Gridlife Goes W2W

New for 2019 is the Grid Life Touring Cup. A W2W series that really was a pet project for Gridlife’s Adam Jabaay. We took some thing the other week to talk to Adam and get some insight on how the series came about and his thoughts on how it is being recieved by the racers.

He told us, “Chris Stewart and myself come from an HPDE background (hosting HPDE events since 2004) and we transitioned into W2W racing as a hobby before we started Gridlife. We were doing 24hrs of Lemons events, and I moved towards SCCA Club Racing in ITA and the STL classes. I served for a couple of years on the SCCA Super Touring rules committee, and in 2015 started working towards hosting Club Racing W2W at Gridlife. The initial thought was for three classes, but then the “ one

class is better” ideas started coming in. One single class was chosen because as a spectator, it’s much more interesting to know everyone is in the mix and whoever is leading really is the leader.”

He explained how the car rules were developed, “We honed in on a certain level of car/ pace we wanted, and back engineered the rules to be more “open” to tuner mods/engine swap than traditional W2W racing with other organizations, and more in keeping with the Gridlife mindset. Our main goal is to provide a fun place to race with minimal contact, quality racing, and to showcase Club Racing to a new generation of enthusiasts, those who follow us at festivals and on-line. We wanted clean tight racing, and we’ve currently got it. We want good content for live stream and social media, and we’ve

got it, so the current goal is to level the playing field in a couple small ways, and simply produce really fun races; amazing races, and build the sport long term, for everyone in this industry. And maybe get in a few races in myself.”

One of my questions was, “How do you think that GLTC is going to affect traditional Time Attack within Gridlife? I have seen staunch TA racers talking about moving to the W2W side next year?” Adam went on, “A couple years ago we saw “burnout” expressed from many heavily invested/ motivated TA drivers.... Another motivation for GLTC rules was open rules on engine swaps, etc, as long as things fit inside the power to weight ruling . Cheap power plus light cars should be the preferred option, and it’ll be my personal choice. For TA drivers who have effectively “burned too hot” for too many years, we’d love to have a cheaper, potentially more affordable place to play in the same ecosystem, without the constant development that higher levels of TA obviously demand, but with the potential of fun engineering exercises that

TA builders and drivers have come to love. For TA drivers who have never competed in W2W, we plan to have a competition school at nearly every GLTC event during the weekend, at no additional cost to the racer. We plan to include classroom, coaching, and evaluation in real time, something you do not get anywhere else. In fact during the Midwest event we had noted driving coach Anthony Magagnoli of Drive Faster Now on hand reviewing data and giving free advice in 15 minute sessions. For those looking for more he was available for paid advanced sessions. In the two race weekends we’ve had so far, ten drivers have graduated through our program that is led by a nationally recognized competition school organizer, Scott Giles, and have had zero incidents from those drivers when they finally hit the track for a Touring Cup race.”

One thing Adam was adamant about was, “Time Attack will always be at the heart of Gridlife, but there is nothing to stop our heart from growing.”

Another point I brought up was, “One of the reasons I like TA versus W2W is not having to thrash because some moron piled into you, bodywork/ chassis repairs can be a pain in the butt. Are you going to be harder on those involved in W2W incidents than the traditional W2W series?”

This was another point Adam had very strong views on, “ Safety, good driving and no incidents is very much the main focus of every DAILY meeting with all drivers in GLTC I’ve had so far. Agreed bodywork sucks. We don’t want that. We want to show a new audience the BEST of W2W Club Racing that is possible. Zero contact is acceptable..... We’ll judge incidents of contact pretty harshly for both/ all parties involved , so don’t make me. Let’s bring these cars back in as good if shape as they are now” or some semblance of that! And I say it about seven times!! So far in all individual races we’ve had zero reports of anything except a tire smudge, and all have been live streamed to the world and we were pretty proud that it showed no real contact. Establishing a culture of the cleanest and happiest racing is at the root of my goal list with Gridlife GLTC, having been in a car-totalling/ pain inducing crash through no fault of my own in another race series a few years ago. I know the pain, financially and physically, and mentally, that a crash can induce. I want to use positive motivation and constant encouragement to build this series into the cleanest in the world. Issues will happen, undoubtedly, but logic and long term goals will steer the actions following them. Bodywork is never fun!”

Jabaay finished off by saying “GLTC is the culmination of a long term dream of mine..... I RAMMED it into the Gridlife ecosystem, it took a while, and we’re all really excited about it. The two excellent events we have had this year proves we are on the right track.”

Gridelife Midwest was Charlie Enssilin’s first wheel to wheel race. He has been competing in Time Attack for many years and, his car was not ready to hit the track and the racing bug was still biting strong. His answer was to go GLTC racing.

“I wanted a Honda Fit” he said. “But it had to be a good one with a pedigree and there was none better than the one that brought Tom O’Gorman to national prominance.A few friends and I bought the car and left is as is other than adding our Hard Times logos. And it has been a blast! We have had a great time with the car and the GLTC is a great series for us and of course with the car in this spec there are many other places for us to race too.”