GRIDLIFE South Carolina Draws Thousands for Racing, Time Attack, Drift, and Music
Kershaw, SC - GRIDLIFE’s first stop on the Festival Tour brought racing, drifting, time attack, and music to Carolina Motorsports Park for the first time. The weekend featured the debut of the new GRIDLIFE NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship format, highlighted by the Podium Sprint competition on Saturday afternoon. GRIDLIFE Touring Cup’s second round of the season, drift, music, an arcade, and sponsor activations added to the spectator experience.
NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship
With a new competition format, NOS Energy TrackBattle competitors took to the track on Friday morning for two practice sessions, gearing up for the first of three qualification sessions designed to select the top 5 drivers from each class to advance to the Podium Sprint competition. Friday afternoon, drivers from all seven classes put down representative times, but with additional pressure from the new format, several found their way off course while setting fast times. Mario Mirone in Falken ClubTR and Ben Buthuis in StreetGT had offs in their first session, but rebounded inside of the advancing five group by the end of the day. Kal Fortner in the #14 Mercedes AMG GTS Street Modified car struggled with electronics issues, but was able to set a solid lap right at the end of Qualifying 1.
Saturday morning brought cool temperatures for time attack drivers, ideal conditions for track records and advancement into Podium Sprint. Falken ClubTR competitor Mike Janssen missed qualifying for Podium Sprint by less than a tenth of a second behind Andrew Zhang. The top 5 in street class was a revolving door for much of the session, with Patrick Daugherty, Richard Cho, and Brian Flanagan changing spots on the cut line. Cho would advance in his 370Z. Street GT and Street Mod competitors were up next to qualify; Ryan Mathews in Street Mod would be the top seed in his category and claim a new track record in Qualifying 2. Track Mod was highlighted by Jason Kanakry, Justin Peachy, and Chris Boersma fighting to be the top seed heading into Podium Sprint, while Unlimited was punctuated with Eric Fleming setting down the fastest times of the weekend.
The Podium Sprint competition, new for 2023, features the top 5 from each class running two solo laps to set their results for the weekend. Sundae Cup featured a knockout format, but top seed Lucas Urban suffered a mechanical issue, eliminating him on the warm-up lap. Michael Ross-Smith was eliminated incorrectly while leading, so he shared winning points with Jacob Abbott, who ran a faster lap once Ross-Smith pitted.
In Falken ClubTR, Trip Walker laid down a fast lap, but spun out of turn 2 on his second lap, which left him vulnerable to the Jason Nguyen driven FR-S, Kevin Vue, and Mario Mirone. Vue jumped to the top of the board, but only momentarily, as Mirone topped Vue’s lap twice in a row, winning with a 1:45.602. Street class became a battle with the Turn-In Concepts 333 Tesla Model 3 of Tony Barber and the 777 Subaru of Josh Halka - Halka would win over Barber with a four-wheel powerslide in the final corner.
Street GT featured an upset, as 2nd seed Andy Voelkel was unable to eclipse Ben Bulthuis in the #40 Toyota GR Supra. Brandon Hodge, in another GR Supra, beat both of them, winning in Street GT. In Street Modified, Ryan Mathews had set the fastest laps of the weekend in Qualifying, but was only third quickest in Podium Sprint because of a differential issue. Michael Aumick, sliding in style, drifted out of turn 14 to take the Street Mod win.
In Track Mod, Justin Peachy looked to be the driver to beat in his Hawk Performance Corvette - but Jason Kanakry, with an exceptionally clean and tidy lap, beat it by over a second and a half, winning in his McLaren 720S. The Podium Sprint in Unlimited was more of a formality for Eric Fleming, who dusted the rest of the Unlimited field and claimed victory with the fastest lap of the session, a 1:31.700.
