GRIDLIFE Drivers Rally Through Rain To Entertain at Road Atlanta
Eric Kutil, James Houghton, and Matan Rosenberg battle for the lead on the front straight at Road Atlanta.
Braselton, GA - GRIDLIFE’s racing series put on a show for fans trackside at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, who lined up along chicane to watch Eibach GRIDLIFE Touring Cup, the GRIDLIFE TrackBattle Championship, GRIDLIFE RUSH Series, and GRIDLIFE drift. The event was part of a collaborative effort between Formula Drift and the Drift Atlanta spectacle and GRIDLIFE, whose motorsport series utilized the morning and early afternoon hours. Though a cold breeze and rain slowed the racetrack down, dedicated masses of fans pulled out umbrellas and spectated the action.
In Eibach GRIDLIFE Touring Cup, Matan Rosenberg won the weekend in h, earning 85 points across the four-race format, defeating the #82 Honda Civic of Eric Kutil (74 points) and the #41 Acura TSX of James Houghton (74 points). Rosenberg won the first race of the weekend on Friday and followed that with two more wins on Saturday, narrowly slipping past Kutil in race 3 to secure his third win of the weekend. Their battle highlighted the day in Eibach GLTC, with Matan hunting the 2020 champion for the duration of the 15-minute race.
Aryton Grim, who started 38th in Race 1 on Friday, drove up to 8th place in race 2, then followed that up with a career-best 4th in race 3 and a 9th in race 4. In the fourth and final race of the weekend, a 10-car field invert placed Rosenberg and Kutil on the fifth row for the start, while the #184 Scion FR-S of Eric Jensen and the #46 of Ryan Kristoff started on the front row. At the end of the first lap, Jensen slipped on the downhill turn 12, impacting the wall and bringing out a full-course yellow. Jensen was okay, but his car will need significant work to rebuild before GRIDLIFE Midwest in June.
At the restart, James Houghton chased down and passed the #46 CRX of Ryan Kristoff, and never relinquished the position, winning his first race of 2025 over hard-charging Matt Waldbaum in the #90 Honda S2000, Kristoff, and Eric Magnussen in the #330 BMW. Several other cars also suffered damage in single car incidents in treacherous conditions Kutil described as the “one of the sketchiest I’ve experienced”, but there were no significant multi-car accidents in the 40-car field despite the challenging track and weather.
The GRIDLIFE RUSH Series and RUSH Auto Works debuted the new RUSH SRX sports racer this weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and after two races on Friday, completed their four-race format on Saturday in front of thousands of fans. Rob Radmann scored three wins in his SRX, earning himself the weekend podium victory with 96 points, over race 3 winner Michael Schneider in his #2, and the #8 of Blair Hosie. With the slippery track conditions and a few small, and now sorted, teething issues, the new car still has much performance potential left to extract at the next round at GRIDLIFE Midwest.
A group of RUSH SR cars chase Cheddar O’Brien in his RUSH SRX through turn 4.
The RUSH SR category featured 27 cars at Road Atlanta, and as was the case at Carolina Motorsports Park in April, was dominated by Ryan Leach in his #56. Leach swept the weekend again, winning all four races and earning 102 points over Andy Voelkel with 78, and Ethan Alexander with 61. However, Leach didn’t lead much of the races on Saturday; Voelkel had the advantage for much of race 3. A full-course yellow left him vulnerable to Leach, who pounced on a restart and stole the victory in a one-lap dash. The same scenario plagued Voelkel again in race 4, with a late yellow flag eliminating his advantage on course. At the restart in the final race, Ethan Alexander and Leach both snuck by, as well as several other cars, leaving Voelkel with just a 6th place to show after leading most of the race. James French scored a 3rd and 4th in the races on Saturday, a consistent factor in the intense battles inside the top 5.
Drivers TJ Hunt, Evan Shanks, Jaylan Battley, Hasan Ahmed, and more, traded places for top 10s in races 3 and 4. The GRIDLIFE RUSH Series races next at GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan, as part of GRIDLIFE’s Midwest Festival, with more cars expected to arrive for those in the SRX field.
The GRIDLIFE TrackBattle Championship saw a number of records set and reset in the 87 car, seven class field. The last time TrackBattle Time Attack cars took on Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta was 2019, so unsurprisingly, when records fell, it was by a large margin.
Falken Club SC has changed names twice since the last running at the 2.54 mile, 12-turn course, and it was Matt Williams in the #129 Honda Fit resetting his previous record by six seconds, with a 1:49.526. Reigning champion Chris Rice was 1.2 seconds behind, with the #156 of Mike Janssen scoring third. James Smith and Sam Deuling rounded out the top five.
In Falken Club TR, Kevin Vue scored a long-overdue victory, defeating Mario Mirone by just a tenth of a second. Vue’s #18 Integra managed a 1:37.425, setting a new benchmark for Club TR, with Mirone’s Civic at a 1:37.557 over Christopher Heideman’s #204 Honda S2000. The next six cars were within one second, showing the incredible strength and competition in one of GRIDLIFE’s native class structures.
Peter Granberg missed out on the podium but made plenty of laps on Saturday despite the poor conditions.
Street class was another category that saw records smashed - Josh Halka’s #777 Subaru ran a 1:33.822, winning over Luca Barberis’ #63 Evo by two-tenths of a second. Willem Drees earned third in his #466 Hyundai Elantra N. The previous record holder, Charles “Spaz” Miller, put a hole through a cylinder and will have to rebuild before GRIDLIFE Midwest Festival next month.
In the Street GT category, it was Corvette versus M4, with the #717 of Luke McGrew winning the class in his new C6 Z06 build with a 1:32.350, resetting the class record. Ryan Mathews and Mark Kilgore, in his BMW M4, scored second and third in class.
Although Mathews lost to McGrew in Street GT, he earned a 1st place trophy in Street Mod, setting a new class record at a 1:29.183 over Dewey DeWitt and Jaime Santos. Dewey’s Impreza, rocking a new sequential gearset, was just under a second behind Mathew’s Corvette.
Allen Patten returned to GRIDLIFE TrackBattle competition at Road Atlanta, this time with a supercharged C7 Corvette, lapping the course in 1:22.706, three seconds faster than Track Mod competitor Jackie Ding in his BMW M2. Jason Guzman scored third in the Track Mod class in his #35 Nissan GTR.
A 12-car Unlimited class represented a strong showing for one of GRIDLIFE’s least restrictive categories, topped by Feras Qartoumy’s #72 Chevrolet Corvette. Qartoumy reset the GRIDLIFE Unlimited record in the RWD category with his 1:20.223, over Eric Fleming’s 1000+ HP silver C6. Fleming ran a 1:22.168 edging the NineLivesRacing MX-5 by 3.8 seconds.
Feras Qartoumy was again the fastest car at GRIDLIFE at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in his ground-pounding C6 Corvette.
GRIDLIFE put on a spectacle for fans of GRIDLIFE and Formula Drift alike, and returned full-course drift to the fast downhill esses at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Thousands of fans lined the fence for the action, but they’ll all be able to watch GRIDLIFE’s next round at GingerMan Raceway in June via the GRIDLIVE Live broadcast, which returns live and free coverage of the competition series at Midwest Festival. Tickets are on sale now at gridlifemidwest.com
