Kutil Wins GLTC Weekend in Kansas, Jensen Gets First win
Reigning champion finally claims his first weekend victory of ‘21
TOPEKA, Kansas - Eric Kutil took home a weekend championship in his 1992 HybridRacing Honda Civic Si at GRIDLIFE Heartlands at Heartland Motorsport Park. The reigning champion won nine races in 2020, eventually defeating runner-up Aaron Leichty at GingerMan Raceway last fall. But since then, Kutil and Leichty have faced significant uphill battles as the GRIDLIFE Touring Cup field saw its strongest ever fields in 2021. New competitors like Jeremy Swenson and Eric Jensen became strong contenders in their V8-powered coupes, and redesigned cars like Andy Smedegard Motorsports’ O’Gorman and Smedegard S2000s, have changed the landscape of the series. Aaron Leichty saw victory three times this season - but all of those victories came during round 2 at Circuit of the Americas. Eric Kutil stole the fourth race at COTA, but then didn’t win again until just two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio.
Justin Kelly leads the field to the green at Heartland Motorsports Park for GLTC Race 1.
With Kutil gaining momentum and eyeing a second championship, he rolled off the trailer with an experimental low-drag aerodynamic setup, a combination that would allow him to win race 1 at Heartland Park. Jeremy Swenson, whose Viking Performance Corvette has become a staple at the front of the field on wide street tires, switched to Hoosier R7 slicks for Kansas. After a few sessions of adjustment, Swenson found speed, enough to win both race 2 and race 3.
The remainder of the top 5 for the duration of the weekend consisted of Smedegard and O’Gorman, who both seemed to be in the hunt, but could not break through to victory in the series’ eighth points round. Team Kelly had strong performances in early sessions, but Tiffany Kelly wound up with a damaged race car, just weeks after another crash at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Justin Kelly was able to compete near the front, but like the ASM team, was unable to go to victory lane. A broken half-shaft in race 3 forced him to start at the tail of the field for the fourth and final race of the weekend, where he would gain several spots and leave the weekend with a seventh-place spot in the weekend points.
Eric Jensen (#184) leads Tom O’Gorman (#94) and Aaron Leichty (#19) through turn 13 at Heartland Park.
GLTC newcomer Robert Thorne was making waves this weekend, bringing his V6-swapped Mazda Miata up through the field. While running fifth in race 3, a brake caliper unhinged and sliced a wheel in half while entering the high-speed turn 4. Thorne’s car would not steer or stop and it crashed violently nose-on into the tire barrier. Thorne would walk away from the accident unhurt, but the car was severely damaged and is likely totaled.
The races on Sunday were close, but side-by-side racing seemed hard to come by. With massive commitment required to be fast, drivers found themselves nose to tail often. The race 4 invert allowed Aaron Leichty in his Winning Formula Porsche Cayman to start on pole, alongside Eric Jensen. On the green flag, Jensen would out-drag Leichty and lead the entire race. With massive pressure from Kutil and O’Gorman, Jensen stole a race 4 victory - his first ever in GRIDLIFE Touring Cup.
Eric Kutil now leads the point standings leaving Heartland Park, with only two rounds remaining in the championship.
Kutil’s mission in race 4 was to simply beat Jeremy Swenson, as the two were separated by just one point entering the last race. With Kutil motoring by O’Gorman and Smedegard, he put distance between himself and Swenson to claim the weekend championship with 85 points. Swenson finished second with 81 points, and Tom O’Gorman finished on the podium with 70 points. Aaron Leichty drops to third in the GLTC standings, as Kutil surges to the lead by seven points over Jeremy Swenson. GLTC Races next at GRIDLIFE Midwest, the penultimate round of 2021, before the season championship round at Road America.
