Another summer is upon us and with it comes the much anticipated #GRIDLIFE festivals. Last year I had the pleasure of attending my first festival, #GRIDLIFE South, at the prestigious Road Atlanta. The Midwest festival is at a lesser known track called GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan; about 2 hours northeast of Chicago. To recap, the #GRIDLIFE festivals are a combination of time attack, HPDE, drifting, and concerts. If that’s ringing a bell, it’s because you probably play Forza Horizon and it’s kind of like that.
Much like #GRIDLIFE South, there was enough stimulation for even the most jaded of us. If the concerts, screeching tires, or sea of people weren’t enough for you, there was the unexpected, massive storm cell that blew canopies across the paddock. Never a dull moment!
One of my favorite races of the weekend was the Gridlife Touring Cup (GLTC) class. The GLTC brought wheel to wheel racing to #GRIDLIFE, which means that drivers are racing each other for first place. In the other events, everybody is ATTACKING the fastest TIME (hence Time Attack), and not racing each other directly. GLTC is the traditional motorsports racing, where drivers go head-to-head and wheel-to-wheel to cross the finish line first.
Unfortunately, the weather made qualifying dramatic and put some of the potentially faster drivers toward the back as the track dried unpredictably. Thankfully at #GRIDLIFE Midwest there were far fewer on-track incidents (read: crashes). There were plenty of offs, but the weather certainly helped keep the drivers awake.
Until next year!
