning to competition after a hiatus caused by a major rebuild of his car. Alongside him was Ann Doherty, whom we have supported throughout the season and who arrived at The Glen with momentum already building.

Ann’s program also included support from professional driver and coach Pippa Mann. The Racer on Rails crew consisted of Jordan Allen, serving as car chief for Ann’s 991.2-generation Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car; Ian Anderson, serving as car chief for Thad; and Tyler Campbell, working as race engineer and driver coach across both programs.

Tyler supported both drivers directly while collaborating with Pippa throughout Ann’s weekend.

The drivers arrived from different starting points, but the objective was the same: build trust in the car, sharpen the communication between driver and crew and turn that confidence into repeatable performance.

Carrying Momentum into the Weekend

Ann arrived at the PCA weekend with valuable recent experience at Watkins Glen.

Only a couple of weeks earlier, Racer on Rails had supported her during the SCCA race weekend at the same circuit. A combination of simulator work, preparation and focused coaching allowed her to arrive ready to perform, ultimately producing a third-place finish in Sunday’s race.

Ann Doherty drives the black-and-yellow Racer on Rails Porsche race car through a corner at Watkins Glen International. — Ann Doherty attacks Watkins Glen International in her black-and-yellow Racer on Rails Porsche during the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour weekend. Photo Credit: Trey Coleman

That recent experience meant the PCA weekend did not begin with Ann needing to relearn the circuit. Instead, she could immediately begin refining her driving, exploring the limits of the car and building on the progress already made.

Ann Doherty celebrates a third-place finish on the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour podium at Watkins Glen International. — Ann Doherty celebrates a third-place finish at the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour weekend at Watkins Glen International.

Friday opened with two practice sessions before the field moved into qualifying and the weekend’s first race.

Ann quickly showed that the earlier preparation had carried over. She set a new personal-best lap and qualified second in GTC7 for the non-points race.

GTC7 is PCA Club Racing’s class for 2017 through 2021 Porsche 991.2-generation Cup cars. With the machinery tightly controlled by the regulations, performance comes down heavily to preparation, setup, execution and the driver’s ability to consistently extract speed from the platform.

When an issue struck the initial race leader, Ann was in position to capitalize.

She stayed composed, managed the race and brought the car home for the victory. Along the way, she continued lowering her personal best, eventually producing a 1:55.2 lap time before the end of Friday.

The victory was the visible result, but the larger story was the progression behind it.

Ann was becoming increasingly comfortable asking more from the car, and increasingly precise when describing what she needed from it.

Developing the Car as the Pace Increased

As Ann became faster, the setup needed to evolve with her.

The car that helps a driver build confidence early in their development is not always the same car they need once the pace begins to increase. As Ann carried more speed, committed earlier and asked more from the front axle, her feedback began to change.

Throughout Friday and Saturday, the team worked through a series of adjustments designed to preserve the confidence she had built while giving her the response she needed at a higher level of commitment.

She wanted more authority from the front of the car. At the same time, the increase in her pace meant she no longer needed the same level of aerodynamic stability she had previously relied upon.

Jordan and Tyler continued adjusting the platform around that feedback, while Tyler and Pippa worked together to maintain a consistent coaching framework.

Racer on Rails team member works beside Ann Doherty’s Porsche as Thad Berger’s Porsche sits nearby in the Watkins Glen paddock. — The Racer on Rails crew prepares Ann Doherty’s and Thad Berger’s Porsche race cars between sessions in the Watkins Glen paddock.

The goal was not simply to make the car faster on paper.

It was to give Ann a car she understood, trusted and could use.

By the end of the process, the car was responding in a way that allowed her to drive with greater confidence. The lap times followed, but more importantly, so did the consistency.

Fighting Forward in the Heat

Saturday presented a different challenge.

Temperatures climbed, the points-race fields grew larger and Ann found herself racing in the middle of a group that included several newer 992-generation Cup cars.

Traffic became more difficult. The heat changed the car. The racing became more physical.

Despite those conditions, and some light contact from another competitor, Ann stayed in the fight. She managed the car, remained composed and finished second in GTC7 in the first points race.

The second points race was equally demanding.

The conditions continued to test both driver and car, and Ann did not feel as comfortable as she had earlier in the weekend. Even so, she continued working through the difficulty rather than allowing it to dictate the race.

The result was another second-place class finish.

Across the three sprint races, Ann earned:

One GTC7 victory
Two GTC7 second-place finishes
A new 1:55.2 personal-best lap

More importantly, the weekend showed that the speed developed through simulator work, preparation, engineering and coaching could be carried into changing conditions and converted into repeatable race results.

Rebuilding Rhythm with Thad

While Ann entered the weekend carrying recent Watkins Glen momentum, Thad’s program began from a very different position.

Thad has considerable experience at The Glen, but his return followed an extended break while his car underwent a fresh rebuild. That rebuild followed a major incident at Road Atlanta in 2024, when another car lost control on the back straight and collected Thad’s Porsche, causing significant damage to the passenger side.

Thad Berger drives his No. 60 Porsche through the Bus Stop chicane at Watkins Glen International. — Thad Berger drives the No. 60 Porsche through Watkins Glen’s high-speed Bus Stop chicane during the PCA Club Racing weekend.

Before arriving at Watkins Glen with Racer on Rails, he had completed only one shakedown weekend with another team.

The familiarity with the circuit was still there.

The immediate trust in the rebuilt car was not.

We began the weekend with a baseline setup and then worked methodically through a series of changes intended to give Thad a car that responded the way he expected.

That process became an important driver-development exercise.

Thad is an experienced racer with significant seat time, but much of that experience had been instinctive. He had not previously spent as much time developing the language needed to describe the car’s behavior, identify what he wanted changed and anticipate how a particular adjustment should affect the platform.

After every session, we separated the conversation into two connected areas.

First, we reviewed the driving itself: lap strategy, execution, traffic management and the places where Thad could make better use of the car.

Then, we discussed the car.

We worked to identify what he was feeling, what he was asking the chassis to do and which adjustments could help the platform better support those instincts.

Before making each change, we talked through the expected effect. When Thad returned from the next session, he could confirm whether he felt what we had anticipated.

That feedback loop allowed him to connect a mechanical adjustment to the sensation behind the wheel.

It also gave the team increasingly precise information to work with.

Building Pace Through Understanding

With each session, Thad’s understanding of the car improved.

As his confidence in the platform grew, so did his confidence in his own feedback. He became more decisive when describing the car, more deliberate in his requests and more comfortable pushing once the setup began responding as expected.

The progress accelerated quickly.

By the later sessions, Thad was not simply setting personal-best laps. He was doing it while managing traffic, racing other cars and completing passes.

That combination of improving pace, racecraft and consistency became especially valuable in the two points races.

Despite qualifying several positions behind where he would eventually finish, Thad raced his way forward to third in class in both races.

Across the two contests, he completed a combined six in-class passes, earning two hard-fought podium finishes.

For a driver returning after a long interruption and adapting to a freshly rebuilt car, those results represented much more than two trophies.

They demonstrated what can happen when experience, engineering feedback and a structured development process begin working together.

Finding the Limit

The confidence built throughout the weekend carried directly into Sunday’s enduro.

