Swenson, Kutil Locked in Fierce Battle for Touring Cup Championship

Eric Kutil (left) battles Tom O’Gorman (center) and Jeremy Swenson (right) for the race lead at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

• Record 50-car field entered for GLTC at Road America

• Swenson trails Kutil by just 9 points

• Special guest Greg Creamer joins broadcast team for season finale

Elkhart Lake, WI -

The racing season for GRIDLIFE Touring Cup (GLTC) concludes this weekend, October 9-10, with a season finale at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. With a six-way battle for the championship lead solidified with Jeremy Swenson’s weekend victory at GingerMan Raceway last month, the series heads to the 4.048 mile, 14-turn road course in Wisconsin for the final four races of the year.

The field will be 50 cars strong, the most ever to start a Touring Cup race at Road America. The grid features staples such as Eric Kutil in his #82 HybridRacing EG Civic Si, Jeremy Swenson in the #30 Chevrolet Corvette, Tom O’Gorman in the #94 ASM S2000, and Eric Jensen in his LS-swapped Scion FR-S. Drivers making a return to the series after time away include Woody Heimann, who will run at Road America after campaigning much of the year in the Global MX-5 Championship with IMSA. Aaron Leichty, last year’s championship runner up makes a return to Touring Cup in his #19 Porsche Cayman. Savannah Little returns to the Touring Cup series in a Nissan 350z. She has previously run with a SPEC MX-5 Challenge car at GRIDLIFE’s Alpine Horizon Festival last year.

Newcomers to GRIDLIFE Touring Cup include Austin Cobb, in a turbocharged Mazda Miata, and Micaiah Hackbarth, who will enter his first GLTC round in a 2012 Porsche Cayman. Hackbarth has experience in Time Attack with an Audi TTRS, but has never competed in GLTC, and joins the Andy Smedegard Motorsports team in wheel-to-wheel racing in the last round of 2021. 

The point structure in GRIDLIFE Touring Cup allows competitors to drop their lowest 14 race results of the 35 races run this season, including rounds where drivers did not make starts. With all of the drop races accounted for, Eric Kutil leads Jeremy Swenson by 9 points, with Tom O’Gorman, Aaron Leichty, Luke McGrew, and Andy Smedegard all within striking distance should Kutil or Swenson encounter trouble. 

Championship leader Eric Kutil’s journey to the top of the standings has not come easy this season; after miscalculations at NOLA Motorsports Park caused his disqualification, and some poor results at Circuit of the Americas, Kutil had work to do to make up points on Luke McGrew and Aaron Leichty.

Overheating issues plagued Kutil’s 1992 Honda Civic Si, and a rainy slide into a gravel trap at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course lost him crucial points. 

At the season’s most recent round at GingerMan Raceway, Kutil’s brakes failed, sending the car off course at over 100 miles per hour.

A combination of skill, luck, and GingerMan Raceway’s open fields of runoff allowed Kutil’s car to drive away from the incident and compete the next day, saving his weekend and the season.

Despite a number of setbacks, Kutil managed to win six times and finish in the top five 21 times, including 12 race podiums, placing him in the championship lead by nine points over Jeremy Swenson.

Jeremy Swenson’s own expectations at the beginning of his rookie season were set with the intention of being competitive and a true force in the highly competitive GLTC grid.

With a wildly different formula (a large displacement V8 engine in a Chevrolet Corvette chassis) compared to the numerous lightweight Honda and Mazda based cars in the series, Swenson set out to demonstrate the viability of big-bore cars. 

His season debut at Circuit of the Americas proved promising, earning points in all four races. Swenson celebrated his first win at NCM Motorsports Park, before racking up seven other victories, with a win at every single round except for Mid-Ohio.

With a straight-line speed advantage over his competitors, Road America is the perfect place for Swenson to make up ground on Kutil; he only needs to gain nine points on the championship leader to win the season championship.

Contender Tom O’Gorman will enter the final round of the season without the characteristic cyan blue livery, after O’Gorman’s Honda S2000 was damaged in an accident while testing last week. He’ll be running the last four races of the season in teammate Zac Lovoy’s #42 Honda S2000, who gave up the opportunity to race to allow O’Gorman to pursue the championship.

O’Gorman’s season was supposed to start at NOLA Motorsports Park, but a blown engine proved to be a multi-month setback. O’Gorman aligned with Andy Smedegard Motorsports (ASM) and swapped in a K24 engine previously installed in the Gears & Gasoline EK Honda Civic. 

The first round back for the Pirelli World Challenge champion was NCM Motorsports Park, where he claimed his first Touring Cup win in the final race of the weekend. Three more wins followed at GingerMan Raceway in June, and O’Gorman was on track to win at Autobahn Country Club before his motor failed while he led in the first race. After a heroic effort from the ASM team, O’Gorman’s car returned to race the rest of the weekend, and the rest of the season. With hiccups along the way with component reliability problems, O’Gorman managed to win six times, and claw his way to third in the points.

The final rounds of the season will be broadcast live on GRIDLIFE’s YouTube channel, with commentary from Kyle Heyer and special guest Greg Creamer, whose announcing career spans decades calling series like SRO Motorsports America, Ferrari Challenge, IMSA, and Formula One.

