McGrew Sweeps Touring Cup Kickoff at Circuit of the Americas
Eric Magnussen (#330) leads Luke McGrew (#7) and James Houghton (#41) in race #4 at Circuit of the Americas.
Austin, TX - GRIDLIFE Touring Cup (GLTC) began season six last weekend at Circuit of the Americas in conjunction with Super Lap Battle, but it was all 7’s at the top of the scoring pylon at the end of the weekend. West Virginia’s Luke McGrew, in his jet-black Chevrolet Corvette, dominated the weekend, leading every on track session and becoming one of just three drivers to perform a weekend sweep in GLTC. Without the presence of reigning champion Jeremy Swenson, McGrew and James Houghton, last year’s 2nd and 3rd place finishers in the championship respectively, went 1-2 in each of the four races.
Qualifying saw McGrew and Houghton land on the front row, with Texas native Lawson Crain and Tony Marchev snagging 3rd and 4th. Eric Magnussen, an experienced club racer with multiple national championships, qualified fifth in his first ever competitive session in GLTC. Matan Rosenberg, now adorning a striking Corvette Racing livery on his own Corvette, qualified sixth.
Matan Rosenberg (#484) leads James Cathers (#129) through the esses at COTA. Rosenberg’s livery is a 2009 American Le Mans Series Corvette Racing throwback.
The first of four races at Circuit of the Americas was Saturday afternoon. James Houghton, in his #41 Acura TSX, took the lead early from the outside lane in the tight hairpin at turn one. Luke McGrew played defense on Lawson Crain and James Cathers in the opening laps, before chasing Houghton back down and passing him. McGrew would go on to win the race, his first since Circuit Legends last August.
Sunday morning brought the popular standing-start race, where drivers park on the main straightaway and await “lights out” on the bridge above the start line. McGrew’s #7 Corvette launched away from the grid as the lights extinguished - no one would chase him down for the remainder of the race. James Cathers passed James Houghton, but quickly lost 2nd and 3rd spot to the #41 and the #484 of Matan Rosenberg. Gary Wimble’s #1 Corvette suffered a differential failure, causing a spin in turn 19. The spin bottled up the mid-pack, generating a fierce battle between Vytis Aranauskas, Tony Marchev, Eric Jensen, and Kyle Hale. On the final lap, Jensen pulled a 2-for-1 move on Hale and Julio Crispin, stealing both spots to climb to 11th in the last two corners.
Race 2 features a formula-racing style standing start - as the lights went out, the field climbs “Big Red” just after dawn.
Tony Marchev (#17) leads Eric Jensen (#184) and newcomer Kyle Hale (#222) towards the end of Sunday morning’s Race 2.
Race 3 reignited the front-runner battle between Houghton and McGrew, as the #41 Acura TSX passed the #7 Corvette for the lead at the end of the first lap. Several laps later, McGrew pulled alongside Houghton’s car entering the esses, but was forced to back out as the #41 turned in for the high-speed turn 3. Houghton fended off McGrew until the final lap, when he overshot the tight turn 12 hairpin, allowing McGrew to pass and win his third race of the weekend.
The grid inversion for the fourth and final race of the weekend was five - burying McGrew in the third row for the start, with Matan Rosenberg on the front row alongside Eric Magnussen. McGrew worked his way into third place, behind James Houghton and Eric Magnussen, who took the lead from Rosenberg at the start. As McGrew tried to pass Magnussen, Houghton was able to pick off the #7 Corvette and take the fight to one of GRIDLIFE’s newest Touring Cup drivers. Magnussen covered off a passing attempt by Houghton into turn 1, sending the #41 TSX wide, and allowing Luke McGrew to nab 2nd place. McGrew passed Magnussen later in the next lap, and went on to win his fourth race of the weekend, and becoming the third driver (alongside Tom O’Gorman in 2022 and Aaron Leichty in 2019) to sweep a GLTC weekend.
Luke McGrew, James Houghton, and Matan Rosenberg topped the podium for the first of 11 rounds of GLTC for 2024. GRIDLIFE Touring Cup races next at Carolina Motorsports Park April 12-14. The racing will be broadcast live on the GRIDLIFE YouTube channel.