Circuit Legends and Lime Rock Park See Records Fall and Entertaining Racing
Salisbury, CT - Lime Rock Park has long been a proving ground for racing’s most famous names, and this year’s GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends festival put new names on display with an action-packed weekend of nonstop motorsports events. It was the third iteration of the event, with its Legends Concours highlighting the spectator attractions with dozens of poster-worthy cars that inspired a generation. The weekend featured the busiest on-track schedule of the GRIDLIFE season, with track time for the NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship, GRIDLIFE Touring Cup, the RUSH SR Series, Model 3 Challenge, and drift.
NOS Energy TrackBattle Drivers Obliterate Records in Every Class
GRIDLIFE’s time attack championship, dubbed the NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship, returned to its classic format at Lime Rock Park. Instead of the qualifying and elimination-based Podium Sprint, drivers had six timed sessions in which to set their fastest lap. Over 100 cars competed across seven classes with one of the strongest fields the Circuit Legends event has seen.
In Falken Sundae Cup, the previous track record, a 1:04.882, set by Michael-Ross Smith in 2022, was reset by Chris Rice at a 1:04.160, a gain of over seven tenths of a second over the short 1.5 mile lap. Joseph King, whose Mazda Protege suffered a rollover on Saturday morning at West Bend, had a lap time good enough for 2nd place in class - a 1:04.199, just 0.033 seconds off of Rice. King climbed out of his car after the incident unharmed. David Best finished third over Sam Deuling and Nick Berg, who were each just tenths behind podium positions.
Evan McLaren leads Peter Granberg over the crest at the uphill.
Two records were reset in Falken ClubTR, as Evan McLaren and Peter Granberg each improved two tenths over times set last year. Granberg finished second in class with a 58.061 in his rear-drive Subaru BRZ, while McLaren won the category in his front-drive Integra with a new class record of 57.754. Mario Mirone, Azmath Mohammed, and Daniel Persing rounded out the top 5. Eight drivers in ClubTR each had fast laps under the 1:00 mark. McLaren re-takes the championship lead over Granberg by 12 points in a fierce fight with just a few rounds remaining.
Street Class had a similar story - two records reset - with the AWD and RWD records falling to Luca Barberis and Benson Tai, respectively. Barberis claimed his fourth win and track record of the season with a 57.650, earning him a season total of 104 points - the maximum that can be earned in a season. Joe Mielke, who finished second to Barberis at Lime Rock Park, would need to win nearly every remaining round to defeat Barberis in the title fight. Mielke and Barberis have each beaten each other once, which is the first tiebreaker, but Mielke would win the second tiebreaker, which is the finish at Midwest festival, if both competed. Eddy Segal nabbed the bottom step of the podium in Street class, but wasn’t able to reset his front-drive Street class record, which he had reset each time in previous seasons at the Circuit Legends event. Mark Brylo, in his first GRIDLIFE event since 2019, returned to competition at Lime Rock and finished fourth in Street class.
Andy Voelkel claimed a fifth win and track record of 2024 at Lime Rock, and has officially mathematically eliminated Ido Waksman’s chances to win Street GT this season. Voelkel’s time of 56.311 seconds reset the rear-drive Street GT record at Lime Rock Park and solidified him as the weekend winner and champion of the class for 2024. Waksman, in his C6-generation Corvette, finished second, with a 57.072. Christian Aranha, Keenan Prusank, and Kevin Horn rounded out the top five in class, all in Chevrolet Camaros.
The Street Modified category, which has played host to some of the fiercest class battles in series history, also has its points leader clinch a championship with several rounds remaining. Allen Patten won at Lime Rock by a massive margin of nearly 1.3 seconds, with a time of 53.887 seconds, three tenths faster than Jackie Ding’s record set in 2022. Patten maxed out his points totals with wins and track records at just four events - and won every event he entered in 2024. Critically, he also has beaten Kyle McKiou at four events, including at Midwest Festival, which means there is no path to a championship for McKiou. McKiou finished second to Patten at Circuit Legends, ahead of Peter Liu, forming an all-GR Supra podium. Jaime Santos and Alex Moss in his bright green “SuperK” S2000 finished fourth and fifth in class.
While Kyle McKiou finished 2nd in Street Mod, he also picked up a second-place trophy in Track Mod, as he again competed in two separate categories at Lime Rock Park. He finished just 0.033 seconds behind Brad Perkins, who claimed his second consecutive class win at Lime Rock with a record time of 54.666. Chris Smith, Jesse Echanique, and Andy Hsaio rounded out the top 5 in a fiercely competitive and deep Track Mod class. Perkins’ win in Track Mod leaves him just one point behind Jackie Ding in the class championship.
