{"id":8530,"date":"2025-08-17T18:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T22:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8530"},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:04:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:04:44","slug":"gridlife-circuit-legends-brings-new-energy-and-track-records-to-lime-rock-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/17\/gridlife-circuit-legends-brings-new-energy-and-track-records-to-lime-rock-park\/","title":{"rendered":"GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends Brings New Energy and Track Records to Lime Rock Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 500 cars participate in fourth installment of GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends Festival at Lime Rock Park<\/i><\/p>\n

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LAKEVILLE, CONN. (17 August 2025)-\u00a0<\/b>GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends took over Lime Rock Park August 15\u201317, filling the Berkshire foothills with nearly 500 cars spread across competition grids, curated concours and corral showfields. For the fourth straight year, GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends turned Lime Rock Park into a rolling love letter to car culture written one apex at a time.<\/p>\n

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This wasn\u2019t just a race weekend. GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends transformed the historic Connecticut road course into a rolling showcase of motorsport. In a franchise known for blending music and racing, Circuit Legends stands apart from GRIDLIFE\u2019s other offerings. There was no concert, the cars were the stars and fans came to cheer for horsepower instead of headliners.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is the perfect summer camp weekend,\u201d said GRIDLIFE co-founder and president Chris Stewart. \u201cIt brings the best of automotive culture to one of the most iconic tracks in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Lime Rock Park has been around for 68 years, this weekend wasn\u2019t just about nostalgia. It was about what\u2019s next. From the GRIDLIFE x PRIME Concours, a curated showfield that featured everything from a classic Celica running a TODA Racing motor to a widebody RWB 997, an immaculate BCNR33 Skyline and Dan Chickery\u2019s RealTime Racing Acura Integra Type R replica, each representing a slice of motorsport-inspired car culture from an era now finding its place in the collector world, to the final drift session Saturday night to the FCP Euro Sunday Motoring Meet, the energy across the hills and straightaways was unmistakably fresh.<\/p>\n

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Spectator Hill pulsed with the next generation of fans, many stepping foot on the track for the first time. The infield was alive with nearly 300 cars parked between the\u00a0Subimods<\/a>\u00a0Corral,\u00a0Hyundai N\u00a0<\/a>Club,\u00a0FCP Euro<\/a>\u00a0Motoring Meet and Prime Concours.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGRIDLIFE Circuit Legends Festival is an amazing event, it represents the future of Lime Rock Park,\u201d said Lime Rock Park CEO and president Dicky Riegel. \u201cWe\u2019ve been here for 68 years and we\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a real joy to it,\u201d Riegel continued. \u201cPeople feel so free and just fall in love with this place because they get to do what they love at a world-famous and we think the most beautiful race track in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If the festival crowd brought the energy, the drivers matched it with outright speed. (Results<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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In TrackBattle Time Attack, more than 70 competitors chased lap records across seven classes and multiple drivetrain divisions, with the 1.5-mile circuit serving as a stopwatch battleground.<\/p>\n

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Three Time Attack class records fell during the weekend. Jackie Ding was the first to strike, setting a blistering 51.168-second lap in his No. 687 BMW M2 to break the Track Mod benchmark. In Falken Club TR, Peter Granberg topped the class in his No. 511 Subaru BRZ with a 56.855-second flyer, while Sam Deuling made headlines of his own, resetting the\u00a0Falken<\/a>\u00a0Club SC record with a 1:03.903-second lap in his No. 370 Honda Fit.<\/p>\n

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The records didn\u2019t stop there in the drivetrain subdivisions. Dewey DeWitt beat his own 2023 mark in AWD Street Mod, clocking a 54.413-second lap in his 1995 Subaru Impreza L to take the win. In Unlimited, Jim Rauck reset the front-wheel drive record with a 51.873 in his No. 921 Honda Civic. The FWD Street class also saw a shakeup with Eddy Segal laying down a 59.150-second lap for a new record and a second-place finish. Evan McLaren improved on his own 2024 Falken Club TR FWD record, cutting six tenths off with a 57.161, also good for second in class.<\/p>\n

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Other podium performances came from Jake Ertel and Jeremy Lowder in Unlimited, Chris Boersma and Igor Kesilyov in Track Mod, and Alex Moss and Kal Fortner in Street Mod. Nicholas Hendrix, Ryan Mathews and Mark Kilgore filled out the Street GT podium. In AWD Street, Joshua Halka grabbed the win with Segal and Cody Umbaugh rounding out the top three. Jerami Bailey landed third in Falken Club TR, and Austin O\u2019Brien and Luis Rodriguez reached the box in Club SC.<\/p>\n

