Over 300 Entries Across GRIDLIFE Summer Apex Paddock at Road America
Elkhart Lake, WI - GRIDLIFE roars into Road America this weekend, July 25-27, 2025, for its second year of GRIDLIFE Summer Apex, featuring packed fields across each series for a full weekend of music and motorsports at America’s National Park of Speed. The GRIDLIFE RUSH Series will see its largest grid ever, nearing 50 entries, while Eibach GRIDLIFE Touring Cup approaches 50 as well. The GRIDLIFE TrackBattle Time Attack Championship is heating up in several classes, and 93 competitors are set to fight across seven categories this weekend. GRIDLIFE’s newest wheel-to-wheel series, GRIDLIFE GT, is building strength with over a dozen entries and more cars on the way - and will feature new live data graphics powered by Fire Laps on the broadcast.
GRIDLIFE GT Aims to Excite with New Names, Fire Laps Integration
After a successful opening two rounds of competition at GRIDLIFE Midwest Festival and GRIDLIFE Mid-Ohio Meet, GRIDLIFE GT (GLGT) heads to Road America this weekend, a track well suited for the powerful cars in this new wheel-to-wheel series. Though James Houghton, AJ Hartman, and Chris DeLucia lead the championship standings, none will be present at the series’ third event. Houghton will return with his Honda Civic TCR at Circuit Legends next month alongside AJ Hartman, while Chris DeLucia is out repairing damage following an incident at Lime Rock earlier this month. The field is bolstered by new entries from Ryan Osiecki, Kevin Wesley, Collin King, and Alex Peitz, and features returning talents like Allen Patten, Charles Andre Bilodeau, James Forbis, and Hans Horpedahl. Tony Barber and Josh Sadler’s Hyundai Veloster N will also be present alongside David Calzada.
The series will launch a new integration with Fire Laps, a driver development platform that features live-data capability, which the broadcast will take advantage of during GRIDLIFE GT segments. The data for display will evolve throughout the season, but begin with G-force data and min/max speeds on each driver’s fast lap.
Eibach GRIDLIFE Touring Cup Championship Battle Charges to Wisconsin
The Eibach GRIDLIFE Touring Cup Series has featured a three-way fight since the first round of the season between Eric Kutil, Eric Magnussen, and Matan Rosenberg - with the latter leading by just nine points over Kutil. Notably absent from the preliminary entry list is the #82 of Kutil, who is awaiting a refresh of some driveline parts. While it’s possible Kutil could still make a showing, he is likely to leave Road America on the table for others to capitalize. Eric Magnussen’s gold BMW has charged up the charts this season, and he remains a fierce threat to the front two in the standings.
Dana Basinski will return in his #109 Subaru BRZ, along with Christian Aranha, Mat Beck, and Jake Joraanstad, who have sat out recent rounds. Newcomers Austin Hill, Qi Yang, Tson Schwiesow, and Jon Borlee will join the grid for the 5th round of the 2025 championship. Rooke Blake Korth, piloting a 2010 Porsche Cayman previously in the hands of Aaron Leichty, will be a driver to watch after an extremely strong debut at GRIDLIFE Midwest Festival. Also present on the entry list is Alan Newsome, whose Merkur XR4Ti turned heads earlier in the season at GRIDLIFE South Carolina. The 45-car grid will take its first green flag on Saturday morning.
Voelkel, Hosie, French Look to Strike Out Perfect Hits from Ryan Leach in RUSH Series
The GRIDLIFE RUSH Series will see nearly 50 RUSH SRs take the green this weekend in the next round of the RUSH Series championship. After a non-points round at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the field gains back some of the staples at the front of the field - Ryan Leach, who has won every race so far this season and has scored a perfect 300 points, Andy Voelkel, Ethan Alexander, James French, and more. TJ Hunt and Nate Hamilton also return for Team Rapscallion.
