Revamped GRIDLIFE Broadcast Captures Intense Early Season Battles in RUSH Series, Eibach GLTC, and TrackBattle Time Attack
Eric Kutil leads the field into turn one at Carolina Motorsports Park in Eibach GLTC Race 3.
Kershaw, SC - GRIDLIFE’s first event of 2025 in Kershaw, South Carolina, at Carolina Motorsports Park, featured packed fields in each competition category and set the stage for incoming battles this season. With 90 cars registered in TrackBattle Time Attack, over two dozen in the rebranded GRIDLIFE RUSH Series, a 30+ car field in the Eibach GRIDLIFE Touring Cup Championship, and a healthy grid of drift cars, there was plenty for spectators to see at the track and on the live broadcast.
Now in collaboration with Florida-based Project Priime, the GRIDLIFE Live broadcast featured an all-new graphics package, additional cameras, more advanced replay capabilities, a live roaming reporter camera, and aerial coverage. Tens of thousands tuned in for the three-day broadcast, which covered Eibach GLTC, TrackBattle Time Attack, the GRIDLIFE RUSH Series and GRIDLIFE Drift action from Friday afternoon onward. A central focus for viewers was an enhanced layout for the TrackBattle Time Attack coverage to assist viewers in understanding the complexities of TrackBattle’s classes and sort lap times into class-specific chunks. Additional enhancements to GRIDLIFE’s live coverage will continue to roll out throughout 2025.
Eric Kutil Dominates in Eibach GLTC
2020 Eibach GLTC champion Eric Kutil returned to winning form at GRIDLIFE South Carolina, winning three of the four races, just being edged out by reigning champion Matan Rosenberg, whose #484 Chevrolet Corvette now adorns a striking Falken Tire and Eibach livery. Kutil’s car was 125 pounds lighter than it was in 2024, while Rosenberg’s was nearly 300 pounds heavier than his 2024 setup. The two cars demonstrated in spectacular fashion the opposite extremes of the rulebook, but raced on equal footing on Sunday morning. While Kutil dominated the first three races, winning by over 15 seconds in races 2 and 3, Rosenberg kept Kutil at bay just long enough to secure his first victory of 2025 by just a car length above Kutil’s #82 Honda Civic.
The racing also highlighted a notable uptick in performance from the #184 of Eric Jensen, whose reliability modifications to his LS-swapped Scion FR-S allowed him to attack the tall curbs of Carolina Motorsports Park. Despite a spin in race 3, Jensen still managed to snag a podium in one race and finished 7th in the weekend standings. While Eric Kutil and Matan Rosenberg topped the podium, Eric Magnussen stood on the third step, earning 55 points in his gold #330 BMW M3. Gary Wimble and James Cathers rounded out a competitive top 5 in South Carolina. Spectators were magnetized to Alan Newsome’s #13 Merkur XR4TI, an Eibach GLTC build with a real Sierra Cosworth body - but mechanical issues would sideline the car after the first race of the weekend.
GRIDLIFE RUSH Series Thrills Fans with Star Power, Last Lap Passes
Rebranded as simply the “GRIDLIFE RUSH Series” (formerly the GRIDLIFE RUSH SR Series), 25 RUSH SR machines took the green flag on Friday for the first of four races in the first round of 2025. Reigning TrackBattle Street GT champion Andy Voelkel took the lead early, but damp conditions on track forced a tire management battle on the softer wet-weather tires. Ryan Leach, in his #56 RUSH SR, caught and passed the #34 of Voelkel on the final lap of the race, stealing a win with just seconds to go. Voelkel finished 2nd, followed by Nico Bratz, a returning competitor from 2024.
The podium in the following three races remained exactly the same, with Leach sweeping the weekend. Voelkel and Bratz were unable to capture or retain the lead, despite opportunities with restarts following full-course yellows. YouTube stars TJ Hunt, Evan Shanks, and Grant Anderson battled fiercely on track in races 2 and 3, with Hunt and Shanks getting particularly aggressive in a hip and shoulder fight. Nate Hamilton’s #144 RUSH SR spun backwards at turn 4 after light contact in race 3, relegating him to 23rd - though he would rebound to 8th in race 4 and finish ninth in weekend points.
