GRIDLIFE Competitors Smash Records at Repaved Mid-Ohio
Lexington, OH - GRIDLIFE’s Mid-Ohio Meet has long been a hotspot for battles in both the NOS Energy TrackBattle Time Attack and GRIDLIFE Touring Cup, but with enormous field sizes, and the addition of a new track surface, conditions were ripe for records in every category this season. Drivers explained on Friday that the freshly repaved 2.26-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course felt a bit strange at first, with some describing the new pavement as loud, tricky, and greasy.
The track was known previously as one of the most treacherous courses in North America, especially in the rain, but the new surface offered a different type of challenge. GRIDLIFE Touring Cup (GLTC) competitor Dana Basinski said “It’s like if you turned up the tire sounds in iRacing, it’s just like that. I’ve never heard my tires more on a racetrack.” Despite the quirks of the surface and the threat of rain on Saturday, drivers found their footing and records began to fall.
12 Records Fall in NOS Energy TrackBattle Time Attack
Falken Sundae Cup, the 25:1 power-to-weight class aimed at cars like the venerable Honda Fit, featured 21 cars at Mid-Ohio, one of the largest fields the class has ever had. Richard Sawicki and Chris Rice battled throughout the weekend; Rice drove his #91 Honda Fit, Sawicki in his #528 Mazda MX-5 Miata. While Rice obliterated James Smith’s standing record by 1.6 seconds in the front-wheel drive subcategory, Sawicki set a new class record (1:47.010) in his rear-drive Mazda, beating Rice by 0.04 seconds to win the weekend. Joseph King in his Mazda Protoge finished 3rd, half a second behind. Points leader Ryan Mukherjee managed a 4th place and retains a 5-point advantage over the previous track record holder, James Smith.
In Falken ClubTR, the front-drive brawl between James Houghton and Evan Mclaren continued at Mid-Ohio. While Houghton, in his Canadian #330 Honda CSX won at GRIDLIFE Rev-Up last month, he has yet to beat Mclaren’s Integra in a head-to-head matchup. Mclaren, Graham Gaylord, and Peter Granberg all reset class drivetrain records by about a second, but it was Mclaren’s blistering 1:34.083 that would clear Houghton and Granberg by a tenth of a second to win ClubTR for his third straight weekend.
Luca Barberis, fresh off of a second place last month at GRIDLIFE Midwest, defeated Brad Moore and Eddy Segal in his #63 Mitsubishi Evo in Street class. Luca’s time of 1:32.297 was fast enough to reset the standing Street class record of 1:32.414 held by Joe Mielke. Moore and Segal also reset drivetrain records, with Moore’s Cayman clocking a 1:35.967 for Street RWD, and Segal’s Civic running a 1:36.060 for Street FWD. Barberis extends his lead over Sam Bosnian in Street class season points, with two wins and a second in three events so far this year.
Luca Barberis reset the Street - AWD record in his #63 Mitsubishi Evo.
Street GT has seen a familiar pair lead nearly every event so far this season, with Andy Voelkel and Ido Waksman running first and second in three events this year in their C8 and C6 generation Corvettes, respectively. Voelkel reset the Street GT record, beating the previous 1:31.657 that Waksman set last year with a 1:30.111. The win is Voelkel’s 4th of the year, and his fourth track record, which has awarded him with the maximum possible number of points in a season. Unless another driver does the same and has more head-to-head wins, Voelkel will be provisional champion in Street GT for 2024, with more than half the season to go. Nicholas Hendrix also landed on the podium, scoring 18 points towards his season total.
Andy Voelkel reset the Street GT RWD record and won his fourth event of 2024, giving him the provisional championship in class for 2024.
Another driver on a charge to max out GRIDLIFE’s points system early in the year is Allen Patten, whose Toyota GR Supra smashed Jackie Ding’s prior record by nearly a second, clocking in at 1:27.852 and winning the weekend in Street Modified. Dewey DeWitt followed with a 1:28.573, beating Ryan Mathews by 0.005 seconds for second place in Street Mod. Kyle McKiou and Kal Fortner finished 4th and 5th in class, strengthening their third place and second place running in the season points so far.