Sasha Anis’ 350Z was, and remains, the GRIDLIFE Lime Rock Park track record holder.
All eyes were on one car most of Saturday afternoon - that being Sasha Anis’ Nissan 350Z. The all-carbon hybrid creation has held the GRIDLIFE overall track record since 2022, and remains one of the greatest spectacles in NOS TrackBattle history. While Sasha reset his own record on Friday morning, he returned on track on Saturday to go even faster, setting a 50.686. That afternoon, he again tried to improve but wound up looping the car after it took a momentary flight rivaling the Wright Brothers at the Uphill. The new record time is now GRIDLIFE’s Unlimited class benchmark, likely for years to come. Steve Luca finished just under two seconds behind in his Ford Mustang, with Evan Slater, Shawn Bassett, and Jeremy Lowder also snagging top 5s in Unlimited.
Hamilton, Forsberg, Battle for Top 5 in GRIDLIFE RUSH SR Series
Nate Hamilton (foreground) defends from Chris Forsberg (background) during one of their intense battles for position in GRIDLIFE Rush SR.
GRIDLIFE RUSH SR competed at Circuit Legends with a star-studded field - including drivers like Nate Hamilton, Chris Forsberg, Rob Radmann, and 15-year old Aryton Grim, who made his first start in the series at Lime Rock Park. The 20-car grid took the green flag twice on Friday, and twice on Saturday as part of its multi-race format. With its light weight and high-revving engine, the RUSH SRs ran some of the fastest laps of the weekend, with times in the mid to high 55 second bracket.
Aryton Grim gets air over the uphill at Lime Rock.
Ryan Leach dominated the weekend, but like Road America, the wins didn’t come without a fight. Aryton Grim, who ran times equal to the fastest in the series during practice and qualifying, finished less than two-tenths of a second behind Leach in the first race on Friday. The two drivers quickly established a lead over Cole Gamma, Rob Radmann, and Jason Oehler, who rounded out the top 5. Race 2 on Friday featured the same top 5, but Leach was able to pull away from Grim and Gamma while they battled early on the start. Grim’s pace throughout the races would continue to improve, but the experience from the other drivers at the start of the race would put him on his back foot.
Ryan Leach dominated Rush SR at Lime Rock, but he had to defend from The Rush Stig, Cole Gamma, Rob Radmann, and Aryton Grim all weekend.
Saturday’s RUSH SR races featured extensive battles near the mid-field, with Team Rapscallion teammates Nate Hamilton and Chris Forsberg stealing the show. Forsberg, who was new to the RUSH SR car, learned quickly and found himself battling Hamilton in race 3. The two drivers outbraked each other several times into Big Bend at turn 1, but Hamilton found himself ahead by a mere 0.28 seconds at the end of the race, finishing fifth over Forsberg. Leach, Gamma, and Radmann scored podiums just up the road. In the final race of the weekend, Hamilton and Forsberg again battled for position for the entire race, but were promoted to 4th and 5th when Aryton Grim’s RUSH SR got stuck in gear at West Bend. Leach, Gamma, and Radmann scored podiums again on Saturday afternoon, completing a thrilling weekend of racing for the freshman series in GRIDLIFE.
Ryan Leach dominated the weekend, but like Road America, the wins didn’t come without a fight. Aryton Grim, who ran times equal to the fastest in the series during practice and qualifying, finished less than two-tenths of a second behind Leach in the first race on Friday. The two drivers quickly established a lead over Cole Gamma, Rob Radmann, and Jason Oehler, who rounded out the top 5. Race 2 on Friday featured the same top 5, but Leach was able to pull away from Grim and Gamma while they battled early on the start. Grim’s pace throughout the races would continue to improve, but the experience from the other drivers at the start of the race would put him on his back foot.
Saturday’s RUSH SR races featured extensive battles near the mid-field, with Team Rapscallion teammates Nate Hamilton and Chris Forsberg stealing the show. Forsberg, who was new to the RUSH SR car, learned quickly and found himself battling Hamilton in race 3. The two drivers outbraked each other several times into Big Bend at turn 1, but Hamilton found himself ahead by a mere 0.28 seconds at the end of the race, finishing fifth over Forsberg. Leach, Gamma, and Radmann scored podiums just up the road. In the final race of the weekend, Hamilton and Forsberg again battled for position for the entire race, but were promoted to 4th and 5th when Aryton Grim’s RUSH SR got stuck in gear at West Bend. Leach, Gamma, and Radmann scored podiums again on Saturday afternoon, completing a thrilling weekend of racing for the freshman series in GRIDLIFE.