As Thad became increasingly comfortable with the car, he began pushing harder than he had at any earlier point in the weekend.

While attacking Turn 8, he found the limit and spun the car.

After the spin, the Porsche would not restart, bringing the enduro to an early conclusion. It was not the ending anyone planned, but it was also not a reason to discount the progress that came before it.

Ian immediately began investigating the no-start condition and identified the cause within a couple of hours. With replacement parts on the way, the car should be repaired and ready for its upcoming International GT and Trans Am weekend.

Thad Berger races his No. 60 Porsche through the Watkins Glen Bus Stop between other competitors. — Thad Berger navigates the Watkins Glen Bus Stop in traffic during the PCA Club Racing weekend.

The spin was another piece of information.

Thad had started the weekend rebuilding trust in a freshly rebuilt car. By Sunday, he had become comfortable enough to push beyond where he had previously been willing to go.

Finding the limit is part of racing.

Sometimes that lesson arrives through a faster lap. Sometimes it arrives through a moment that creates a new problem for the crew to solve. Either way, it establishes the next step in the development process.

Thad returned from a lengthy hiatus, improved with every session, developed a stronger understanding of both the car and his own feedback, completed six in-class passes and earned podium finishes in both points races.

By Sunday, he was no longer searching for confidence.

He was using it.

Two Drivers, One Development Process

Ann and Thad arrived at Watkins Glen from very different starting points.

Ann carried momentum from her recent SCCA podium and used it to attack the weekend immediately. She set new personal bests, won Friday’s race and added two second-place finishes in the points races.

Thad arrived needing to rebuild rhythm and trust after time away from the car. Through a methodical process of setup changes, feedback and coaching, he rediscovered his pace and converted that progress into two podium finishes of his own.

Racer on Rails team with Ann Doherty, Thad Berger, their Porsche race cars and podium trophies at Watkins Glen. — From left: Ann Doherty, Jordan Allen, Pippa Mann, Tyler Campbell, Ian Anderson and Thad Berger with Ann’s and Thad’s Porsche race cars and their Watkins Glen podium trophies.

Between them, the Racer on Rails drivers earned:

One GTC7 victory
Two GTC7 second-place finishes
Two class third-place finishes
Six in-class passes for Thad
A new 1:55.2 personal best for Ann

Jordan Allen and Ian Anderson kept both cars supported through a demanding weekend, while the combined engineering and coaching effort from Tyler Campbell and Pippa Mann helped turn driver feedback into measurable progress.

There were trophies, personal-best laps and plenty of close racing.

But the most important result was the confidence built across both programs.

At a place as fast and demanding as Watkins Glen, confidence is not simply a feeling.

It is performance.

Posted on July 13, 2026July 13, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Racer on Rails at Portland: Heat, Heart, PRO3 Lessons, and Runoffs Testing at The Dash for Kids

Ron Tanumera driving through the PIR festival chicane in the Racer on Rails BMW PRO3 race car.

Portland International Raceway has a way of making club racing feel bigger than the lap chart.

Maybe it is the setting. PIR sits inside Delta Park in North Portland, tucked into one of the more unique pieces of motorsport geography in the country. Long before it became a racetrack, the land was Vanport, a wartime city built to house Kaiser shipyard workers during World War II. At its peak, Vanport was home to nearly 40,000 people and was the second-largest city in Oregon. In 1948, the city was destroyed by flooding. Years later, the remaining street grid helped form the bones of what would eventually become Portland International Raceway, with the first Rose Cup race held in 1961.

That history matters. PIR is not just another track carved into an empty field. It is a public park, a community gathering place, and one of the great regional motorsports homes in the Pacific Northwest. It is flat, fast in places, technical in others, and just awkward enough to reward drivers who can get the car rotated, settled, and back to power without wasting motion.

For this weekend, Racer on Rails returned to PIR with Cascade Sports Car Club for an ICSCC Conference race weekend, The Dash for Kids XLII.

For anyone newer to Northwest club racing, ICSCC, often simply called “Conference,” is the International Conference of Sports Car Clubs. Founded in 1957, it is an association of independent sports car clubs across Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and it remains one of the core regional racing structures in the Pacific Northwest. One of the things that makes Conference special is that it is very much club-powered. Drivers are represented through their member clubs, and those clubs participate in the governance of the series. It creates a regional racing culture that feels practical, involved, and very connected to the people actually building, towing, fixing, flagging, and racing the cars.

Cascade Sports Car Club is one of those foundational clubs. Cascade began in 1953 as the 4-Cylinder Sports Car Club of Oregon, changed its name to Cascade in 1956, and has grown into a club with a year-round schedule that includes track days, driver education, road racing, rallies, and volunteer support for major events at PIR.

The Dash for Kids is one of Cascade’s signature weekends. It blends Conference championship road racing with a community charity event, including race car rides, paddock access, family activities, and fundraising for local organizations. The 2026 event marked the 42nd running of The Dash, with race car rides offered during lunch on Saturday and Sunday for donations to the charity.

That meant this weekend had two lanes of purpose for us.

One lane was competition and development.

The other was community.

And, by the end of the weekend, we got a full serving of both.

The Racer on Rails Plan

Originally, we expected to have three drivers on the weekend but one driver had to bow out last minute which left us with two primary competition programs. The silver lining was that open third slot gave us an opportunity to bring out the Racer on Rails #136 Spec E46 race car to give some lunch time charity rides! Can’t complain about that!

For Ron, the goal was not results-first. The goal was development-first.

Ron’s larger arc this season has been about building the kind of adaptable driving skill that transfers across platforms. He has driven Spec E46, the Porsche Cayman GT4, Spec Racer Ford 3, and now PRO3. The long-term objective is not simply to be fast in one car. It is to become the kind of driver who could step into an endurance team environment and be trusted: aware, consistent, confident, mechanically sympathetic, and able to keep the car in a competitive window.

That is a very different target than chasing a single lap time.

PRO3 is an excellent tool for that kind of work.

The class began in the Pacific Northwest in 2002, growing out of a group of BMW E30 racers and friends connected to the Puget Sound BMW CCA scene. It has since become one of the strongest amateur racing classes in ICSCC, the PNW, West Coast and if the group raced nationally, it would be one of the largest racing classes at any weekend, with large grids and deep competition.

It also has a very specific personality. People often casually describe PRO3 as a spec class, and while the rules are restrictive, it is better understood as a tightly controlled, Improved Touring-based formula. The cars are BMW E30 325i chassis with stock M20B25 engines, controlled tires, and rules designed to keep the emphasis closer to the driver ability end of the spectrum rather than spending or exotic development.

More importantly, they are analog. No ABS. No traction control. No stability control. Many cars run without power steering. The braking window is narrow, the tires are easy to over-ask, and the car will absolutely tell on you if your inputs are sloppy. That makes PRO3 one of the best classrooms in Northwest racing.

John Hoolihan and Ron Tanemura demonstrating just how analog the PRO3 race cars - locking up going into T1 at PIR. — John Hoolihan and Ron Tanumera demonstrating just how analog the PRO3 race cars – locking up going into T1 at PIR.
(C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

It is also where Gama started racing, and that matters. We have seen it again and again: drivers who can run at the front in PRO3 tend to carry that skill into almost anything else they drive. It teaches commitment, car control, racecraft, mechanical sympathy, and humility. The car is not going to save you. You have to do the work.