McKiou also ran a few sessions in the Track Mod class, and managed to not only defeat the competition, but also broke the Track Mod RWD record by 2.8 seconds with a 1:27.859. Brad Perkins in his BMW M3 and Brandon Hodge in his Toyota GR Supra finished 2nd and 3rd in class.
The Unlimited - RWD class record of 1:21.767 stood for three seasons, set by Feras Qartoumy in his ground-pounding Chevrolet Corvette in 2021. Steve Luca, in his first event of 2024, came out swinging, managing to stitch together a 1:21.633 on Sunday, breaking the GRIDLIFE production car record by over a tenth of a second in his modified Ford Mustang. For any driver, defeating a record set by Feras Qartoumy is a major achievement; it falls just short of track record lap times for factory-built GT3 race cars, which do not begin life as production cars in the same way as Luca’s Mustang. The record-breaking lap came in spite of challenging “porpoising” issues, where the front of the car buffets up and down at high speeds due to aerodynamic turbulence. Luca’s 2024 season includes entries at Lime Rock Park and potentially WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Road America, where he will again take aim at Qartoumy’s records.
Steve Luca’s Mustang reset a 3-year standing record at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course - he now holds GRIDLIFE’s overall production car record at 1:21.633.
GLTC Championship Battle Continues to Shape Up
GRIDLIFE Touring Cup featured a 62-car entry list for Mid-Ohio, the largest field in six years of competition. To facilitate better racing, GRIDLIFE employed the use of the “split sprints” format, which races two fields of cars split by pace, with the opportunity to move into the main race or be relegated to the “B” field throughout the weekend. This format adjustment was used last season at Circuit Legends at Lime Rock Park and was popular with drivers and spectators.
In Race 1, the #41 Acura TSX of James Houghton started out front, but was quickly eclipsed by the #82 Civic of Eric Kutil on the opening lap. Corvette teammates Luke McGrew and Matan Rosenberg followed suit, with Tony Marchev, James Cathers, and Andy Smedegard (driving Salil Shukla’s BMW this round) in hot pursuit. Kutil’s Civic seemed to get better and better as the race went on, and he easily went on to win the first of the four “A” field races at Mid-Ohio. McGrew and Rosenberg rounded out the podium. In the “B” field, Ryan Kristoff led Bryan Leonard and Dai Nguyen in a 29-car field. Vytis Aranauskas, who crossed the finish line in the top 3, was disqualified at impound after the car did not complete its compliance checks.
Saturday’s weather threatened the running of races 2, 3, and 4, but the rain never materialized despite a light sprinkling around parts of the course. Gridded by Race 1 lap times, the 29-car A field took the green and resumed the fight between Kutil, Rosenberg, and McGrew. Tony Marchev, in his black #17 Honda S2000, remained glued to Kutil’s bumper from turn 4 to turn 12, while Kutil tried to find a way through the two leading Corvettes. With three laps to go, Kutil nearly found a route through Rosenberg’s American Le Mans Corvette Racing inspired car, but was denied the pass into the keyhole by an attacking Marchev. McGrew held on to win his fifth race of 2024, and his first since the season-opening round at Circuit of the Americas in March. Dana Basinski, whose car suffered an overheating problem in Race 1A, won Race 2B over Vytis Aranauskas and Justin Lee, and along with Dustin Bartee and Austin Cobb, were re-promoted to the “A” group for Race 3. The race had a short full-course yellow for Lealand Wamboldt, who spun and impacted the tire bundles at Keyhole.
Dana Basinski picked up his first GLTC winner’s sticker after defeating Justin Lee and Vytis Aranauskas in GLTC Race 2B.
In the main Race 3, the running order consisted of the same drivers, but this time in a different order. Matan Rosenberg’s #484 Corvette spent most of the race leading Luke McGrew and Eric Kutil, but this time, Kutil was unable to hold off the #17 of Marchev. The four lead cars broke away from Andy Smedegard, Aaron Leichty, Paul Darling, and Jake Price as the race continued. All four leaders finished within two seconds of each other, with Rosenberg claiming his third win of 2024, all coming in the last two events. In the “B” field, Eric Magnussen drove away from Gary Wimble, Erik Meadows, and James Houghton, after he suffered a mechanical problem in qualifying that would relegate him to the tail of the field. Houghton experienced mechanical woes in Race 1 and 2 and spent all of Race 3B climbing through the pack. Unfortunately, no drivers are promoted into Race 4 after Race 3, so this group would remain in the “B” field for the final race of the weekend.
