Falken Club TR Knockout Ends With McLaren On Top Again
Last season, the Falken Club TR championship was decided by 0.003 seconds. This year, the delta was different, but the players were the same. Evan McLaren, 2024 Falken Club TR champion, repeated in 2025, but his route to victory was nearly halted by Peter Granberg and Mario Mirone. McLaren’s silver #514 Acura Integra was set to hunt for a second title.
McClaren’s season began at Carolina Motorsports Park in April, where he posted a second-place result, as Jerami Bailey stole P1 in the Podium Sprint, his first ever GRIDLIFE TrackBattle Falken Club TR win. Bailey winning in surprise fashion would become the standard of sorts for the season, as the top 5 traded wins on remarkably even ground most of the season. In South Carolina, McLaren finished second over Stan Fayngold, Kevin Vue and Mario Mirone. His next trip, to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, was not quite as successful. With only a few clear laps and torrential rains, McLaren only scored eighth, burying him in the standings while Kevin Vue and Mirone launched to the top. Peter Granberg, who skipped the season opening round, scored fifth.
McLaren skipped Midwest Festival, opting to return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course instead. This time, it was a return to form. McLaren reset the track record and won in the non-Podium Sprint event. While he skipped Road America, his previous championship rival, Peter Granberg, began an ascent to the top. Granberg would defeat McLaren at Lime Rock Park, though both set their respective drive train records (Granberg in his RWD BRZ, McLaren in his FWD Integra). The Lime Rock win was Granberg’s second of the season, the other coming just weeks prior at Road America. But neither of these two competitors were prepared for Mario Mirone to win in an upset fashion at Autobahn Country Club, nor his trip out to California, where he broke the track record and won there too.
This meant that Mirone, Granberg, and McLaren each had a shot to win at the season finale at Pittsburgh International Race Complex with a win in the Podium Sprint, but McLaren was the only front runner without multiple wins.
Granberg and McLaren both reset their drivetrain track records on Friday morning, but couldn’t keep that pace throughout the weekend as the track fell off in the afternoon heat. With the threat of rain in the Podium Sprint, both Granberg and McLaren stickered up with brand new Falken RT660+ tires, but the rain never came. Mario Mirone went off at turn 17, derailing his championship hopes, and McLaren scored the win, defeating Mirone by just one point.
McLaren’s second championship highlights the intense competition of one of GRIDLIFE’s most popular categories - but with four drivers within 15 points of the championship, 2026 may be even more fierce.