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The wheel-to-wheel action didn\u2019t disappoint either. In\u00a0Eibach<\/a>\u00a0GRIDLIFE Touring Cup (GLTC), Andy Smedegard delivered one of the most consistent weekends of the season, collecting four top-three finishes in his No. 212 Scion FR-S and locking in the overall win with 88 points.<\/p>\n

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Paul Darling came out swinging with back-to-back wins in the first two races, but a third and fourth in the final two left him two points short of Smedegard, finishing second in his No. 55 BMW M3. Eric Kutil, driving his JTCC-inspired No. 82 Honda Civic sedan, clawed his way to third overall with a final race win that came down to a bold outside move through the Uphill on Lime Rock Park\u2019s most iconic section.<\/p>\n

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Eric Magnussen, who finished third in that final race, landed sixth in the weekend standings. Aaron Leichty scored fourth overall in his No. 66 Chevrolet Corvette, followed by solid showings from Nicholas Barbato in the No. 49 BMW M3 and Emile Tabb in the No. 374 Mazda MX-5. Lena Chin wrapped up her weekend with a pair of seventh-place finishes in her No. 917 Honda S2000.<\/p>\n

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GRIDLIFE GT (GLGT), the newest addition to the series lineup, brought high-horsepower drama to the hills of Lime Rock. Making just its fourth appearance after debuting at GRIDLIFE Midwest in June, the series featured a headlining battle between James Houghton in his No. 41 Honda Civic touring car and AJ Hartman in his wild No. 24 Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n

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Hartman\u2019s Mustang was a showcase of engineering creativity and homegrown ingenuity. Built from the ground up using a New Edge chassis, an S550 Mustang subframe and a 3.5L twin-turbo V6 from a Ford F-150, the car was as much a science experiment as it was a race machine. Hartman fabricates all of his own aero, which took center stage during GRIDLIFE\u2019s live broadcast. With\u00a0Fire Laps<\/a>\u00a0telemetry showing the Mustang pulling massive lateral Gs, it was clear he had the grip to contend.<\/p>\n

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But Houghton had the edge where it counted. His homologated Civic had more straight-line punch and better braking power, letting him out-muscle Hartman in all four races to sweep the weekend and take home the overall win. Hartman finished second with Hans Horpedahl edging out Chris DeLucia by just three points to take third. Jeffrey Zissulis, Alex Peitz, Eric Thompson and David Bamforth rounded out the GLGT field.<\/p>\n

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The GRIDLIFE RUSH Series kept the momentum high with four races featuring door-to-door action in lightweight RUSH SR machines, spec single-seaters powered by screaming 1000cc motorcycle engines that turn every lap into a dogfight.<\/p>\n

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Blair Hosie and Ryan Leach traded wins across the weekend in a seesaw battle for the top step. Hosie took the first two races before settling for second in the final two. Leach flipped the script with back-to-back wins on Saturday. The two ran nose-to-tail for most of the weekend with barely a second between them at the line.<\/p>\n

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Behind them, James French and Andy Voelkel locked into their own battle for third. French edged out Voelkel by a single point to grab the final podium spot. Deeper in the pack, Nate Hamilton and TJ Hunt brought serious heat on behalf of Team Rapscallion. Hamilton finished seventh overall with Hunt close behind in 10th, after scrapping with each other and the midfield in all four races.<\/p>\n

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Even Skip Barber got in on the action. The man whose name has become synonymous with driver development jumped into the passenger seat of an FCP Euro-liveried BMW drift car piloted by Formula Drift champion Michael Essa. He lit up the same corners he\u2019s spent decades teaching others to respect.<\/p>\n

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It was a full-circle moment and one that perfectly captured the spirit of GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends Festival: reverent of the past, relentlessly pushing into the future.<\/p>\n

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The Festival wrapped with the FCP Euro Sunday Motoring Meet, an all-are-welcome gathering of enthusiasts that brought out everything from track builds to daily drivers that parked down the Sam Posey Straight. More than just cars and coffee, it was a laid-back celebration of automotive culture set against the backdrop of one of the country\u2019s most scenic racetracks.<\/p>\n

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The chase for class championships and bragging rights rolls on for GRIDLIFE Chicagoland at Autobahn Country Club September 14\u201315.<\/p>\n