GridLife Circuit Legends: A Roar Comes to Connecticut

The GridLife event is a multi-faceted “happening” that brings all walks of life together for three full days of camping, track racing, drifting, collaborating, and empowering conversations between like-minded people. Driving down the long roadway entering the park, you will immediately notice a wide open field filled with people just like you. People who try their best to put all their worries aside and let their car, their tool of stress relief and bringer of joy dictate their level of freedom. Basically, what has been created over these days is a community - a small town containing a wide array of cars, trucks, campers, and tents showing first that the enthusiast lifestyle is here to stay and enjoy no matter what the climate is in the outside world, no matter what troubles exist at home. These comrades will not miss a second of the action over the next few days whether they are driving or spectating. As you ignore the distance, wave off the insects, and dart your gaze over the expanse, making your way by foot is an experience of discovery and excitement. This small journey during the first several minutes will bring even the most inexperienced, novice onlooker into a world of family, inspiration, performance, color, and history, which, whether you agree or not, will prove both educational and thrilling, since the collection of vehicles, range of people, and level of enthusiasm is nothing short of impressive.

As the morning progresses, each section of this enthusiast world becomes more populated and active with streams of both adult and child alike weaving in and out of the collection of vendor booths, cars, and attractions peppered along the maze-like pathway. After winding past the camping and main parking areas, a collection of vendor booths makes the vibrance and color of the scene begin to amplify. First to mention, no matter what the overwhelmed enthusiasts poison may be, like a carnival midway, GridLife's map creative laid down a magnet that effortlessly pulled in each and every attendee, like children in a toy store, to their excitement and promise. At first notice, the Subimods booth stood at the corner of the vendor gateway with an impressive collection of merchandise and welcomed conversation that entertained a constant stream of visitors. After viewing a line of modified Subarus in front of their booth, following the path around the bend leads visitors to multiple opportunities to visit the Motoring Meet Showfield, which highlighted corrals for both Subimods, and Hyundai, along with organizations like Drift New England, Toyo Tires, and GTechniq, just to name a few, in addition to food trucks and sponsored eatery tents raised by contributors like Vara's Racing. Also, in this sector of the park, a confirmation that the event is truly family friendly, GridLife provided a fully vintage gaming arcade area open for the entire weekend throughout each night giving attendees and family guests a wide band of entertainment.

Obviously, the event was not founded on the idea of merchandise, food, camping, and family entertainment. Turning back, and casting your eyes back and forth across the perimeter will quickly cause the most obsessive car lover to take a deep breath and think of all those vehicles they have dreamed about owning since they were kids. If there were a place where your Hot Wheels collection came to life, it was at Lime Rock that weekend. The Gridlife x Prime Concourse allowed those in attendance to see some of the industry's premiere collector performance platforms that were ever produced by an automotive manufacturer. Truly, as GridLife promoted, these "vehicular heroes" from the 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s were proudly on display in full glory. This section of field, populated with a series of JDM, DTM, BTCC, JTCC, and D1 platforms who have been inspiring the creativity of modifiers for years exhibited a victory for the car culture and gave a real detailed look into the history of car tuning and motorsports. Beyond the dedicated spaces were rows of additional vehicles that ranged in years, specification, and vintage both under tents and in the open. For the excited onlooker, these cars could both raise eyebrows and awareness while tempting the heart to explore the possibilities of bringing personal dreams to reality. Repeatedly, you could hear voices in the crowd saying, "This car makes me want to build something of my own." The ultimate empowerment which brings inspiration forward. 

Once you catch your breath and look over the last beautiful vehicle, your eyes and ears are naturally pulled past the lush green glen, through the smoke, dust, and distant roar, and over Spectator Hill where the event paddock and track pattern is in full view from above. Clusters of people of all ages stood, kneeled and sat observing the drivers and cars taxing out, speeding past, and growling through, all with the purpose of gathering their best time and performance for later runs. Many, who could not help to want to take a closer look and engage with the event's energy, prompted their feet down the steep hill to explore the Paddock and main sections of Lime Rock Park that contain the majority of magic, mechanics, and tech that fuel the momentum behind the muscle of the Grid Life event. Walking amongst this collection of the dedicated, experienced, and somewhat rabid motorsports gangland is a simple reminder to anyone who has ever chased a passion that anything is possible. Every vehicle brand and performance model seemed to be represented as you scan the rows. Eibach, Falken, and FCP Pro tents and representatives from other brands were clearly in view. No matter what the category or class, there was a car for every fan, and a driver for every event. Subaru, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Porsche, and even a Lotus  among many more stood proudly with their owners just waiting for their time, waiting for their moment to shine and prove that all this work, sweat, and effort can be paid in victory. This year's event brought a plethora of options for drivers, teams and fans who crave a taste of speed that is only feet away to touch and decibels close to painful.

