Eric drove fifteen hours from Ohio to Hybrid Racing HQ in Baton Rouge to finish prepping the #82 Civic for the 2026 season. The team heads out next week for Round 1 at Carolina Motorsports Park, April 17-19.
Before they got under the car, we sat down to talk about what's changed this year, what we did to the car, and what it's going to take to Championship Trophy home in 2026.
GLTC Changed the Rules
Two big rule changes for 2026. First, GLTC capped maximum horsepower at around 230 and dropped the max tire size to 275. That effectively kills the high-power, big-tire formula. Corvettes running 260hp on 315s aren't showing up anymore, at least not competitively in the GLTC series. Gridlife wants the series to trend toward lighter, momentum-based cars and is pushing the high-horsepower builds over to GLGT.
Second, reward weight got more aggressive. Last year it maxed at 5%, which is about 125 lbs on our car. This year it goes to 8% and carries through the entire season with no weekend resets. On Eric's car, maxing out means roughly 200 extra pounds. That's real weight. Eric experimented with trunk ballast at Mid-Ohio last year and hated how it drove, so if we start stacking wins, we'll need to be smart about placement.
There's also a new outlier penalty. If the stewards see a car dominating in the data, they can add BOP weight on top of the reward penalty. Nobody really knows how it'll be enforced yet. We'll find out if we come out too hot.
If we're eating 8% reward weight and BOP penalties, that means we're winning a lot. - Good problem Eric Kutil, #82 Hybrid Racing
Why This Helps the #82
Last year, Eric finished second in the championship with seven wins running sub-200hp at around 2,550 lbs. The car was already the most competitive lightweight in the series. We built it around that formula from day one.
The new rules narrow the field toward exactly the kind of racing our car does best. Less speed disparity, tighter competition, and more emphasis on setup, driving, and momentum over raw power. The middleweight cars that were stuck between the lightweights, so the racing is going to be closer across the board.
Our power and weight barely changed. We're at 205hp and about 2,600 lbs this year. The ratio is almost identical to last season, which means the car's character stays the same. We didn't have to tear anything up to stay competitive under the new rules.
What We Changed on the Car
The upgrades this year are focused on making the car sharper where it was already strong.
Fortune Auto Shocks
Full rebuild, all four corners. The rears went from double adjustable to triple adjustable, giving Eric independent control over high-speed and low-speed compression. We also switched to a double digressive piston. In plain terms, the car can hit curbs harder and settle faster. At CMP, where curb-hopping and carrying speed through transitions is where you make time, this matters a lot. We worked directly with Fortune Auto on the valving to match what Eric needs at these tracks.
Motegi Wheels
Custom two-piece forged welded wheels for this season. Stiffer construction, less unsprung weight. Every pound you take off the wheel and tire assembly is worth more than a pound anywhere else on the car because the suspension has less mass to manage. The car responds quicker and the shocks work more efficiently.
Falken Tires
Back with Falken running the RT660+ as the dry tire and the FK510+ for wet. Proven compounds from a partnership that worked all last season.
CMP: Round 1, April 17-19
Carolina Motorsports Park has been our track.
2024: three wins, third overall. 2025: three wins, second overall. You can do the math on what's next.
Eric's not focused on a clean sweep. Round 1 is about shaking down the Fortune Auto setup, getting comfortable on the new Motegi wheels, and building on the dead reliability that carried us through the entire 2025 season. Last year we had zero major mechanical issues across the full schedule. That consistency wins championships more than any single fast weekend.
CMP rewards exactly what our car does well. It's a momentum track. Light cars that carry speed through corners and attack curbs have an advantage over heavier cars that rely on power out of the straights. If the shock upgrades work the way we expect, the car is going to be even harder to pass through the technical sections.
What We're After This Season
Second place last year. Seven wins. Zero mechanical failures. We're not changing the approach, we're sharpening it.
There's probably some strategy around managing reward weight early in the season. Maybe you don't chase every win in the first few rounds to keep the penalties manageable. But honestly, that's not how Eric drives and it's not how we do things. You show up, you push, you take wins when they're there.
The championship is the goal. It starts at CMP in two weeks.