GRIDLIFE Summer Apex Turns Up the Heat at Road America
ELKHART LAKE, WI (27 July 2025) — The only thing hotter than the corn sweats in Wisconsin last weekend was GRIDLIFE Summer Apex, which scorched its way into the record books at Road America with its signature mashup of high-octane motorsports and beat-dropping music.
Back for its second year at the legendary facility, the festival drew thousands of fans for a weekend that was equal parts racing, car show and music festival. Attendance jumped 30% over 2024, camping sold out before the gates even opened and the paddock was packed with more than 300 drivers across multiple racing and drifting classes, an all-time record for the series.
With a growing range of brands looking to connect with the GRIDLIFE community, another 200 cars were on display as part of the GRIDLIFE Motoring Meet presented by FCP Euro, the Subimods Corral, Hyundai N Corral and Lowend Garage corrals.
Fans arrived early and stayed late, flooding the 640-acre grounds for more than 50 hours of on-track action split between Road America’s iconic 4-mile road course and the adjacent Briggs & Stratton Motorplex karting facility. Twelve official lap records were shattered across nine classes, reinforcing Road America’s status as the National Park of Speed.
It’s only the second time the full GRIDLIFE Festival has touched down at Road America, but last year’s debut already felt like a generational shift. GRIDLIFE made history in 2024 as the first to bring full-course drifting to the historic road course and 2025 doubled down on the momentum.
This level of car culture and competition rivals the world’s biggest racing series and Road America knows it.
The circuit is no stranger to the upper echelons of motorsport with INDYCAR, NASCAR and IMSA on the calendar. But GRIDLIFE brings something those series are hungry for: a younger, more participatory crowd that all motorsport brands are desperate to reach.
“We like GRIDLIFE a lot. It brings a lot of new and younger fans to Road America,” said Road America Communications Director John Ewert. “The car culture is far and wide and it’s really neat to see today’s younger fans getting into import cars, technology and understanding the performance characteristics of various cars that are affordable within their price range.”
For a storied track like Road America, the growth of the GRIDLIFE event reflects another diverse and dynamic demographic to get to experience the track now, and in the future.
“We’ve been around 70 years, racing’s been around longer than that,” Ewert continued. “The [GRIDLIFE] car culture is vast so it’s really cool to see a different generation accepting cars and doing different things with them from Time Attack to drifting to road course racing. It’s just really nice to see that car culture isn’t fading away, that there’s a resurgence and a revival and GRIDLIFE is adding different forms of entertainment to it and different aspects to it. It’s great. This event is something that is all encompassing.”
74% of GRIDLIFE’s core audience and driver base is between the ages of 18 and 34. They don’t just show up. They wrench. They camp. They build. They drift. They race. They share. It’s a crowd that lives the culture instead of just consuming it.
“GRIDLIFE bringing drifting to Road America is incredibly positive,” Ewert added. “It’s great that drifting is still alive and well in the United States. It’s new and exciting. When people see it for the first time their minds are kind of blown. Full course drifting is awesome. It’s amazing what these drivers can do with their cars and it’s just a different form of motorsport entertainment to watch. It offers a different flavor to the weekend.”
With music pulsing from three festival stages, including the NOS Energy Main Stage, arcade battles and sponsor activations buzzing across the paddock, GRIDLIFE Summer Apex once again proved it’s one of the most immersive weekends in American motorsports.
With Summer Apex in the books and GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends (Aug. 15-17), Chicagoland (Sept. 12-14), Laguna Festival (Sept. 26-28) and PITT Race (Oct. 17-19) still ahead, the second half of 2025 is shaping up to be the most electric yet both on the track and in the scene.
For more information and upcoming event dates, visit www.grid.life.