In this fourth season of Grid Life Circuit Legends, the organization brought several categories of competition to the event. This year, on Friday and Saturday, Lime Rock saw both the Grand Touring Racing (GLGT) and GridLife Touring Cup (GLTC) which have developed into the fastest growing racing series in the nation bringing on a number of impressive competitors and performances. Also, throughout the weekend, the event was able to host full course Drifting, allowing drivers in this genre to experience their modified high speed drift cars on the big track. Of course, Grid Life would be incomplete without including the Track Battle Time Attack, which gave a collection of competitors an opportunity to challenge the clock and bring their best racing abilities to the track. Drivers of some of the countries fastest automobiles in this class were able to compete throughout the weekend, race against the clock, and meet the challenges of seven classes of Time Attack which is always a crowd pleaser. Finally, on Friday and Saturday, what proved to be one of the fastest, unique, and exciting categories at Lime Rock this year, was the Grid Life Rush series. This category involved drivers operating a special class called Rush SR (sports racer), an open cockpit high performance vehicle which are small and lightweight and the truly defined by Grid Life as a "driver's car from the ground up". Walking through the Paddock was an amazing exhibit of all types of motorsports competition whose passions and personalities were fully on display to share.

Within only a single day of exposure, any spectator would have clearly felt the amazing sense of camaraderie and kinship between enthusiasts, drivers, and even the novice onlooker during this event. The openness and engagement that existed between spectator and practitioner during Grid Life Circuit Legends was palatable, noticeable, and uniquely clear compared to most other motorsports or performance-centric happenings under this category. Exploring the show fields, the campgrounds, the vendor areas, the upper concourse, and even both paddock sectors, was an obvious joy for everyone in attendance. Known drivers in several classes were walking freely amongst those fans and peers openly discussing their projects, goals, challenges, and hopes truly defining the spirit of community within these acres of expanse, but also serving as a reminder for inspiration and effort to accomplish those goals which seem so unattainable to the layman spectator. At the beginning of the Saturday morning session, you could see several familiar faces relaxing and preparing their mental and physical conditions as they felt the day of competition moving in closer. Driver and influencer Eric “Dewey” DeWitt, known performance pilot who is often seen behind the wheel of his 1995 Subaru Impreza L called "Boogeyman", was taking a rare moment of reflection seated under his tent, but as always thinking of the next race. "We'll just have to get out there and do it," he said. "And if we don't get it done, we'll work it out and smoke em the next time." In true Boogeyman fashion, DeWitt and Team Boogeyman beat their own 2023 record in the AWD Street Mod Class by clocking a 54.413-second lap to see victory.

The Paddock was filled with other familiar drivers who shared their experience and inspirations with peers and fans alike, never hesitating to reach out with a hand, give an autograph, selfie, or shout a friendly “hello" as the event and the day's temperature heated up. Fan favorite Bucky Lasek was both on his feet and in the seat during the weekend residing alongside some of the Team Subimods drivers and support crew. Driver and Engineer Devin Hofmann was also in full force with her team "Devine Force Racing" doing her best to also conquer some challenges laid at her feet, but always pressing forward with a positive note of resolve and encouragement for those who may be inspired to follow her footsteps. "Honestly, Lime Rock is such a fun track.", Hofmann said with excitement. "It's one of those, if you mess up, at least you get to fix it again in a minute. I appreciate that. Sometimes, other tracks, I love them, but man you pay for it over the next minute and then you have only four laps. Here, the good thing is you have plenty of time to fix it cuz it goes so fast. It's like a roller coaster and fun." As one female driver in a sea of individuals in a male dominated sport, Hofmann is always encouraging to those who may not feel they have a chance to compete. "If you want to do it, just do it." she said. "Go to a track day. I just showed up not knowing anybody. You're always going to have some people who are funny about it, but there are so many people that aren't. Just go hang out with the people who aren't. The good people just want to help you go fast and have fun. It is attainable if you try."

Coming across other drivers who compete in classes categories from Track to Drift, clearly showed the diversity, intensity, and the limitlessness of the playing field which proved that victory is for anyone who chooses to work hard and take it. This event saw a lot of success, challenge, and record breaking moments that will go down in the books as a banner year and season for Grid Life and the Lime Rock venue. In an August 17th press release submitted by Lime Rock Park to report on the success and competition victories at the weekend event, it was stated that "more than 70 competitors chased lap records across seven classes and multiple drivetrain divisions, with the 1.5-mile circuit" in the TrackBattle Time Attack alone. Drivers including Jackie Ding broke the Track Mod benchmark in his No. 687 BMW M2 clocking a 51.168-second lap, while Falken Club TR's Peter Granberg set a 56.855-second record in his No. 511 Subaru BRZ. Right along these winners, drivers like Jim Rauck, Eddy Segal, Evan McLaren, Jake Ertel, Jeremy Lowder, Chris Boersma, Igor Kesilyov, and many others saw victory before the weekend was over. Within the same press announcement on their website, Lime Rock's CEO and President Dicky Riegel was quoted to say, "GridLife Circuit Legends Festival is an amazing event, it represents the future of Lime Rock Park,” he said. “We’ve been here for 68 years and we’ve got a lot of people who have been coming that whole time. We owe it to the future of this place to build a new customer base, a new enthusiast. In the first few years of GridLife, 80 percent of the people who came had never been here before." This is a testament to the organization, staff, and participants who placed the event's success on their highest level of priority.

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