The 2026 Season:
A Love Letter to Murphy’s Law
Three races. Three mechanical failures. Zero quitting. If something could go wrong, we found a way to let it happen at speed, in front of everyone, on a race track. Here’s the unfiltered story of Shield Maiden Racing’s fourth season — because somebody has to tell it.
Laguna Seca
“We drove to Monterey to watch a bolt destroy our weekend.”
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. One of the most iconic road courses in North America. The kind of track you dream about. The corkscrew. The elevation changes. The history.
We showed up ready. The car had a different agenda.
A single bolt failed in the rear end. That was it. The driveshaft made contact with the body, threw itself out of balance, and took the rear end with it. The car went from race machine to expensive lawn ornament in a matter of laps. Undriveable. Done.
Broken rear end bolt → driveshaft contact with body → driveshaft imbalance → rear end failure → DNF
First race. First DNF. First lesson learned the hard way: in endurance racing, it’s never the big things that get you. It’s always the bolt.
Sonoma Raceway
“Two cars entered. One left. Neither finished.”
Sonoma Raceway. Wine country. Beautiful scenery. Absolutely brutal to our fleet.
Car one — the Miata — had been running some of its fastest laps of the season. The kind of laps that make you think maybe, just maybe, this is the day everything comes together. Then the transmission locked up in 5th gear. Done. A car running at its best, killed by a gearbox that decided enough was enough.
Transmission locked in 5th gear during fastest laps of season → DNF
Car two — the 988 — had a more cinematic ending. Hit in the Esses. Turned hard into a wall. Right front destroyed. The 988 is survived by its memory, a pile of parts, and the very expensive lesson that contact racing is not for the sentimental.
Contact in the Esses → hard contact with wall → right front suspension destroyed → car totalled → DNF
We walked away. Both drivers safe. That’s the win we’re claiming from Sonoma and nobody can take it from us.
Buttonwillow Raceway
“We almost made it. Almost.”
Buttonwillow. The race where we finally showed what this team is made of — right up until we didn’t.
Saturday’s race. The car was running. The team was dialed in. We were in it. Then quietly, mercilessly, the oil pressure dropped. No dramatic explosion. No wall contact. Just a gauge telling a story nobody wanted to hear. The engine protected itself the only way it could — by stopping.
Loss of oil pressure during Saturday race → engine protection shutdown → car came to a slow halt → DNF
We almost made it to the end. Almost. In endurance racing, almost is its own kind of heartbreak.
But here’s what Buttonwillow proved: this team knows how to race. We were competitive. We were fast. We were there. The car just disagreed about the ending.
Races
DNFs
Car Totalled
Quit
So Where Does That Leave Us?
Broken. Rebuilt. Absolutely not done.
Chuckwalla is October 10th, and we are showing up with something to prove — to ourselves, to our supporters, and honestly, to every car that thought it could stop us.
Shield Maiden Racing isn’t a highlight reel. It’s a real team doing a hard thing, learning every time something explodes. If that’s the kind of story you want to follow — or fund — you’re in the right place.