Model 3 Challenge Competition Electrifies at Lime Rock
Model 3 Challenge featured tons of close battles in their three heats during Circuit Legends.
GRIDLIFE’s Model 3 Challenge returned for the first time this year at Circuit Legends. The series is a unique blend of time attack-style driving and racing, which lowers the barrier to entry for the Tesla Model 3s competing, and for the drivers participating. During the heats at Circuit Legends, competitors had to be close enough to the car ahead in the “Detection Zone” between corner stations at the Uphill and West Bend. Once there, the leading driver was issued a compulsory blue and yellow passing flag on the front straight. The leap-frogging continues until the session time elapses, and the car leading the group wins.
This season, more variants of the Tesla Model 3 were added to the lineup, and a wide representation of the various trims of the vehicle were present for Lime Rock. In the first of four heats, David Schlessman won handily over Alex Vonghay and Rudolph Xu, with Phellippe Gelinas in a brand new Model 3 finishing fourth over Jesse Tong. The second heat was also won by Schlessman, with Vonghay and Tong remaining second and third. Josh Hatch, in the #152 Model 3, worked his way up to fourth over Jesse Tong by the end of the session.
The battles heated up in the final two heats on Saturday, with Rudolph Xu and Jessie Tong dropping through the inverted field as Schlessman and Vonghay advanced to the front. The final heat put the format on display as Tong, Andrew Dekoning, David Schlessman, and Alex Vonghay traded positions several times over the 15-minute event. Schlessman, who had won every heat so far, was unable to catch Vonghay despite having a faster laptime. Since the mandatory blue flags are not active on the final run to the checkered, Vonghay held on and won the last heat of Model 3 Challenge at GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends. Schlessman, Dekoning, Tong, and Gelinas rounded out the top 5. Model 3 Challenge next competes at GRIDLIFE Laguna, September 27-29th.
GLTC’s Split Field Format Thrills Spectators and Drivers
For the second year in a row, GRIDLIFE Touring Cup (GLTC) had more entries than could run on track, forcing the usage of its new “Split Sprint” format - where the field is divided into two run groups based on qualifying position. 54 cars qualified on Friday, setting the stage for a thrilling weekend of single-class sprint racing.
Jason Nguyen, Thomas Moss, Kevin Bandy, and Zac Lovoy battle during one of the B-group races at Circuit Legends.
Friday afternoon’s race 1B was led by Kevin Bandy, a newcomer to GLTC this season, and a driver who was featured in the GRIDLIVES production at Carolina Motorsports Park, a series that puts focus on GRIDLIFE Touring Cup’s competitors on the GRIDLIFE YouTube channel. Bandy jumped out to an early lead while Jackie Ding in his Eibach-branded #86 Toyota AE86 Corolla chased him down, along with the #65 Toyota Celica of Eric Thompson. Thompson’s car suffered an engine issue that brought his car to a stop just before West Bend, bringing out a short full-course yellow. On the restart, Jackie Ding pounced on the opportunity to pass Bandy, and drove up alongside Bandy’s #5 Mazda MX-5 heading into turn 1. Ding completed the pass in spectacular fashion, sliding the solid-rear-axle Corolla out onto the curbing like something out of Initial D. Ding went on to win GLTC Race 1B over Bandy and the #159 of Josh Rubenstein. In Race 1A, Eric Kutil started up front but lost the lead in the first corner to the #41 of James Houghton. After a few laps of battling, Kutil’s car showed signs of weakness as a throttle body problem forced his car to slow and eventually retire. Paul Darling moved into second behind Houghton, and quickly ran the Acura TSX down in his BMW M3. Darling also had an issue, this time an electrical relay popping out of place, leaving his car dead-stick on the Paul Newman straight. After a yellow flag to tow Darling’s car off track, racing resumed, where James Houghton, Matan Rosenberg, and Tony Marchev scored podiums.
On Saturday morning, Race 2B was an all-Sam Scott show up front. His #85 Mazda MX-5 outpaced Andy Smedegard’s #212 Subaru BRZ, while Scott Robertson advanced to third over Eric Thompson and Michael Pagano. Louis Chatroop looped his #26 BMW at the exit of Big Bend on the opening lap of the race, but was able to rejoin safely and the race continued for 15 laps around the short 1.5-mile course. Race 2A again featured a fight between Matan Rosenberg and James Houghton, but this time it was advantage Corvette, with Matan’s ALMS-inspired C5 riding the rim of the first corner and taking the lead early. A battle for fourth broke out behind Ronnie Vajdak, with Nicholas Barbato, Emile Tabb, Jake Price, and Matt Waldbaum trading positions behind the DC Sports Integra. Tony Marchev landed on a podium behind Rosenberg and Houghton, matching his best ever finish in his #17 Honda S2000.