For Gama and the 370Z, the weekend had a different purpose. This was a test event for the SCCA Runoffs at Road America later in the year. On paper, PIR and Road America do not look like twins. Road America is longer, faster, and more dramatic, with far more elevation change. But from a setup and systems-testing perspective, PIR still gives us useful information.

Gama Aguilar bombing through the PIR Festival Chicane in his 2011 Nissan 370Z Nismo road race car, running in SCCA Touring 3 Specification.
(C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

PIR’s flatness, surface, braking zones, and mechanical-grip demands make it one of the best regional proxies available to us. It would not answer every Road America question, but it could answer some important ones: Do we have real pace? Can the car stay cool? Can we run hard in race conditions? Can we trust the package over a longer stint?

With hot weather forecast in the mid to high 90’s Fahrenheit across the weekend, those questions became even more relevant.

Friday: Promise for the Z, Trouble for the PRO3

Friday test day split into two very different stories.

For the 370Z, the car felt good right away. Track space was limited, and with traffic it was difficult to build a truly representative lap, but the underlying feeling was positive. The plan became straightforward: use Friday to get the car into its window, then put on a new sticker tire set Saturday morning and take two shots at qualifying.

The first shot would come in the morning mini-enduro qualifying session.

The second shot would come in Group 4, where Gama had also entered in ST. Group 4 had faster big-bore traffic, but fewer cars overall. That gave us a better chance of finding the clean air needed to see what the car could really do.

Ron’s Friday was much less tidy.

The PRO3 car developed shifter issues, possibly tied to a deeper transmission issue (Note – We would later confirm the transmission itself was healthy; the shifter issue was the real culprit). Rather than force the car through a compromised test day and risk making things worse, the team made the right call: park it early, diagnose what we had, and prepare to get Ron back on track Saturday.

That kicked off one of those classic club-racing logistics adventures.

Mitchell drove back up to Seattle on Friday evening, grabbed the spare transmission from the shop, and headed back down early Saturday morning. By 7:00 a.m., the team was back under the lift, working to get the transmission into the car and get Ron back in the fight.

No velvet rope. No magic wand. Just people, tools, caffeine, and the quiet soundtrack of “well, this is what racing asks today.”

Saturday Morning: Thrash, Traffic, and One Clean Lap

The team got the PRO3 car back together Saturday morning, but the shifter assembly continued to fight back. It had come loose and was operating strangely enough that even after the transmission swap, there was still work to do.

The good news: the team got it functioning.

The bad news: Ron missed qualifying for both Saturday races.

That meant he would start from the back.

For a driver-development weekend, that is not always a bad thing. It is not convenient. It is not ideal. It definitely makes the day louder. But it gives a driver exactly the kind of work that cannot be simulated cleanly: traffic, starts, passes, imperfect rhythm, and the need to adapt to the car you have rather than the car you wish you had.

Meanwhile, Gama rolled into Saturday morning qualifying on new tires hoping to get a clean representative lap in the 370Z.

That part did not go to plan.

By the time we got to pre-grid, there were already more than 25 cars lined up. The decision was to go to the back and create space, but with 50-plus cars on track, including a large Spec Miata field, there simply was not enough clear racetrack to put the lap together. Then the session ended early due to an incident.

So we waited for Group 4.

This time, the track-space plan finally worked. Fewer cars. Faster traffic. A better rhythm. And then, finally:

1:23.592.

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That lap put Gama P9 overall in Group 4 qualifying and P1 in ST. More importantly, it gave us the first clean signal that the 370Z had real pace in the package.

Was it perfect? No.

There was still time left on the table. Based on feel, predictive timing, and the work Gama and Tyler had done around the car’s potential, the estimate was that a 1:23.2 was likely available in that session. With a cleaner sticker-tire run and a true max-effort qualifying format, the team believes a 1:23.0, and possibly even a 1:22.8, was realistic, even in with temperatures already at 80F by 9am.

But for the goal of the weekend, the message was clear: the car had the nationally competitive pace we expected.

Now we needed to find out if it could survive the heat.

Ron Starts at the Back and Gets to Work

Ron’s Saturday was the kind of day that can turn into a throwaway if the driver lets it.

He did not.

After missing qualifying, he started from the back in Group 2 and worked his way forward to P10 in a 22-car PRO3 field, with a best lap of 1:31.721.

Then he backed it up in Group 5, finishing P5 in CT4 with a best lap of 1:31.210.

That was a big deal.

Not because P10 or P5 are magic numbers by themselves, but because of how he got there. Ron had to adapt after a messy mechanical start to the weekend. He had to race from the back. He had to get close to other cars, work through battles, and keep the car moving forward.

Ron making moves early in the Group 1 PRO3 race, starting from the back. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

This is exactly the kind of growth we wanted from PRO3.

In clean air, drivers can work on lap time. In traffic, they have to work on craft. Portland forced Ron into the craft side of the ledger, and by the end of Saturday he was not just circulating. He was racing people. He was putting the car in places that mattered. He was becoming more comfortable with the car moving around underneath him.

That is the good stuff.

Not shiny, not always obvious from the outside, but very real.

The 370Z Race: Pace Confirmed, Cooling Not Yet Solved

Saturday afternoon, the 370Z lined up for the Group 4 race.

The goal was not necessarily to chase the race result. The goal was to run the car hard in heat and see what we had from a reliability and cooling standpoint.

The afternoon temperatures were already brutal, climbing from around 90 degrees toward the mid-90s as the race went on. That was useful. We are unlikely to see those exact conditions at Road America in early October, but that was the point. If the car could stay cool at full tilt in this environment, we would have a lot more confidence heading into the Runoffs.

Unfortunately, the race showed us that there is still work to do.

Early on, the car was running normally in clean air. Then, after a full course yellow around six or seven laps in, water temperature warnings started to appear. The car was not done, but it was no longer free to race at full attack. Gama had to manage it with lift-and-coast into braking zones, short-shifting around 7,000 rpm, and rolling back into throttle more gently than normal.

That kept the car alive and allowed us to finish, winning ST with a best race lap of 1:24.826.

But the result was not the lesson.

The lesson was that if we had needed to battle hard, defend, attack, or run nose-to-tail for position, we would have been compromised. The pace is there. The car is closer. But the cooling system still needs more margin before Road America.

Gama Aguilar bombing through T1 at Portland International Raceway in his Nissan 370Z Nismo. — Gama Aguilar bombing through T1 at Portland International Raceways in his Nissan 370Z Nismo. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

That was valuable information.

We had also entered the one-hour mini enduro, which would have been the closest proxy for the 45-minute Runoffs race distance. But with the car already showing heat-management limits, and with the afternoon only getting hotter, there was no reason to keep poking the dragon with a torque wrench.

We had learned what we needed to learn.

The team made the call to park the car for the rest of the weekend. The official results show the 370Z as a DNS for the mini enduro, which was exactly the right decision.

Sometimes the smartest lap is the one you do not run.

Sunday Morning: Ron Finds Another Gear

Sunday morning was Ron’s chance to reset.