Eric Kutil (left) and Matan Rosenberg (right) have spent a lot of time side-by-side as of late; their battle continued this weekend into a tie in weekend points for 2nd place. Kutil beat Rosenberg in the tiebreaker, ordered by time in qualifying.
Race 4 featured a 4-car invert, placing Kutil’s SuperTouring-inspired Honda Civic on the front row. After a wild 3-wide run into turn 4 after the start on the backstretch, Kutil emerged the leader, but was then passed by Luke McGrew on the second lap. Tony Marchev followed suit a lap later. A full-course yellow was deployed for a stalled Matt Waldbaum, whose #90 Honda S2000 spat out its driveshaft in Thunder Valley. At the restart, Kutil was unable to make inroads on the leaders, and finished third behind McGrew and Marchev, who recorded a personal-best second place. Andy Smedegard and Matan Rosenberg rounded out the top 5. In the “B” race, Kevin Zhu fought to hold off James Houghton for several laps before the Canadian driver snuck by and went on to win. Eric Magnussen scored a 3rd behind Erik Meadows, with Zhu and Mac Korince finishing 4th and 5th in their Honda Civics.
Luke McGrew won his third Touring Cup weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, extending his lead in the season points. McGrew has finished no worse than fifth in 16 races so far; the only driver with a better average finish is Eric Kutil, who has a 2.1 average finish in 12 races to Luke’s 2.3 in 16. McGrew leads Matan Rosenberg, Eric Kutil, James Houghton, and James Cathers in season points heading into the next round at Road America.
Luke McGrew won his third weekend in GLTC and added a sixth race win to his 2024 results.
GRIDLIFE RUSH SR Puts on Thrillers at Mid-Ohio
GRIDLIFE’s RUSH SR Series raced for the second time at GRIDLIFE events in 2024, first competing in April at Carolina Motorsports Park, the first stop on the Festival Tour. The field consisted of 33 cars, one of the largest the series has seen so far. The #49 of James Wheeler qualified on pole on Friday afternoon for the first of four races with a time of 1:34.106, just three hundredths faster than Alex Chang in his #11. Once the green waved for the first race, a thrilling three-wide battle for the lead began immediately, with some drivers even trying to squeeze by others through the grass on the backstretch. The top six cars all finished within a half a second of the next, with the winning margin just 0.826 seconds, with Alex Chang defeating polesitter James Wheeler over Michael Schenider, the Rush Stig, and Rob Radmann.
Race 2 was more of the same, with the front six cars exchanging positions nearly every lap, assisted by the slipstream on Mid-Ohio’s long backstraightaway. This time, Michael Schneider snuck through and beat Chang and Wheeler, with Ryan Leach and Rob Radmann following in fourth and fifth. Jason Oehler, who finished 21st in the first race, finished 7th in race 2.
The Team Kestrel Motorsports RUSH SR navigates turn 5, over the crest known as Madness at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
The GRIDLIFE RUSH SR Series features qualifying on both days of competition, so Saturday morning reset the field for the final two races of the weekend. The RUSH Stig car qualified on pole over Ryan Leach, Radmann, Chang, and Cole Gamma. Race 2 winner Michael Schneider only managed 6th quickest in the morning’s qualifying session. Race 3 again featured a revolving list of the series’ top drivers in close formation, but the RUSH Stig took home a victory over Cole Gamma’s #95 entry and Ryan Leach, Alex Chang, and Michael Schneider. The final race of the weekend saw Ryan Leach defeat Chang and Gamma, with another sub one-second margin between the top two. GRIDLIFE’s RUSH SR Series goes back into action at Road America at the end of July.
GRIDLIFE’s next event is Summer Apex, held at Road America, America’s National Park of Speed, July 26-28. Road America was the site of the competition season finale in 2021; it missed the schedule because of repaving in 2022, but returned in 2023 in a mid-summer date. For the first time, Road America will feature the full GRIDLIFE Festival Tour Experience, with drifting and music added to the mainstays of HPDE, GLTC and the NOS Energy TrackBattle Championship. Tickets are on sale now at www.summerapex.com.
Mid-Ohio Meet Results
