February 2026

First track day of the year, and my first event running with PCA Golden Gate Region. I also participated in their time trials, which added some pressure to put together clean, repeatable laps.

Going into the day, the goal was simply to get comfortable and establish a baseline, since it was my first time running the Cyclone configuration with the GT4 RS. With a few clean sessions and minimal traffic, the car settled into consistent mid-1:55s, with several laps knocking on the door of the 1:49s, but I couldn’t quite connect all the sectors.

This was the first outing on the new RE-71RZ tires. They offered strong initial grip and good front-end response, but after three to four laps there was a noticeable drop-off in peak pace. Even with the falloff, the tires remained very predictable and easy to manage at the limit, which made it easier to focus on consistency during the time trial sessions.

Overall, a solid starting point for the season and a useful baseline for the car on a 200TW tire. It should be interesting to see what kind of times are possible here once we step up to a stickier compound.