The car was back. The conditions were better than they would be later in the day. The goal was to make the most of the cooler track before the heat came in.

Ron got after it.

In Group 2 qualifying, he dropped into the 1:30s with a 1:30.946, good for P11 in PRO3.

Then, in Group 5 qualifying, he put together a 1:30.554 and qualified P1 in CT4.

Pole position. 💪🏾

The first pole position of Ron’s driving career. Let’s go!!!

Ron getting after it through the festival chicane. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

That moment deserves to breathe a little.

Ron’s weekend started with the car parked early, a transmission run to Seattle, a Saturday morning thrash, missed qualifying, and back-of-grid starts. By Sunday morning, he had settled himself, kept building, and put the car at the top of the CT4 sheet.

That is not just pace. That is resilience.

And in a PRO3-based car, it means something. These cars do not give you lap time for free. You have to ask the right questions with your hands, feet, eyes, and timing, then listen carefully when the car answers back.

Ron was getting more comfortable throwing the car around. More comfortable letting it move. More comfortable staying in the fight when the environment got messy.

That is the development arc.

Sunday Afternoon: Racing in the Skillet

By Sunday afternoon, PIR was hot.

Very hot.

Air temperatures were deep into the 90s, with track temperatures well above 130 degrees. No one was expecting record pace in those conditions. This was about execution, racecraft, and keeping the car underneath you while everyone else was dealing with the same greasy, overheated racetrack.

In the Group 2 PRO3 race, Ron had challengers all around him. That is what happens when you start to make your presence known. People race you differently. They expect you to be there. They fight harder.

Not an inch to give in PRO3 racing, little mistakes have big time costs. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

Ron started in position, battled early, and kept working through the race. He got past the group he had been racing with the day before and finished P8 in PRO3, only a couple of seconds behind the next cluster of cars up the road. His best lap was a 1:31.354 in the heat.

P8 in PRO3 is nothing to sneeze at.

That mid-pack and front-mid-pack zone in PRO3 is filled with serious drivers. In a class that deep, moving from “learning the car” into “competing with the pack” is a meaningful step.

Then came the Group 5 CT4 race.

Starting from pole, Ron got mugged at the start and had to fight for the rest of the race with Payden Baxter and Matthew King. It turned into exactly the kind of race he needs more of: pressure, passing, defending, imperfect lines, and decisions that had to be made quickly.

He finished P3, on the podium, with a best lap of 1:31.164. That was barely off his Saturday CT4 race pace and impressively close to his cooler-session qualifying benchmark, considering the heat.

Mega.

A first pole. A podium. A P8 in PRO3. A weekend that began with mechanical drama and ended with real signs of competitive belonging.

Awesome work, Ron.

More Than Lap Time

The biggest thing from Ron’s weekend is that the progress was not just numerical.

Yes, the lap times improved. Yes, the results got better. Yes, he put the car on pole in CT4 and ended the weekend with a podium.

But the more important part is that he had to keep the fundamentals alive when the racing got loud around him.

That is one of the hardest transitions for any developing driver. It is one thing to drive well in clean air when the plan is simple. It is another thing to drive well when someone gets alongside, a start gets messy, the car moves underneath you, or a pass does not happen in one corner.

Portland gave Ron a full buffet of those moments.

The next step is making that craft more deliberate and more repeatable. Not just being fast, but being able to access the driving under pressure. Not just getting close to cars, but knowing what to do with that closeness. Not just reacting to a battle, but shaping it.

That is exactly why we wanted him in PRO3.

Dash for Kids: The Other Reason We Were There

While the racing side of the weekend gave us plenty to work through, The Dash for Kids gave the weekend a bigger frame.

During lunch on Saturday and Sunday, racers and teams offered ride-alongs in race cars and exotic cars, with donations going toward the weekend’s charity. Cascade’s format makes the paddock feel open and welcoming, with spectators able to see the cars, talk with drivers and crew, and get a closer look at the machinery that usually flashes by from the other side of the fence.

For Racer on Rails, that meant bringing down the Silver Bullet Spec E46, installing the extra seat, and joining the ride program.

After making the decision to park the 370Z, that actually became a perfect pivot. The competitive work was done. The car had told us what we needed to know. So instead of forcing more laps into worsening heat, we cooled down, reset, and had fun giving people rides around PIR.

That is a good race weekend.

Not because every plan worked perfectly. It did not.

Because the weekend gave us the right answers.

The 370Z showed pace, then showed us the next engineering problem. Ron got hit with mechanical adversity, then turned the weekend into one of his strongest development steps of the year. The team handled a transmission swap, shifter issues, hot conditions, traffic, race starts, and charity rides.

That is club racing in full color.

Final Takeaways

For Gama and the 370Z, Portland confirmed that the car has real speed. The 1:23.592 in Group 4 qualifying was the cleanest read of the weekend, and the team believes there is more available with a true max-effort qualifying format and cleaner track space. But the race also confirmed that cooling remains a priority before Road America. The car can run. The car has pace. Now it needs more thermal margin.

For Ron, Portland was a major step.

He missed Saturday qualifying, started from the back, raced forward, kept improving, put the car on pole for the first time in his driving career, finished P8 in a very competitive PRO3 field, and ended the weekend with a CT4 podium.

More importantly, he became a little more of the driver he is working to become.

Adaptable. Confident. Aware. Comfortable in the fight.

That is what we came for.

And with The Dash for Kids wrapping the weekend in community, ride-alongs, family energy, and a reminder that racing can be both serious and generous, Portland gave us exactly the kind of weekend that sticks around after the trailer doors close.

Goals. Smiles. Memories.

That one checks all three.

Posted on June 8, 2026June 2, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Portland Hoosier Super Tour Recap: Setup Windows, Mental Unlocks, and a T3 Weekend Sweep

Racer on Rails Nissan 370Z leading a mixed Touring 3 race group through Portland International Raceway during the Oregon SCCA Hoosier Super Tour. — Gama Aguilar-Gamez leads the Touring 3 field in the Racer on Rails Nissan 370Z during the Oregon SCCA Hoosier Super Tour at Portland International Raceway.

The SCCA Hoosier Super Tour is one of the biggest stages in amateur road racing. It is where regional racers, national contenders, Runoffs hopefuls, longtime club racers, and professionally prepared teams all end up in the same paddock, chasing the same thing: speed that holds up when the stopwatch and the field both get serious.

For Racer on Rails, weekends like this matter because they are more than another race on the calendar. They are measuring sticks. They show where the cars are, where the drivers are, where the team is operating well, and where the next layer of performance is hiding.

This round brought us back to Portland International Raceway for the Oregon SCCA Hoosier Super Tour. PIR is a uniquely Northwest kind of racetrack. It sits inside a major city, close to the Columbia River, built on land with real history, surrounded by trees, planes, cyclists, and the strange calm of a public park that also happens to host serious race cars. It is one of those places that feels easy until you try to be fast there.

On paper, Portland looks simple. It is flat, relatively short, and does not have the obvious “monster corner” personality of a place like Road America, Thunderhill, or Sonoma. But that is exactly the trap. PIR asks for precision everywhere. The lap is full of medium-speed commitment, heavy braking moments, curb usage, track-out discipline, and small setup decisions that either build confidence or quietly steal time every lap. If the car is not underneath you, the track exposes it. If the driver is not fully committed, the stopwatch tattles immediately.

