Jensen Holds Off Hard-Charging Houghton for GLTC Victory
Joliet, IL - GRIDLIFE Touring Cup (GLTC) Race 4, the final race at GRIDLIFE Chicagoland, kicked off late Sunday afternoon at Autobahn Country Club. GLTC’s format features a random invert of the top quarter of weekend entries, on a random pick by the Race 3 winner. Matan Rosneberg, who won the third race of the weekend earlier in the afternoon, rolled an 8 - meaning he started in row 4, while Eric Jensen and James Cathers shared the front row.
At the green flag, Catchers and Jensen remained side by side for the first half of the first lap, with Cathers edging out a small advantage leaving turn 3. By the time the field had reached turn 8, Jensen pulled back ahead, and led the opening lap of the race. After a weekend of races where the pack shuffled significantly, this race featured little movement for drivers outside the the top 10 - but within it, gains were made by Eric Kutil, Matan Rosneberg, and James Houghton, while others, like James Cathers, Aaron Leichty, and Tony Marchev dropped.
As Jensen led, he continued to improve his lap times one after the other, picking up nearly a second of pace as the laps wore on. The #41 Acura TSX of James Houghton moved up two positions, sneaking by the #109 Subaru BRZ of Dana Basinski. Dana remained directly behind Houghton for a few laps, but began to fade in the closing laps ahead of the #82 Honda Civic of Eric Kutil, who started 10th.
On the final lap, Houghton closed in on Jensen, with a lap time half a second faster than he ran for the two laps prior. The checkered flag flew on the conclusion of lap 7, with Houghton just 0.428 seconds behind the #184 of Jensen. Jensen claimed his first victory in three years in GLTC, and only his second ever, with the previous win coming at Heartland Motorsports Park in 2021. Race winners earn a special green sticker marked with the year of their win, and Jensen admitted they are hard to come by, but so special to affix to the car after a winning drive.
With the points tabulated, Matan Rosenberg claimed the weekend title with 88 points from his 5th, 2nd, and two wins on the weekend, with Andy Smedegard just 4 points back with a win, two seconds, and a 6th. The third place battle came down to the final race, with just 3 points separating four drivers. Dana Basinski, in just his fourth GLTC event, earned 62 points and the final trophy on the podium. Tony Marchev and Eric Jensen tied with 61 points, and Aaron Leichty scored 60, finishing 5th at Autobahn Country Club.
GRIDLIFE Touring Cup next races on the West Coast at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, marking the final stop on the 2024 Festival Tour. For most drivers based in the midwest, the round at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in October will be their last chance at earning points this year. Results for the Autobahn Country Club weekend are unofficial pending normal incident and procedural investigations. Results will be declared official and points will be updated later this week.
GRIDLIFE Laguna will be livestreamed on the GRIDLIFE YouTube and Twitch channels, and tickets for spectators are available now.