Fierce Battles Underway in NOS TrackBattle Championship at GRIDLIFE Chicagoland
Joliet, IL - The NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship continues this weekend with Round 8 of the 2024 season, with a stop in Joliet, IL, at Autobahn Country Club. In prior seasons, this annual stop on the calendar was held in late June, often with searing-hot track temperatures. With cooler conditions this weekend, drivers aim to break standing track records across the seven competition classes.
In Heat 1 on Saturday morning, records fell in Falken Sundae Cup and in the Street Modified categories. In Sundae Cup, the #116 Toyota Corolla of Lennon Radcliffe reset the class record of 1:44.725 (set by James Smith in 2023) with a time of 1:43.872. With warmer temperatures in Heat 2, Radcliffe was unable to improve in the early afternoon. Richard Sawicki, piloting the #528 Mazda MX-5, set a new benchmark record for the rear-wheel drive division of Sundae Cup with a 1:42.631. Sawicki’s time leads the category after the first two heats of six this weekend.
Though Allen Patten has already clinched the 2024 Street Modified championship, the current runner-up, Kyle McKiou, continues to rack up points in his #29 Toyota GR Supra. During the opening session on Saturday, McKiou eclipsed the Street Mod record previously held by Jackie Ding with a time of 1:25.816, breaking the previous time by half a second. McKiou leads Alex Moss and Team Mediocre-K as of Sunday morning.
The Track Mod class has been a hot contest at Autobahn Country Club, with Kyle McKiou leading Jackie Ding and Brandon Hodge after Heat 4. McKiou’s time of 1:25.119 has eclipsed the Track Mod record in both the current and legacy rulesets, outpacing the previous record of 1:25.422 set by Feras Qartoumy in 2020.
Ido Waksman and Nicholas Hendrix lead Street GT over Keenan Prusank, with Waksman’s time of 1:29.261 defeating the standing record of 1:30.709 set by Kyle Magnusen last year. Austin Hertel, who is still repairing his damaged GLTC Nissan 370Z, is running his BMW M2 in Street GT and is currently fourth with a 1:31.896.
The highly competitive Falken ClubTR class is an extremely tight battle between Peter Granberg and Stan Fayngold, with just nine hundredths of a second separating the top two. Granberg leads Fayngold with a 1:32.078, over have a second quicker than the prior track record. Evan Weider and Christopher Heideman, and Fez Babar are locked in a battle for a podium position with just a three tenth spread between them.
Joe Mielke, in his #555 Subaru WRX, leads Street class with a 1:31.419, resetting his owne record from last year by four hundredths of a second. Sam Bosnian chases in his Nissan 350Z with a 1:31.799, which also resets a record - this time in the rear-wheel drive category of Street class. Brad Moore follows in third place in his #193 Porsche Cayman.
Steven Luca and Ernestas Puzelis lead Unlimited class after Heat 4, with Luca’s time of 1:24.571 leading Puzelis’s 1:24.617. Both are in the rear-drive division of Unlimited, and are chasing Tadas Karlinskas’s record of 1:23.525 set last year. Though the record may be unlikely as temperatures climb on Sunday afternoon, the battle between the two will be exciting to watch unfold at Autobahn Country Club.
Just two heats of the NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship remain at GRIDLIFE Chicagoland, starting at 11:30 AM CT and 2:45 PM CT. Live timing and scoring is available at Racehero.io.