Gridlife Midwest 2018
Hundreds of vehicles and thousands of spectators gathered earlier this month for three days and four nights of motor-sports festivities in South Haven, Michigan.
From June 7 to 10, the 5th Annual Gridlife Midwest Festival took place at the Gingerman Raceway and out of the hundreds of contenders who participated, ZZPerformance racers were among its front-runners.
This year, organizers introduced a new competition to the roster of activities: the Track Battle Bracket Series, where our own Tim Beek and his 2016 Cadillac ATS-V placed second out of nearly 140 participants in the real-wheel portion of the street class division.
It was the first competitive event with the ATS-V at a Gridlife competition, which weighed about 4,000 pounds at race time.
“My experience at Gridlife 2018 was a good one,” Tim said. “I did very well, I feel, for the weight of the car and the disadvantages of the weight of the car.”
Going up against competitor Josh Orr in his Corvette, Tim finished the division’s final race at 1:41.03. Earlier in the competition, he was able to get the time down to 1:40.8 — the fastest lap time he’s run the vehicle under reduced power.
Also participating in the event was Noah Ludwig and Ryan Derrick, who drove their 2009 Chevy Cobalt SS Turbos and Tyler Vogt and his 2004 Saturn Ion Redline.
Some of the cars featured new set ups, including a new roll bar that meets National Automotive Sports Association standards and altered power systems to handle the track’s tight corners.
Billed as a hybrid automotive and music festival, racers and spectators got to enjoy several musical acts at the Aftergrid concert series.
“Gridlife this year was absolutely amazing,” Ryan said. “It brings a lot of different car communities together that don’t really see each other. It brings together car show people together, road course people, drag race people, off road people. It brings all sorts of communities together and it’s a very favorited event here at ZZPerformance that we will always go to and always support.”
We look forward to next year, with hopefully more drivers going and more employees joining the fun as well. Make sure to check out our Youtube video recap on the event, and stay current on the channel and blog for more content.