GRIDLIFE has revealed more details of its new GRIDLIFE Grand Touring (GLGT) race series set to start with the 2025 racing season.
The expanded weekend format introduces GRIDLIFE’s newest racing class, GLGT featuring a 9:1 power to weight ratio, to give a place for retired professional race cars with performance to go up against the many V8 swapped garage builds. The series will run alongside established fan favorites GRIDLIFE Touring Cup (GLTC), GRIDLIFE RushSR Series, Track Battle Time Attack, and GRIDLIFE Drift.
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Built on the same competition structure of the GRIDLIFE TC (GLTC) category, GLGT event weekends will feature practice, qualifying and four 20-minute races every event. The format has proven highly successful for GLTC, which averaged a remarkable 44 entries over the course of 10 race weekends in 2024.
“Ultimately, GRIDLIFE GT is a faster version of GLTC, with horsepower-to-weight that is closer to 9:1 vs 12.5:1 for GLTC,” said GRIDLIFE co-founder and director of motorsports Adam Jabaay. “It is wheel-to-wheel competition, with the same focus on clean driving and having fun that has been central to GLTC from the start. The event structure will also be the same format as GLTC, so it will not only be straightforward for our fans and drivers, but also compelling to racers who have not been to GRIDLIFE before, and that is super exciting for all of us.”
Utilizing a ruleset that includes a Table of Competition Balance based on weight, power, tire size and various aerodynamic factors, each GLGT event will feature a mini weekend championship that determines the event winner, runner-up and third-place finisher.
When it comes to developing a competitive balance among a wide range of types of cars, GRIDLIFE will look to take lessons learned with GLTC and apply those to GLGT.
“We’ve gone from being pretty good on parity, to being really, really close on raw lap time — last year in some of our biggest events, the top 15 were separated in qualifying by less than three tenths,” said Jabaay. “Which is pretty crazy, and it feels like the ‘best of the best’ in the amateur world. And we’ve been working a lot to be able to do that with GLGT as well. We know there is some learning to do, but feel like we are starting with a very good formula and are really looking forward to seeing what kind of cars we have come join us.”
GRIDLIFE Grand Touring will kick off at next year’s Midwest Festival, June 6-8, and will compete at all remaining 2025 rounds.
Beyond the track, GRIDLIFE remains dedicated to blending car culture with live entertainment, showcasing vehicles from the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s in its Concours, hosting the GRIDLIFE Arcade and music performances.