20-Year Old Matan Rosenberg Wins First GLTC Championship in Record-Setting Season

2024 GRIDLIFE TOURING CUP CHAMPION: MATAN ROSENBERG

Matan Rosenberg won 10 races in 32 starts, and won the weekend at GingerMan RAceway, Autobahn Country Club, and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Rosenberg, at 20 years old, becomes the youngest champion in series history with the second highest average finish of any champion.

Chicago, IL - By all accounts, the 2024 GRIDLIFE Touring Cup season was one of the most competitive in the series’ six-year history. The 2024 season saw eleven unique winners, the most ever, with eleven vehicle manufacturers represented in the top 10 in points, and over 150 unique drivers participating. The driver that found the most success by season’s end, was 20-year old Matan Rosenberg, who won the driver’s title after winning ten races, finishing on the podium 23 times, and inside the top ten 30 times in just 32 starts. His #484 Chevrolet Corvette, this year adorned by a stylish American Le-Mans Corvette Racing inspired livery, was a consistent front-running car, save for two mechanical DNF’s at Lime Rock and Pitt Race.

Rosenberg’s season began at Circuit of the Americas, where he claimed a trio of podiums and a 5th in trail behind James Houghton, who scored a quartet of 2nds, and Luke McGrew, who performed the third weekend-win sweep in GLTC history, with four wins. After a solid round at Carolina Motorsports Park in April, Rosenberg won his first race of the season at GRIDLIFE Midwest Festival in June. The second race of the weekend at GingerMan Raceway highlighted Rosenberg’s commitment to fair racing, with a two-lap long battle alongside prior GLTC champion Eric Kutil, in his #82 Honda Civic Ferio. In perhaps one of the best displays of racecraft, the two vastly different cars ran door-to-door for nearly five miles, but in the end it was Rosenberg that scored his second win of the season. He won the weekend there by one point over Kutil.

Kutil and Rosenberg again fought at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with Kutil edging ahead in the first race of the weekend before Luke McGrew and Rosenberg traded off for the next few race wins. While McGrew won the weekend in his #7 Chevrolet Corvette, Matan and Eric tied for second place, advantage Kutil, with qualifying points as the tiebreaker. At the Summer Apex Festival at Road America, Rosenberg’s weekend was over before it started, with an engine failure in practice leaving his car out of the mix at the National Park of Speed. 

Matan returned to victory lane at Lime Rock, scoring a win in race 2, before following up with two wins at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois. The third race of the weekend involved Rosenberg and the #212 Honda S2000 of Andy Smedegard, with the two finishing just 0.086 seconds apart, with Rosenberg edging out Smedegard in one of the closest finishes in series history. The weekend in Joliet scored Rosenberg his second weekend win of the year, with just two rounds of racing left to contend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Pittsburgh International Race Complex.

While Rosenberg’s season to this point had been a success, Luke McGrew remained the points leader, with nine wins to Rosenberg’s 6. With no plans for McGrew to race at Laguna Seca, Rosenberg needed to win three of the four races and finish top 4 in the other to take the points lead from McGrew. Though local driver Justin Ross gave Rosenberg everything he had, Rosenberg managed to score three wins and a second, easily winning his third weekend of the season, and positioning him as the leader of the standings heading into Pitt Race by just three points over Luke McGrew. This meant that whichever driver finished better at Pitt Race would likely win the title.

In a shocking turn of events, McGrew received an offer to buy his Corvette the week prior to the season finale, and with a desire to step back from wheel-to-wheel competition for next season, sold the car, leaving Matan with a much larger advantage to James Houghton and Eric Kutil, the only other drivers with a mathematical chance of defeating him. Eric Kutil fought frustrating mechanical issues throughout the weekend, leaving the battle up to James Houghton, driver of the #41 Acura TSX. Though Houghton won two races, a fifth and a fourth were not enough to earn enough points to beat Rosenberg, with Matan grabbing two thirds and a win. Despite a cut tire ending his final race, he retained enough points to win the title.

Matan Rosenberg, at 20 years old, becomes the youngest champion in series history, and scored 391 total race points across 32 starts. His average finish of 4.1 across those starts is second only to Tom O’Gorman, who had a 4.0 average finish across 40 starts in 2022.