James Houghton leads Matan Rosenberg through turn 5 at LRP.
The third race of the weekend on Saturday afternoon saw Kevin Zhu charge forward in his Honda Civic, defeating Bryan Leonard and Eric Jensen in Race 3B. Leonard and Jensen battled nose to tail in their Scion FRSs - Leonard’s with a Honda K24 powerplant, Jensen’s with an LS V8 under the hood. Leonard made a pass on Jensen at West Bend in his Chase Bays branded #37. Zac Lovoy and Kevin Bandy rounded out the top 5. In Race 3A, a tight battle kicked off right from the start, with James Houghton and Matan Rosenberg leading Ronnie Vajdak, Tony Marchev, and Paul Darling. Jake Price and Nicholas Barbato finished 6th and 7th, but two photo finishes stole the drama at the checkers, with Salil Shukla just edging out Erik Meadows by 0.088 seconds, and Sam Scott beating Mac Korince by 0.091 seconds for 11th and 15th respectively.
The field fans out at the start of an A-group race at Lime Rock Park.
The final races of the weekend, contested on Friday afternoon, had no shortage of drama. After a four-wide run into turn one in Race 4B, Kevin Bandy and Bryan Leonard were squeezed, causing slight contact that broke suspension on the #5 MX-5 Miata. Bandy was unable to completely clear the track, causing a full-course yellow. At the restart, the leader, the #886 Scion FR-S of Jason Nguyen jumped clear of the battle for second. Thomas Moss lost the second spot to Zac Lovoy, whose #42 BMW swept the outside into the first corner. Moss tried to hang on to third, but Kevin Zhu, determined to make up positions, jumped to the outside at the Uphill. Zhu completed the outside pass into West Bend, moving him to third place. However, the very next lap, the right rear hub and studs failed on Zhu’s Civic, launching a wheel into the tire barriers and leaving Zhu stranded. Moss snagged the last step on the Race 4B podium behind Lovoy and Jason Nguyen, who earned his first ever GLTC victory.
Race 4A’s 8-car invert buried James Houghton and Matan Rosenberg in the field for the start, while Scott Heckert, who also benefited from a Race 4 invert at Road America, jumped to an early lead. As Rosenberg moved past Ronnie Vajdak at turn 4, the two made slight contact, cutting one of Rosenberg’s tires. He was forced to retire the car and finished 22nd. At the front, Scott Heckert’s #72 Chevrolet Corvette led Jake Price, Nicholas Barbato, Tony Marchev, and Paul Darling, running times within a tenth of a second of each other. Barbato, whose background in racing includes seasons in SRO TC America, GT Academy, and an SCCA ProSolo Championship, was able to grab his first ever podium in GLTC in his second weekend, with plans to run more in the future. Jake Price scored his best-ever result of 2nd, behind Heckert, who held on for his second win in as many rounds of GRIDLIFE Touring Cup, following up his Race 4 win at Road America.
With Rosenberg’s retirement, James Houghton’s 9th place result was enough for 84 weekend points, scoring him his first weekend championship of the year and propelling him to second in the season standings behind the absent Luke McGrew. Tony Marchev’s two thirds and two fourths were enough for 69 points, landing him in second for the weekend. Marchev took home his first-ever weekend trophy. Rosenberg finished third, and drops behind Houghton to third in the season standings with just three rounds remaining.
Though the on-track activities ended on Saturday afternoon, fans and drivers alike at GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends celebrated into the evening, with a lively karaoke party at the arcade after dark. The Legends Concours, curated by PrimeNYC, featured dozens of poster-cars and halo cars from the 1980s to now, and FCP Euro’s Sunday Motoring Meet gave everyone an opportunity to slow down and enjoy coffee despite some early Sunday drizzles. In its third year, the event once again delivered with intense competition and the sights and sounds of grassroots motorsport as summer wanes. GRIDLIFE Touring Cup and the NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship’s next event is at Autobahn Country Club September 14-15. GRIDLIFE’s next Festival Tour event is GRIDLIFE Laguna at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, September 27-29. Tickets are on sale now and the event will be livestreamed.