Racer on Rails Nissan 370Z Touring 3 race car driving over the curbing at Portland International Raceway with race traffic behind. | (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics — The Portland chicane rewards commitment, curb confidence, and a car that stays predictable under braking and turn-in. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

Our weekend lineup had a little bit of everything.

Chris Johnson was back in his Spec E46 in Touring 3 for the first time since last July. Gama Aguilar was in the Nissan 370Z, also in Touring 3, continuing the development push from Thunderhill. Beef Wellington brought out his Touring 2 BMW M240iR. And while Ron Tanemura was not technically in one of our cars, he was still part of the broader Racer on Rails driver development program, racing a Spec Racer Ford Gen3 with Flat Out Racing and continuing to work with Tyler through our coaching services.

Different cars. Different goals. Same weekend. Same stopwatch.

Chris Johnson: Back in the Saddle, Then Fully Lit

Chris started the weekend exactly where you might expect after nearly a year away from the car: knocking the dust off.

The Spec E46 was on older tires, Chris was rebuilding rhythm, and the first part of the test day was about getting reconnected with the car. Braking points. Corner entries. Trust. References. The little internal checklist every driver has to rebuild after time away.

Chris Johnson driving the blue Racer on Rails BMW Spec E46 Touring 3 race car through Portland International Raceway with race traffic close behind. — Chris Johnson returned to the seat of his Spec E46 in Touring 3 and spent the weekend rebuilding rhythm, confidence, and pace. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

By the end of the first test day, though, the fog was clearing. Even as the track got hotter and conditions worsened, Chris started closing back in on his personal best lap times. That was the first sign that the speed had not gone anywhere. It was still there, sitting under the surface, waiting for him to believe it was available again.

The next day, we had one of those conversations that matters more than a shock adjustment or tire pressure change.

Chris was talking through what he was feeling in the car, but underneath the words were a few limiting thoughts. Not excuses. Not weakness. Just the normal stuff drivers tell themselves when confidence is still a lap or two behind capability.

The conversation was about the things we tell ourselves. What we accept as true. What we assume is possible. What we decide is “about where we are” before the car and the data have actually said that.

Something clicked.

In Saturday’s race, Chris came alive. He got pulled into a tight battle with a few out-of-class cars that were absolutely flying, and that extra competitive energy did exactly what a good race battle should do. It sharpened him. It pulled his eyes forward. It made him stop driving the idea of the lap and start racing the car in front of him.

The result was a major unlock. Chris knocked roughly a second from his previous bests and started driving with the kind of intent we knew was still there.

Sunday morning, he was determined to prove Saturday was not a one-off. He wanted to build on the confidence instead of simply enjoy the memory of it.

He did.

Blue Racer on Rails BMW Spec E46 Touring 3 race car using the curbing at Portland International Raceway during the Oregon SCCA Hoosier Super Tour. — By Sunday, Chris was driving with more commitment and using the confidence from Saturday’s race to unlock another step forward. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

In Race 2, Chris carried the lessons forward. He cleared the cars he had been battling with on Saturday and found himself racing farther up the field, with new competition and a new target. That is always one of the best signs in driver development: yesterday’s mountain becomes today’s baseline.

The wild part? He did all of this while nursing an engine that had given us a scare on Friday. Chris had an over-rev, followed by white smoke out the tailpipe. Jordan kept a close eye on the car for the rest of the weekend, and thankfully it made it through without getting worse.

So yes, Chris had a big weekend on the stopwatch. But the bigger unlock was mental. This was a driver remembering that confidence is not something you wait around to receive. Sometimes you have to go take a bite out of the lap and let the confidence catch up.

Chris Johnson driving the blue Racer on Rails BMW Spec E46 Touring 3 race car ahead of race traffic at Portland International Raceway. — Chris found himself racing harder, cleaner, and farther up the field as the weekend progressed. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

Beef Wellington: A Short Weekend, But the Right Call

Beef’s weekend ended earlier than anyone wanted.

The BMW M240iR had a solid shakedown at Pacific Raceways the week before, so we came into Portland expecting to continue learning the car and building momentum. Instead, the car started overheating after only four or five flying laps.

At first, it looked like the usual race-car mystery novel: temperatures okay, then suddenly not okay. The car would run fine, then start building too much coolant pressure and blow through the expansion tank valve.

The team worked through the problem methodically. Cooling system. Pressure behavior. Failure pattern. Repeatability. The ugly little clues all started pointing in the same direction.

Head gasket.

Mega bummer.

That is never the way we want a weekend to end, especially with a new-to-him but still used/junkyard engine. But there is a version of this story that is much worse. We caught it before destroying the whole engine, avoided turning a repair into a full-scale catastrophe, and got the car pointed toward the work needed before June Sprints at Road America later in the month.

Sometimes race weekends are about trophies. Sometimes they are about knowing when to stop digging.

This was the right call. Not fun. Not glamorous. But right.

Ron Tanemura: Expanding the Driving Toolbox

Ron’s Portland weekend had a different purpose.

He was in a Spec Racer Ford Gen3 rental with Flat Out Racing, while continuing to work with Tyler as part of the Racer on Rails coaching program. The goal was not simply to jump in a new car and chase a number. The goal was to expand his driving range.

That matters.

Ron has been intentionally building a broader driving education. Different platforms. Different sensations. Different demands. The SRF3 is a very different animal from a BMW sedan. It is lighter, more direct, more exposed, and less forgiving of half-commitment. It wants clearer inputs. It rewards decisiveness. It asks the driver to be comfortable with the car moving underneath them.

Ron Tanemura driving a black Spec Racer Ford Gen3 through Portland International Raceway during an SCCA race weekend. — Ron Tanemura used the Spec Racer Ford Gen3 weekend to expand his driving range and build a new real-car baseline. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

For Ron, the weekend established something important: racing the SRF3 is viable for him. He handled the starts well, showed good awareness, avoided major self-inflicted issues, and built a baseline he can come back to.

The next layer is not secret. It is also not simple.

It is about closing the gap between understanding and execution. Ron has done real work in the sim. He knows a lot of the “recipe” for the car and track. But the real car adds sensation, consequence, tire feel, traffic, imperfect references, and the pressure of being around other drivers. That gap between knowing and doing is where driver development actually lives.

The coaching takeaway was clear: more commitment, more decisive brake release, clearer throttle discipline, more willingness to let the car rotate, and more assertive racecraft once the race settles in.

That is exactly why this was a valuable weekend. Ron did not just collect laps. He collected a sharper understanding of what the next phase of work needs to be.

Black Spec Racer Ford Gen3 race car speeding past the Portland International Raceway front straight during an SCCA race weekend. — A new car, a new rhythm, and another layer in Ron’s broader driver development plan. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

And that is the whole point of a driver development plan. Not every weekend is supposed to be a finished product. Some weekends are supposed to reveal the next door.

Gama Aguilar: Engineering the Window

For Gama and the Nissan 370Z, Portland was about building on the lessons from Thunderhill.

