The 2026 GRIDLIFE season is officially over, and while we didn’t take home the championship trophy, we certainly put up a fight.
For the final round of the season, we headed west to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca—a track neither Eric nor our Super Touring Civic had ever raced at before. Getting the opportunity to experience the sights, sounds, elevation changes, and history of Laguna Seca was an incredible way to cap off such a competitive season.
Learning Laguna
We started the weekend with a couple of practice sessions, giving us a chance to check the setup and, more importantly, give Eric some valuable seat time. With no previous experience racing at Laguna Seca, those sessions proved crucial for getting comfortable with the track, understanding the grip level, and finding the right rhythm before qualifying.
Unfortunately, things didn’t stay trouble-free for long.
At the end of the second practice session, Eric radioed in to report that the car was becoming increasingly difficult to shift. He also felt like the clutch pedal wasn’t moving as much as it should.
Once the car was back in the paddock, we checked the pedal and re-bled the clutch system to make sure there wasn’t any air trapped in the hydraulics. Everything seemed normal, but as Eric drove out of the paddock for qualifying, it became clear that the problem was still there.
We quickly determined that we were dealing with a clutch issue. With qualifying already underway, there simply wasn’t enough time to pull the transmission and investigate.
Eric had to qualify with a broken clutch.
Knowing he couldn’t abuse the gearbox, the goal became simple: nurse the car around, carefully time the shifts, and put together any respectable lap we could so we wouldn’t have to start at the back of the grid.
Somehow, Eric did a little better than that.
Despite the clutch issue, he put together a great lap and qualified P2.
Finding the Problem
As soon as qualifying ended, we brought the car back into the paddock and immediately started pulling the transmission.
Roughly 45 minutes later, the gearbox was out of the car, and we had our answer. The clutch disc had broken springs, along with a damaged retainer that had come loose inside the bell housing. That explained the shifting problems Eric had been fighting.
Looking at the damage, we believe the clutch had likely been compromised since the Watkins Glen event—something we should have caught and replaced much sooner.
With the problem identified, we installed a new clutch, put the car back together, and called it a night.
Saturday – Back to Racing
Saturday was more relaxed than Friday. We had an optional warm-up session followed by Races 1 and 2.
We decided to run the warm-up to give Eric a chance to verify that the shifting issue was fixed and put at least a little time on the new clutch disc. Normally, we’d want a few hundred miles of driving to properly bed in a clutch and reduce the chance of premature glazing, but that obviously wasn’t an option during a race weekend.
Thankfully, the transmission was shifting perfectly again.
We lined up P2 for Race 1, with Eric immediately battling Tony and his BMW M3. Eric stayed in the fight, but we ultimately didn’t have enough pace to realistically challenge for the lead.
We finished exactly where we started: P2.
With the finishing order determining the grid for Race 2, we once again started second—and once again finished P2.
More importantly, Eric continued getting faster and more comfortable around Laguna Seca, posting the second-fastest lap of the race behind Tony. That gave us some confidence heading into Sunday and our final two races of the 2026 season.
Sunday – One More Shot
Sunday morning gave us some time to make a few small adjustments to the car before Race 3.
Eric wanted to make some changes to the wedge, add spring packers, and bolt on a fresh set of sticker Falken tires. Starting second meant we had another opportunity to attack the front of the field and potentially fight for a win.
Race 3 started exactly how we wanted.
Eric stayed with Tony's M3 through the opening laps, and at one point Eric was the fastest car on track. He charged up the hill toward Turn 6, one of Laguna Seca’s fastest and most intimidating corners.
A slight snap of oversteer forced Eric to countersteer. When the car settled, the momentum sent him sideways and off the track.
Turn 6 is extremely fast, and Eric found himself sliding through the dirt and narrowly missing the wall. Thankfully, he managed to gather the car back up and return to the track, but the excursion cost several seconds and allowed Matthew Ibrahim to move past.
We were now running third.
It took Eric a few laps to get back into his rhythm, but before long he had caught Ibrahim and the two were running nose-to-tail.
After a couple of laps of pressure, Ibrahim ran wide and off-line approaching Turn 1. Eric committed to the inside racing line and attempted the pass. As the two cars entered the corner, Ibrahim moved back toward the inside and the cars made front-corner contact, sending Ibrahim into a spin.
GRIDLIFE heavily discourages contact, and regardless of the circumstances, the stewards would have to review it after the race.
Eric continued and crossed the line P4, behind Joel Morrison.
Following a post-race review, the stewards determined that both drivers shared responsibility for the incident. The resulting penalty dropped us to P9 for Race 3, which also meant we would start the final race of the season from ninth.
One Final Charge
There was only one thing left to do.
Starting P9 in the final race of 2026, Eric charged his way back through the field and finished P4, bringing our season to an end with one final push toward the front.
Despite all of the drama, the weekend was overwhelmingly positive.
The car had speed, Eric adapted incredibly quickly to a circuit he had never raced before, and we had the opportunity to race alongside and share notes with some of the local California competitors.
And we learned a lot about Laguna Seca.
What We Learned at Laguna Seca
Laguna is a hell of a racetrack.
One of the biggest things we learned was just how low-grip the surface can be compared to some of the other tracks we raced this season. That can be good for tire life, but it also makes finding the right setup more difficult.
The curbs are aggressive, the elevation changes are substantial, and the high-compression areas of the circuit are extremely hard on the car.
By the end of the weekend, we had bent three wheels and worn completely through our front splitter pucks. The compression zones also put a tremendous amount of load through the suspension, forcing us to pay closer attention to alignment and toe than we had at almost any other track this season.
Those are exactly the kinds of lessons we came to California to learn.
Closing Out 2026
Ultimately, we’re happy with how we performed even though we didn’t get the win.
Eric’s pace was strong enough to finish third overall for the weekend, adding another podium trophy to the cabinet and giving us a positive result to close out the year.
More importantly, we leave Laguna Seca with a huge amount of information and experience that we can carry into the next chapter of our racing program.
The 2026 season challenged us in just about every way possible. We won races, dealt with mechanical problems, fought at the front of the field, and pushed the Super Touring Civic all the way through the final race of the year.
Now, it’s time to turn our attention to 2027.
We’ll be back next season with a new weapon, new challenges, and plenty more racing ahead.
But for now, that’s a wrap on 2026.