GRIDLIFE Touring Cup
After the season opening round at Circuit of the Americas, the GRIDLIFE Touring Cup field took on Carolina Motorsports Park for the first time. Qualifying was led by a familiar trio of Corvettes - with Jeremy Swenson winning pole by just 0.004 seconds over Paul Curley. Luke McGrew, the #41 Acura TSX of James Houghton, and the #90 Honda S2000 of Matt Waldbaum rounded out the top five. Eric Jensen and Ronnie Vajdak both had mechanical issues that would relegate them to the rear of the field for the start of race one.
The first race of the weekend on Friday afternoon tested the nearly-40 car field as they compressed into the narrow turn 1 at Carolina Motorsports Park. An accordion-effect stack up caused damage to the #41 of Houghton, wrinkling the hood of his TSX. Post race, all three drivers involved took blame for the incident and debriefed together. Despite the damage, Houghton, Curley, and Matan Rosenberg continued on to finish 6th, 15th, and 4th, respectively. Out front, Swenson led Luke McGrew on a chase for the lead, while Matt Waldbaum defended from Rosenberg. The #90 S2000 held on for third, while McGrew finished just tenths behind Swenson on the final straight.
Saturday morning brought rain, and lots of it. Race 2 began with light rain, but it continued to fall harder and harder, completely washing out the track. Despite the challenging conditions, the start was clean as drivers struggled to find grip. Ronnie Vajdak, having started deep in the field, charged his way to third in the #99 DC Sports Integra. The #213 MX-5 Miata of Scott Robertson also had a similar climb, from 20th, all the way to 6th by race’s end, including a spectacular outside pass at turns 12 and 13, moving the Robertson Racing car up the order. Jeremy Swenson led, but almost threw the race away on the final lap at the turn 10 kink with Matt Waldbaum in hot pursuit. Swenson would hang on for the win, with Waldbaum right behind. Ronnie Vajdak, Paul Curley, and Andrew Rains would round out the top five.
The third race of the weekend in early afternoon was nearly as challenging as the second; with rain washing away the rubber, the track was slick and “green” for the penultimate race of the weekend. While Swenson, Curley, and Waldbaum scrapped for the lead, the bottom half of the top 10 featured battles with newcomers Jon Kozlow and Ryan Power, as well as veterans Joel Morrison and Joshua Rubenstein. Morrison would finish 9th - and would start first in race four once the invert was announced. Out front, Paul Curley caught Jeremy Swenson on the final lap, and swung around the outside - winning a drag race to the finish line over Swenson in a spectacular last-lap pass. Waldbaum, Rosenberg, and Vajdak finished out the top five.
Race four of the weekend brought the random field inversion - nine cars - and a start with an incident mid-field. Cars were able to continue, while Joel Morrison fought to stay in front of Andrew Rains and James Houghton. Rains slipped past Morrison at turns 5 and 6, bringing Houghton with him. The two raced door-to-door for half a lap, with Houghton slipping past a few laps into the race. Now on defense, Rains fell a few more positions, ultimately finishing fifth. Top 10 highlights included newcomers Jon Kozlow (6th) and Carlos Mendez (8th), as well as Lena Chin (10th), who scored her first top-ten in her GLTC career. Houghton beat out Luke McGrew by just 0.2 seconds, winning his first race since Mid-Ohio last year. Matt Waldbaum suffered a mechanical failure that dropped him to 30th place, despite top 5 runs in the other three races. Polesitter Joel Morrison also suffered a mechanical failure, and pulled off track to finish 24th.
The GRIDLIFE Festival Tour at Carolina Motorsports Park drew thousands to view GLTC, the NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship, and drifting, but spectators were also treated to a trackside lounge provided by Advance Auto Parts, free NOS Energy, and a host of other paddock experiences from Toyo Tires, Valvoline, and more. The next stop on the GRIDLIFE Festival Tour is at Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York, April 28-30th. Guest Passes can be purchased on the GRIDLIFE website, or fans can watch the broadcast on the GRIDLIFE Twitch or YouTube channels.