At Thunderhill, we had speed, but we were still fighting the car. The Z had pace in flashes, but it was not yet living in a consistent, repeatable window. Under braking and turn-in, the car still had moments where it felt like it was asking for trust without giving enough trust back.

Before Portland, Ian spent a full week digging into the chassis, working through an engineering workbook, checking assumptions, and giving the car the kind of measured attention that separates guessing from development. We are not going to give away every detail of what we found, but the big picture was clear: there was systemic pace hiding in the car.

That was the unlock.

This was not about finding one magic adjustment or chasing a one-lap setup. It was about understanding the car at a deeper level, getting it into a healthier operating window, and creating a foundation we could actually build on across a full weekend.

From there, we reset the approach. The chassis setup moved in a better direction. The car became more predictable. We switched to nitrogen in the tires, including multiple purge cycles to reduce the influence of air and moisture. Then we started fresh on understanding pressure build, temperature behavior, and how to keep the tire in a usable window from the first hard lap to the last.

That became the real work of the weekend.

Not “what makes one fast lap?” but “what makes the car fast, repeatable, and trustworthy every time we lean on it?”

By Friday, the difference was obvious. For the first time ever in the 370Z, we could push the car hard every session and have it respond the same way. The car was no longer giving us a narrow little keyhole of performance. It gave us a window. And once we had a window, we could finally start doing real race-car work.

That is a big deal.

The official Race 1 time cards showed the progress starting to show up on paper, with the #109 370Z quickly moving from a 1:26.946 opening lap into a 1:24.759, then a 1:24.526, then a 1:24.701. More important than the single lap was the shape of the run. The car stayed in the window. The laps stayed usable. The team finally had a platform we could tune instead of survive.

By the race weekend, we were fine-tuning instead of firefighting.

The result was an easy Touring 3 pole, a Saturday T3 win, and then another T3 win on Sunday to complete the weekend sweep.

Saturday was not without drama. At the start, there was unnecessary contact with the STU pole sitter that could have ended the race before it properly got going. Thankfully, the Apex forged wheel took an absurd hit and somehow held on. The car survived, the tire held, and we were able to finish.

Racer on Rails Nissan 370Z leading a tight pack of race cars through the Portland International Raceway chicane during the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour. — Saturday’s race had contact, traffic, and plenty of chicane chaos, but the 370Z stayed together and brought home the Touring 3 win. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

On Sunday, we replaced the damaged wheel and tire, put our heads down, and went for a maximum race-pace push.

That was the most encouraging part of the weekend. Not just winning. Not just getting through the races. But seeing that the car had pace in conditions that were not perfect. The overcast morning cloud cover had burned off by the time our Sunday race started, the track was warmer, and the car still had the ability to push toward the kind of pace we have seen from some of the strongest Touring 3 drivers at this event in prior years.

Gama Aguilar-Gamez driving the Racer on Rails Nissan 370Z Touring 3 race car through Portland International Raceway with a Spec MX-5 behind. — The weekend’s biggest win was not just the result. It was finally having a 370Z that could be leaned on lap after lap. (C) 2025 Doug Berger | DBPics

That is the good stuff.

The kind of weekend where the notebook matters as much as the trophy.

The Team Behind the Weekend

Like most race weekends, Portland had its share of curveballs.

Jordan’s personal car broke down on the way to Portland. Beef’s M240iR tried to turn Friday into a cooling system crime scene. Chris’s Spec E46 had to be monitored all weekend after an over-rev and smoke. The Z needed continued tuning and then a wheel/tire change after race contact.

None of that is unusual in racing. That is the job.

What mattered was how the team responded.

Ian’s engineering work before the event gave the Z a new foundation. Jordan kept Chris’s car alive and monitored. Tyler continued guiding drivers through both technical and mental development. The crew absorbed the chaos, kept working the problems, and moved the weekend forward.

That is what we want Racer on Rails to be.

Not just a shop that brings cars to the track. A team that develops cars, develops drivers, solves problems, and helps people leave the weekend with better tools than they arrived with.

Portland gave us a lot.

A Touring 3 weekend sweep for the 370Z. A major mental unlock for Chris. A hard but smart diagnostic call on Beef’s BMW. A valuable SRF3 baseline for Ron. A stronger engineering process for the team. And a reminder that race weekends are rarely clean, but they can still be deeply productive.

We left Portland feeling like the whole program moved forward.

Goals. Smiles. Memories. LFG.

Posted on June 4, 2026June 2, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

SCCA US Majors Tour – Thunderhill 2026 – The Last Stop South

Racer on Rails paddock'ed at Thunderhill Raceway Park

In late April, we wrapped up the final stop of our early-season West Coast racing trip with the 2026 SCCA U.S. Majors Tour at Thunderhill Raceway Park.

This trip started in February at Buttonwillow’s new “The Circuit” layout, continued through a NASA NorCal weekend at Sonoma Raceway, and finished at Thunderhill before the cars, hauler, and team made the long drive back to the Pacific Northwest.

For anyone newer to club racing, the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour is one of the national-level competition paths within the Sports Car Club of America. It brings together strong regional and national drivers, gives racers a chance to measure themselves against deeper fields, and, for many drivers, forms part of the path toward the SCCA National Championship Runoffs.

Thunderhill is always a fun place to end a trip like this. It has elevation, fast commitment corners, technical braking zones, and enough rhythm changes to keep a driver honest. For this event, we ran the Crows Nest configuration, which adds its own personality to the lap and rewards drivers who can stay patient, committed, and precise.

For Racer on Rails, this weekend had two main drivers:

Gama Aguilar-Gamez in the No. 109 Nissan 370Z, competing in Touring 3

Ron Tanemura in his BMW Spec E46, competing in Touring 3 and STU

On paper, it was another race weekend. In reality, it was exactly the kind of weekend that shows why we love this sport so much. There were clear goals, real progress, hard-earned smiles, and a few memories that will probably get retold in the paddock for a long time.

Why We Were There

Every driver came into Thunderhill with a different mission.

For Gama, the weekend was an important step in the 2026 Runoffs journey. To qualify for the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, drivers need to complete the required number of race weekends and race finishes. After completing two races earlier in the season, Thunderhill became a critical opportunity to add two more finishes and move much closer to locking in the qualification path.

Ron Tanemura never stops looking for opportunity!

But the weekend was not just about checking a box.

The 370Z is still a car we are actively developing. It has shown strong pace, but like most serious race cars, especially one being pushed toward national competitiveness, the work is never really finished. Reliability, braking behavior, tire temperature, chassis balance, setup range, and driver confidence all remain part of the larger development puzzle.

For Ron, the goal was different but just as important.

Ron’s bigger mission this year is driver development. Not just getting faster in one car, at one track, in one situation, but becoming more adaptable, more trusted, and more complete as a driver.

A big part of that is variety. Different tracks. Different race groups. Different cars around him. Different levels of pressure. The long-term target is for him to be the kind of driver who can step into different racing environments, learn quickly, run cleanly, stay close enough on pace, and be trusted by the people around him.

That does not happen by accident.

It happens by putting yourself in new situations, then doing the work to understand them. It happens by learning how to drive a car when it moves around underneath you. It happens by getting comfortable being uncomfortable.