The light weight of the RUSH SR, combined with the 150-horsepower GSX engine, creates a high-slipstream environment that introduces a slingshot-like racing environment. Last year, Nico Bratz, Ryan Leach, and Alex Chang finished three-wide in a drag race to the finish line, with Leach winning by just 0.056 seconds. Road America’s long straights provide ample opportunity for drafting, teamwork, and last second moves, making it a thrilling watch on the GRIDLIFE Live broadcast.
GRIDLIFE TrackBattle Championship Returns to High-Speed Road America
With a nearly 100-car field, the GRIDLIFE TrackBattle championship charges into Elkhart Lake with several class battles glowing hot at the midpoint of the season. Mike Janssen aims to defend his lead in Falken Club SC, after winning the last two events at GingerMan Raceway and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He’ll be chasing at 2:54.748, the front-drive class record at Road America, but Richard Sawicki’s 2:52.491 is the overall course record for Falken Club SC.
In Falken ClubTR, Mario Mirone and Jerami Bailey lead Evan McLaren and Kevin Vue, but the real fight is for P5 in the championship, with Mike Bryant, Peter Granberg, Stan Fayngold, and Chris Heideman locked together with just two points covering the quartet. Though Heideman, McLaren, and Vue won’t be present, the rest will take aim at James Houghton’s FWD record (2:29.38) and Granberg will defend his rear-wheel drive record of 2:31.266.
Street Class remains Josh Halka’s playground, with the driver of the #777 Subaru Impreza leading by 31 points over the #466 of Willem Drees and his Elantra N. However, Halka will be chasing Luca Barberis’ track record set in 2024 of 2:25.792. Barberis, and RWD record holder Brad Moore will be present defending their records at Road America.
Ryan Mathews leads Street GT over Luke McGrew - and both are back for another weekend of Corvette competition. Mark Kilgore has BMW representation on the entry list, and sits third in the championship standings in his BMW M4. Street Mod is led by Dewey DeWitt, 91 points earned with three seconds and a win in the first four rounds of the season. Dewey’s “Bogeyman” suffered a mechanical issue at Road America last year, but he’s showing up with even more refinements with his 1995 Subaru and will take the fight to Ryan Mathews, Jaime Santos, and Kal Fortner, who is back in the paddock after skipping Mid-Ohio.
All eyes in Track Mod turn to Allen Patten, whose Louis Gigliotti-built C7 Corvette wasn’t expected to be at Road America. Patten has handily won every event he’s entered in the gray and green beast, and smashed two records already. The lone exception to that was Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, where weather conditions weren’t ideal for track records. He aims at Jackie Ding’s lightning quick 2:13.387 from 2023 for the class record.
Unlimited is a dogfight between Andirus Bertulis in his #171 Lexus RCF and Ernestas Puzelis’ Chevrolet Corvette. Bertulis leads Puzelis by 2 points, but Luie Zendejas is prepared for battle in his C8 Corvette, and Eric Fleming enters his silver C6 fresh off an exciting win and track record at Mid-Ohio. Mike Dusold will also be there, defending his impressive record-breaking time from last year, a 2:04.583, with straight line speeds reportedly over 200 miles per hour.
GRIDLIFE Drift Takes on Briggs & Stratton Motorplex, Full Course
The GRIDLIFE Drift field is packed at Summer Apex, with both the full course and the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex hot this weekend at Road America. Across both courses, over 100 entries are set to light things up for fans around the facility. Collin Zielinski, Peter Collins, Evan Bogovich, Sonya Klaus, Justin Pawlak, Andy Smedegard, Robert Thorne and Grant Anderson are just some of the names present on the expansive entry list.
GRIDLIFE Summer Apex features a live broadcast of all three days of action, starting at 8:30 AM on Friday on YouTube. Tickets are still available for spectators hoping to see the action in person, with fan walks on pit lane during lunch for TrackBattle Time Attack on Saturday and the GRIDLIFE RUSH Series on Sunday. The first 50 fans to the pit lane will get a free poster featuring the TrackBattle and RUSH Series. For more information, visit www.summerapex.com