The field featured over two dozen RUSH SR cars, and with a planned introduction for the new RUSH SRX later in the year, the racing will expand to a multi-class format. The RUSH SRX is equipped with several additional systems, including a Push-to-Pass system, and has nearly 300 horsepower compared to the RUSH SR at 150. Learn more about the RUSH SRX here.
GRIDLIFE TrackBattle Heats Up with Upsets in Podium Sprint
After seven rounds of qualifying heats in GRIDLIFE TrackBattle Time Attack, the top 5 drivers from each of TrackBattles seven classes lined up for Podium Sprint on Sunday afternoon. In Club SC, reigning champion Chris Rice reset the track record with a 1:55.699 in his #91 Honda Fit. Ryan Mukherjee and Sam Deuling also scored podiums in their Honda Fits. Lennon Radcliffe had set a faster time and was set to be the top seed in Podium Sprint, but a rules violation reset his times and his #116 Toyota Corolla failed to qualify for the Podium Sprint and finished 7th on the weekend.
In Falken ClubTR, Mario Mirone reset the front-wheel drive class record in heat 4, but broke his transmission at the beginning of Podium Sprint, relegating him to fifth in the weekend results in his #727 Honda Civic. Evan Mclaren, last year’s class champion, scored 2nd in Podium Sprint, with Stan Faygold snagging third in his #326 Toyota 86. The upset win was scored by Jerami Bailey, whose FA24-swapped Scion FR-S crossed the line on the final lap of the sprint with a 1:41.967 - just a half a tenth quicker than Mclaren. The feat conjured audible cheers from the crowd around the main stage, where a group had gathered to watch the intense fight in one of GRIDLIFE’s most competitive classes.
Street class was an-all Impreza showdown, with the podium comprised entirely of Subarus. Josh Halka’s #777 was first, followed by Mike Coons in his #310, and Tony Barber driving the Turn In Concepts #7. The #7 car was originally slated to be driven by Tom Halka, but a foot injury meant Barber had to jump into qualifying and the Podium Sprint to score points after Josh Halka attempted to qualify both cars in. He was successful, but since it’s not possible to drive two cars in the same session, Barber had to set his own times to qualify and race the car. Eddy Segal and John Laughlin just missed podiums at Carolina Motorsports Park.
Street GT and Street Mod were both won by Ryan Mathews, who expertly qualified both of his Chevrolet Corvettes into Podium Sprint in back-to-back sessions all weekend. Mathews also reset the rear-drive Street GT record. Mark Kilgore’s #909 BMW M4 and the #536 Chevrolet Corvette landed on the podium in Street GT, while the #70 Subaru of Dewey Dewitt and the #14 Mercedes-AMG GTS of Kal Fortner scored 2nd and 3rd behind Mathews in Street Mod. Jaime Santos’ #82 1-Series BMW was runner-up in Street Mod most of the weekend, but he was unable to keep pace with Fortner in the final session of the weekend.
After a spooky, high-speed off track excursion in qualifying, Justin Peachy’s #445 Chevrolet Corvette paced the Track Mod category. Though Chris Smith’s #212 BMW was on track to win, but an off at turn 1 caused his time to be disallowed. The #717 Corvette of Luke McGrew and the #404 Porsche Cayman rounded out the podium in Track Mod.
The Unlimited class was an absolute battleground on Sunday afternoon, with the #338 Corvette of Ernestas Puzelis and the #921 of Jim Rauck throwing down back to back improvements over each other. Despite Rauck’s best efforts, Puzelis’s ground-pounding Corvette won by 0.8 seconds after the two qualified within a tenth for the Podium Sprint. TrackBattle newcomer Phillip Glass-Hess in his highly modified MX-5 beat out Andrius Bertulis’s Lexus RCF for the final step of the podium.
GRIDLIFE South Carolina was just the first of nine competition rounds in 2025. Though the next broadcast vent will be GRIDLIFE Festival at GingerMan Raceway in June, each series will next compete at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in collaboration with Formula Drift May 9-10.
