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Story by Tom Suddard • Photos as Credited
In Chicago, the weather…
Such a great vibe at #Gridlife.
I met Adam in late 2015 when I was looking for unobtainium parts for my CRX.
Have been buddies every since.
The festival vibe is awesome, but the vibe Adam creates for everyone who goes on track is why Midwest festival sells out in seconds.
Listen to the Speed Secrets Podcast episode #111 where Ross Bently interviews Adam and he talks about it.
Adam kills himself to make sure everyone has a great time.
They really have done a great job with this. Props to Chris for seeing it through! Great write-up.
Nice write-up. If gridlife is the Coachella of car shows, why not make the 2k challenge the Burning Man of car shows?
In reply to CrustyRedXpress :
All that's missing is another 1000 people. The big thing about Gridlife is that once the track day is done you're in the middle of a giant party with all your buddies. It kind of makes a normal track day seem lame. Here in Texas the NASA group has a fantastic BBQ on the Saturday of every event. You come off track and eat and hang out and it's really cool. Once you get used to that, normal track weekends where people just go back home/to the hotel after the last session seem very boring. Gridlife takes that to the next level.
I don't want to be the guy to say this but I had the same idea around the same time but I was still in college but the idea of a rock concert and motorsport event at a track made perfect sense to me. Kind of feel like the other guy who invented the pet rock kind of thing.
Still have yet to visit one of these events (not out of spite) just haven't gotten around to it but it is bucket list.
worst part is, I'm "local" to the origin too.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
"The big thing about Gridlife is that once the track day is done you're in the middle of a giant party with all your buddies."
I hope GRM takes the challenge in this direction in the future...but more like BM and less like Coachella. The culture of Burning Man is a do-ocracy...the participants serve the beer, build the stage, create the art, sing the songs, put on the entertainment, etc. It's very much a DIY event as opposed to Coachella where you're just paying money to see a performer.
I've heard a lot about these events but have yet to go to one. All the tickets are sold super quickly, and without knowing what the big deal is I don't wait around to make sure to get one. They do look really fun though, and this story is really great. Kudos on an awesome article!
Having said that I've seen a few videos where the on track behavior is... immature. I'm a relative novice to tracking and I'm prob a bit older than the general demographic there, but when I'm on track I err on the side of safety if there are other cars around. I'm not sure that's the general MO at Gridlife. Not saying they're not putting forth the right rules or not enforcing them, but the crowd is young, and I'm sure we remember the stupid crap we all did when we thought we were invincible. But now that I'm older, and have seen accidents on track, I'm more careful about who I share the track with, and I'm not sure I'm ready to go to one of those events yet and put myself out there on track.
I just did their west coast event and it was really cool. No music or anything other than some hpde groups and a track battle time attack
Not sure if it was due to a new course or what but there was too much down time but that was my only real complaint. The track battle seemed a bit hokey and gimmicky but turned out to be super fun.
Highly recommend to participate if it happens to occur near you
Great article! I love the #GirdLife story and it just keeps writing new chapters every year. Stay tuned :-)
In reply to bcp2011 :
There have been some intense videos of some mistakes but I bet you've never seen that from our beginner (/novice) program! We've revamped it especially last year with a new method that has proven to be the safest, most fun, most engaging, and most beneficial to students. But safety is absolutely our goal. If you want the best experience come out under the beginner group for an incredible time in the most controlled and predictable run group of the weekend. The pace may be slower overall but you build speed at your pace and are not forced to get into situations you are uncomfortable with. Hopefully we can change your mind!
-Ryan (Lead Instructor - #gridlife)
Gridlife Atlanta is this weekend. Anyone else going?
I'll be there, instructing as well. Looking forward to it. Here's to hoping my car survives 3 days of lapping :)
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