GRIDLIFE Elkhart Color Classic Entry List - GLTC

Car #	Driver Name		Team	Hometown		Vehicle			Class
1	Gary	Wimble	-	Locust Grove	VA	2006	Mazda	MX-5	GLTC
3	Erik	Meadows	McGrew Motorsports	Charleston	WV	2009	Mazda	MX-5	GLTC
6	Thomas	Moss	-	Ravenswood	WV	2002	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
7	Luke	McGrew	McGrew Motorsports	Hurricane	WV	2007	Mazda	MX-5	GLTC
12	Felipe	Gonzalez	Myriad Motorsports	Fargo	ND	2000	Honda	S2000	GLTC
13	Ryan	Upham	Performance Eurowerks	Batavia	IL	1995	BMW	M3	GLTC
14	Emile	Tabb	The Winning Formula	Louisville	KY	1990	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
18	Colton	Wade	BrewDog Racing	Newark	OH	2005	BMW	M3	GLTC
19	Aaron	Leichty	The Winning Formula	Louisville	KY	1993	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
23	Jake	Joraanstad	Myriad Motorsports	Fargo	ND	2000	Honda	S2000	GLTC
24	Dustin	Bartee	Acuity	Saint Joseph	MI	2006	Honda	Civic	GLTC
26	Louis	Chatroop	Performance Eurowerks	Buffalo Grove	IL	2004	BMW	M3	GLTC
30	Jeremy	Swenson	Viking Performance	Moorhead	MN	2001	Chevrolet	Corvette	GLTC
34	Austin	Hertel	-	Richmond	IN	2013	Nissan	370z	GLTC
36	Austin	Cobb	ApexV2R	Fairhope	AL	1997	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
42	Tom	O'Gorman	Andy Smedegard Motorsports (ASM)	Mason	OH	2005	Honda	S2000	GLTC
44	Kerry	James	AKG Motorsports	Andover	MN	1995	BMW	M3	GLTC
46	Andrew	Rains	Turner Motorsport	Birmingham	AL	2001	BMW	330i	GLTC
47	Jeff	Preston	-	Lexington	KY	2006	Mazda	MX-5	GLTC
54	Dusty	Michael	-	Lafayette	IN	1990	Honda	Civic	GLTC
68	Tiffany	Kelly	Team Kelly	Omaha	NE	2000	Honda	S2000	GLTC
71	Joel	Morrison	NineLivesRacing	Ooltewah	TN	2005	Honda	S2000	GLTC
76	Wesley	Case	Tea	SD		2002	BMW	M3	GLTC
82	Eric	Kutil	HybridRacing	Columbus	OH	1992	Honda	Civic	GLTC
82	Woody	Heimann	-	Findlay	OH	2016	Mazda	MX-5 Cup	GLTC
86	Justin	Kelly	Team Kelly	Omaha	NE	2013	Scion	FR-S	GLTC
87	Nick	Stentiford	-	Florissant	CO	2005	Honda	S2000	GLTC
91	D.J.	Alessandrini	HybridRacing	Brookpark	OH	2006	Honda	Civic	GLTC
95	Robert	Vierhout	Factor Fab Racing	Cumming	IA	2004	Nissan	350z	GLTC
99	Jeremy	Boysen	-	Adel	IA	2002	Acura	RSX	GLTC
105	Jacob	Price	-	Shepherdsville	KY	2000	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
106	Michael	Kritikos	-	Loves Park	IL	2006	BMW	330i	GLTC
113	Wesley	Penn	-	Louisville	KY	1999	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
159	Joshua	Rubenstein	-	Alexandria	VA	2001	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
168	Patrick	Reyes	-	Chicago	IL	2006	Honda	S2000	GLTC
171	Clayton	Fitzpatrick	-	Marengo	OH	1999	Chevrolet	Corvette	GLTC
184	Eric	Jensen	GSpeed	Trophy Club	TX	2016	Scion	FR-S	GLTC
200	Matt	DeReus	-	Brooklyn Center	MN	1999	BMW	E36	GLTC
212	Andy	Smedegard	Andy Smedegard Motorsports (ASM)	Plover	WI	2005	Honda	S2000	GLTC
213	Scott	Robertson	Robertson Racing	Comstock Park	MI	2001	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
261	Brad	Kosiba	-	Noblesville	IN	2000	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
290	Matt	Park	-	Chicago	IL	2007	Nissan	350z	GLTC
404	Jeremy	Myers	-	Romeoville	IL	1994	Honda	Civic	GLTC
484	Matan	Rosenberg	-	Cleveland	OH	1995	Mazda	Miata	GLTC
541	Seth	Gale	-	Kirtland	OH	1998	Acura	Integra	GLTC
722	Scott	Bowling	-	Simpsonville	KY	2010	Porsche	Cayman	GLTC
777	Ron	Soliman	Andy Smedegard Motorsports (ASM)	Burnsville	MN	2001	Honda	S2000	GLTC
871	Aurimas	Karosas	-	Homer Glen	IL	1997	BMW	M3	GLTC
916	Savanna	Little	enjuku racing	Florissant	CO	2008	Nissan	350z	GLTC
TBD	Micaiah	Hackbarth	Andy Smedegard Motorsports (ASM)	Stevens Point	WI	2012	Porsche	Cayman	GLTC

2021 Championship Standings (Click)