Thunderhill gave Ron exactly that kind of opportunity.

Ron’s Weekend: Raising the Baseline

Ron came into Thunderhill with a very clear goal: build on last year, get more comfortable with the car moving underneath him, and leave with a higher baseline as a driver.

That is one of the things we love about working with Ron. He is not just chasing a result. He is actively working on his craft. He pays attention to what the car is doing, what he is doing, and where the next layer of performance might be hiding.

Thunderhill gave him a perfect environment for that.

Last year, Ron’s best lap at Thunderhill was a 2:06.24. This year, he came close with a 2:06.46. On paper, that means he did not beat his previous personal best. But the timing sheet does not tell the full story.

The bigger win was consistency.

Last year, Ron had one lap in the 2:06 range, one lap in the low 2:07 range, and a handful of laps in the 2:08s. This year, he had five laps in the 2:06s, eight laps in the 2:07s, and seventeen laps in the 2:08s.

That matters.

A single fast lap is fun. A higher baseline is progress.

Ron’s own takeaway from the weekend was that he did not feel quite as “on it” as he did at Sonoma, but he was close enough to feel like his pace is becoming more real and more repeatable. That is exactly the kind of step we want to see from a developing driver.

The biggest learning was around car control.

Post session – getting that Chequered flag for Ron!

When Ron was faster, the car was moving. It was rotating. He was catching it, correcting it, and working with it instead of waiting for the car to feel perfectly settled. During Friday testing, especially in the later sessions, he started getting more comfortable with that feeling. The next challenge is learning how to access that level of commitment earlier in a session, instead of needing several laps to build into it.

That became one of his biggest themes from the weekend: push earlier, trust the car sooner, and learn to drive closer to the limit on demand.

Saturday showed that progress.

In his first Touring 3 qualifying session, Ron was quick and consistent, including a run of laps in the 2:06s before the session ended. Later, in his second qualifying session, he was fast immediately after the restart, showing that the pace was starting to become easier to access.

The races gave him a different kind of experience.

In Touring 3, Ron finished second in class. It was a solid result, but he did not have as much direct class competition around him as he would have liked. At Sonoma, he had more sustained battles, and Thunderhill was a little quieter in that regard.

But the weekend still gave him valuable race craft notes.

He worked on starts. He worked on positioning. He got reminders about following closer before the green, not over-defending Turn 1 when there is an opportunity to open the gap, and using commitment through fast corners to set up passing opportunities later in the lap.

Then Sunday threw the team a curveball.

During Touring 3 qualifying, Ron quickly realized he had lost fourth gear. The transmission needed to be replaced, and the clock was not exactly being generous.

Thankfully, we had a spare transmission available.

The team looked at the schedule and knew it was going to be tight, but there was still a chance to get Ron back out for the STU race later that afternoon.

There was also something special waiting at the end.

At SCCA Majors events, class winners often receive more than a trophy. This event was hosted by the San Francisco Region, and the class-win flags were a cool keepsake from the weekend.

So we made the call: let’s get Ron that flag.

The team jumped on the transmission swap, got the car buttoned up, warmed up, checked over, and ready. Ron made it to the race.

And he delivered.

He finished third overall in Group 2, won STU, and brought home the flag.

But the real story was not just the flag. It was the full arc of the weekend: clear goals, honest self-assessment, measurable progress, a mechanical setback, a team thrash, and one more chance to go race.

That is the kind of weekend that builds a driver.

Gama’s Weekend: Runoffs Progress and More 370Z Development

For Gama, Thunderhill was about two things: continuing the Runoffs qualification path and continuing to develop the No. 109 Nissan 370Z into a nationally competitive Touring 3 car.

This was only the second full race weekend of the season for the Z, and we came in with some important new learning.

Before the event, Tyler spent time with our partners at Motion Control Suspension to better understand the internal behavior, adjustment range, and service considerations of our three-way dampers with external reservoirs. The details matter, and we came away with more tools in our toolbelt that have helped us start fine tuning the car’s behavior.

For a car like the 370Z, which has shown both pace and some sensitivity around braking behavior and tire temperature management, that kind of learning matters. We have been trying to understand how to make the car more compliant, more consistent, and easier to extract speed from over a full race distance.

Ian Anderson getting the tire pressures dialed in before a session

The goal was not to find one magic adjustment. Race cars rarely work that way.

The goal was to understand the platform better, continue chipping away at reliability concerns, give the driver a car that communicates more clearly, and keep moving the program forward with discipline.

That is the unglamorous part of race car development. It is not always fireworks. Sometimes it is pressure checks, damper notes, tire readings, brake feel, driver feedback, and the quiet little decisions that add up to real progress.

Thunderhill gave us more of that.

On Saturday, Gama finished fifth overall in Group 1 and first in Touring 3, with a best lap of 2:02.789. That result mattered for the points and the Runoffs path, but it also showed that the 370Z had real speed in the class.

On Sunday, the priority was clear: finish the race, keep stacking Runoffs qualification progress, and bring the car home. Gama finished fourth overall and again first in Touring 3, adding another strong finish to the season.

That's another P1 sweep of a race weekend for Ian, Gama, and the Nissan 370z in SCCA Touring 3 — That’s another P1 sweep of a race weekend for Ian, Gama, and the Nissan 370z in SCCA Touring 3

Just as importantly, the weekend helped validate some of the direction we are taking with the chassis. The car became easier to work with, more predictable, and more useful as a development platform.

For Gama’s season, the biggest objective was to continue stacking the race finishes needed for Runoffs qualification. In that sense, the weekend did exactly what it needed to do.

For the car, it gave us more data.

It’s not all roses and daisies when chasing speed. Sometimes you find yourself in the grass…

For the driver, it gave more confidence.

For the team, it gave another reminder that the path to national-level competitiveness is built one weekend, one session, and one decision at a time.

The Bigger Picture

The easy version of a race recap is to talk about qualifying positions, lap times, race results, and trophies.

Those things matter. We care about them. We work hard for them.

But the best weekends usually have another layer.

Ron’s weekend was a perfect example. He hit the goals he came in with, but still left wanting more. That is a good place to be. He raised his baseline, got more comfortable with the car moving, built more race craft notes, identified where the next step is, and still came home with a class win flag after the team thrashed to get him back on track.

Gama’s weekend was different, but connected. The 370Z program took another step forward, the Runoffs path became more achievable, and we continued learning how to get more out of the platform without losing sight of reliability and drivability.

That is the heart of what Racer on Rails is becoming.

Yes, we prepare race cars. Yes, we support race weekends. Yes, we care deeply about setup, reliability, data, execution, and all the thousand little details that make a race car work.

But ultimately, we are here to help drivers become better drivers.

Sometimes that means building a faster car. Sometimes that means making a car easier to trust. Sometimes that means helping a driver understand what they are feeling. Sometimes that means creating the right environment for a driver to stretch, learn, and come back wanting more.

We want to help people set goals that matter to them, whether that is winning a national championship, earning a Runoffs invite, becoming more comfortable with car control, developing race craft, or simply leaving the track knowing they took a real step forward.

That is why weekends like Thunderhill matter.

P1 both races in SCCA Touring 3 and collecting some hardware before the weather rolled in!

The cars came back north to the Pacific Northwest with more miles on them, more notes in the book, and a few more stories for the paddock. For us, it felt like the right ending to the first chapter of the season.

And for our drivers, it was another reminder that progress in racing rarely arrives as one giant leap.

Most of the time, it shows up as one better corner, one cleaner race, one smarter adjustment, one hard-earned finish, and one flag you almost did not make it back on track to win.

Posted on June 2, 2026June 2, 2026 by Gama Aguilar

Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport Build Overview

(2020 718 GT4 Clubsport – Track Day Edition)

If you’ve followed Racer on Rails for a while, you already know our philosophy: take great cars, make them better, and then drive the hell out of them. This 2020 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport Track Day Edition is the perfect example — a factory-built Porsche Motorsports car with real pedigree and a second life that spans endurance racing, time attack, and driver development.

Before we go deeper, it’s important to understand which Clubsport variant this is, because Porsche built several versions:

718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport Variants

Track Day Edition (This Car)

Designed for private owners and track day use
Same 425 hp 3.8L flat-six as Comp version
Lighter-duty fuel system
No air-jack system (but provisions exist)
Not homologated for GT4 racing

Competition Version (Not This Car)

Fully homologated for GT4 racing
Air-jack system included
Larger motorsport fuel cell
Endurance switches & safety electronics
Homologation restricts power/aero changes
Carbon and natural fiber material body panels

Newer 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport

4.0L RS-based platform
More power, higher RPM ceiling
Improved aero and suspension
The current model used in IMSA/SRO GT4
Much closer to a “mini Cup Car”

Our car — the Track Day Edition — gives us the freedom to pursue more aero, more setup range, and more developmental headroom than the rules-restricted Competition version.

Where This GT4 Clubsport Came From

Photos of the car from its Ann Doherty era after arriving at RoR.

This GT4 Clubsport began its life with Ann Doherty, who ran it competitively in SCCA T1 and GT2 before upgrading to a 991.2 GT3 Cup Car.

Because the car came from Ann, we gained two major benefits:

It had been maintained at a true professional standard.
It had already proven itself at a national competition level.

When she moved to the Cup Car, we took ownership of the GT4 and immediately put it to work.

What We Used It For

1. Endurance Racing (2024)

Bombing down Turn 5 at Road America with World Racing League

The first chapter of this car’s life with us was national-level endurance racing:

WRL Road America — April 2024
Our first outing. Strong pace, great aero learning, and flawless reliability.
ICSCC Cascade 8 Hours of Portland — October 2024
A full-day grind that gave us massive data on tire wear, pit strategy, and aero balance.

The car was consistent, predictable, and incredibly reliable — exactly what you want in an endurance platform.

2. OnGrid Time Attack (2025)

With the Dundon Valkyrie aero package installed, the car moved into OnGrid GT+ and instantly became a serious contender.

Huge downforce. Big mid-corner speed. Better braking stability. It was a transformation.

Check out one of the flying laps from this past summer – matching 992 and 991.2 GT3 Cup car lap times!

3. Driver Development & Testing Tool

This GT4 became one of our strongest tools for:

Advanced driver coaching
Back-to-back setup testing
Tire comparisons
Driver development beyond Spec E46, T3, and regional touring classes

Turnkey speed. Zero drama. Endless data.

Factory Specs — 2020 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport (Track Day Edition)

PHOTO SUGGESTION: Interior cockpit photo or engine bay shot.

Engine & Drivetrain

3.8L naturally aspirated flat-six
425 hp @ 7,500 RPM
7-speed PDK w/ motorsport tuning
Motorsport cooling system
Mechanical LSD

Chassis & Safety

FIA welded cage
Motorsport wiring harness
Composite doors
Fire system
Air-jack provisions (air jack system not currently installed)
Recaro race seat + 6-point harness

Suspension & Brakes

3-way MCS motorsport dampers (upgrade)
Fully adjustable alignment
Porsche Motorsport ABS
Motorsport stability control

Aero

GT4-spec splitter but currently running the full Dundon Motorsports Valkyrie Aero package (front splitter, canards, rear wing)
Adjustable rear wing
Factory Flat floor
Factory cooling and airflow optimization

Our Modifications & Upgrades

Dundon Motorsports Valkyrie Aero Package

Full-length carbon splitter
Functional multi-channel front diffuser
Canards
Swan-neck rear wing
High-efficiency rear diffuser

This fundamentally changes the car’s downforce ceiling and high-speed stability.

Dundon Motorsports Valkyrie Aero front Bumpcer Canards in focus

Data & Electronics

AIM data integration
Radio/comms upgrades

Race Prep & Setup

Multiple alignment profiles
Corner balance for sprint, endurance, and time attack
Dundon headers/exhaust (optional configuration)
Tire mapping across A052, F200, and slicks

Deep Dive: Dundon Valkyrie Aero vs. Porsche Factory vs. Manthey Racing

Porsche Factory GT4 Aero

Designed to be predictable and safe
Built to meet strict GT4 regs
Limited splitter/wing/diffuser scope
Great for consistency but capped on downforce

Manthey Racing Aero

Refined airflow
Cleaner front-end efficiency
Slightly more downforce than OEM
Still constrained by GT4 rulebook

Dundon Valkyrie Aero

Not rule-limited
Significant downforce increase
Real front-end loading under trail braking
Balanced with a serious rear aero package
Center of pressure stability improves with speed

At The Ridge, the difference was dramatic: the car stopped washing out in the T3–T4 transition and gained real front-end authority.

Real-World Lap Time Proof

This wasn’t a pure A/B test — different drivers, power levels, tires, and conditions — but the result is hard to ignore.

June 2023 — Homologated GT4 Aero @ Road America

Hoosier A7 (sprint tire)
Full GT4 power
Lap: 2:25.6

April 2024 — Dundon Aero @ Road America

Yokohama A052 (endurance tire)
WRL power restrictions (¾ intake blocked)
Full endurance fuel levels
Laps: Low 2:24s — consistent

Less power.
Heavier car.
Slower tire.
Faster laps.

Conclusion:

The aero works. It transforms the platform. Check out this video comparison of the Dundon vs Manthay aero on the faster Cayman RS GT4.

What Types of Racing This Car Excels In

Endurance Racing (WRL, AER, ICSCC Enduros, ChampCar Pro)

Ultra-consistent
PDK-friendly
Great tire life
Zero drama across long stints

Time Attack (OnGrid, GTA, SCCA TT)

With Dundon aero?
It’s a legitimate GT+-class weapon.

Sprint Racing (SCCA ST, ICSCC ST/SPO, NASA ST1/ST2)

Great for drivers moving beyond grassroots or regional programs.

Driver Development

One of the best “advanced learning” platforms we’ve ever used.

Interested in Renting or Developing a GT4 Clubsport?

If you’re curious what a Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport can do, we’d love to help.

Want to rent this GT4 Clubsport for a race weekend or time attack?
We offer full arrive-and-drive + coaching.
Already own a GT4 or Porsche race car?
We can help you extract more from the car and yourself with setup, aero, maintenance, and coaching.

Reach out anytime. Let’s build something fast together.