It has been dangerously close to two months since I've published an article. Though I partially started a couple, life got in the way. I want to get back into a regular cadence with writing, so what better time than now? Please bear with me as I get back into the groove.
Side note: I tend to over-promise and under-deliver here at RE. My whims change frequently; if I have an idea, it doesn't always pan out (such as my string alignment series fizzling). However, for a while, I have wanted to develop various racing/building/training resources and share them here, perhaps as part of a membership program. Membership may be free, as it has always been; I am not sure yet. In any case, I am sharing this for accountability's sake. I have the first item developed already.
I will share quick takes on recent motorsports news for this week's article.
State of the Grid
Last week, I watched Gridlife's "State of the Grid" presentation at PRI. An audience member live-streamed it on Discord. The presentation didn't seem to be uploaded for playback, but Gridlife has disseminated the information on their website.
Notable: they have a new CEO, there will be a new racing class (GLGT, in addition to GLTC and RushSR), a new event was added (Road Atlanta), two of the California events were dropped, and HPDE is being dropped entirely.
Lastly, all events in 2025 will be "festival" events, which are generally spectator-friendly events featuring drifting, car shows, vendors, and a musical performance.
GLGT
The new Gridlife Grand Touring class seems geared toward former professional race cars, such as GT4- and TCR-class cars. It is being marketed as "pro cars pitted against builder cars," though the jury is still out on whether builder cars would have an easy path to competitiveness. Buying an ex-pro car would definitely be the easy button.
Road Atlanta
After an infamous one-and-done Road Atlanta event in which the cops were called and temporary handcuffs came out, Gridlife returns to Road Atlanta for a co-branded event with Formula Drift. FD has had its RA event for many years now, and it is thrilling due to the excellent visibility in the turn 10a-10b sequence in which they drift.
Global Time Attack has been the support series for FD RA in the past, but it doesn't seem that they are coming back this year. I don't know much about GTA, but it doesn't seem well attended outside of Super Lap Battle. When I attended FD RA in the past, it only seemed like 20-30 cars were competing in GTA.
I am excited about another "local" Gridlife event, and it should be fun to be the support series for Formula Drift.
HPDE
Dropping HPDE is an unfortunate by-product of needing to expand the racing classes, where there is likely more money to be made. HPDE has always seemed like an afterthought to Gridlife, being relegated to Sundays when all the racing and festivities have already wrapped up. It was a way to use up what was surely an including-Sunday track rental. GLTC and Time Attack primarily raced on Fridays and Saturdays, with the main festival events taking place on Saturday nights and Sundays being left as return-home travel days for the racers.
I'm not sure how this will affect Gridlife's profitability or attendance. It certainly raises the question of how newcomers will rise through the ranks to Time Attack or racing (if they even have aspirations to do so). Thankfully, there are many other paths through HPDE, and perhaps Gridlife will create its own small-scale HPDE program separate from the festival events.
GLTC
Lastly, the provisional GLTC rules are not a dramatic departure from years past, at least as far as our E90s are concerned. The changes to the power modifiers seem to target heavily de-tuned V8 engines and Corvettes in general (there is now a 2% modifier specific to C5s and newer).
These changes are in the interest of increased parity within the diverse class, which is always welcomed.
New NASA Spec Tires
Not long after the much-hyped Hoosier Track Attack Pro tire was announced, NASA debuted a new 'Hoosier RCES' spec tire for the 944 Spec, American Iron, Camaro-Mustang Challenge, Spec Iron, and Spec E46 classes, many of which previously ran Toyo RR/R tires.
Photos make the new RCES appear similar to the R7, but it is stated that it was formulated to last longer and be more consistent (RCES stands for Road Course Endurance Spec).
Tire performance almost doesn't matter in spec classes since everyone runs the same thing. Tire longevity, price, and contingency programs do matter, and these categories have generally been worse with Hoosier than with Toyo.
We can see that the Hoosier spec tire program is similar to Toyo's (both worse than Toyo's open tire series contingency).
In the new Spec E46 245/40-17 size, Hoosier RCES are $1,260.00/set, versus $1,207.64 for Toyo Proxes R (newer) and $1,150.16 for Toyo Proxes RR (older). That isn't a huge difference, but tire longevity will be a major deciding factor in whether or not this was a good change for racers.
I find it interesting that NASA has continued to balance pleasing Hoosier and Toyo as large title sponsors for their organization. Ultimately, I think keeping the eggs in more than one basket is smart.
Sim Training for the Real World
Ross Bentley recently published an article about training in the simulator for real-world racing (versus training to win sim races). As a late-comer but a firm believer in sim racing for polishing skills and learning race craft, I found it an interesting read. Link: Speed Secrets: Sim Training for Real-World Track Drivers — PART 1
Most of my racing friends have sims that they use to varying degrees. Some love it, some loathe it, and some are indifferent to it. It was easy to picture how all of us classed into Ross's categories of "sim natives," "sim immigrants," and "sim naifs."
I look forward to the forthcoming PART 2 article, and recommend checking out PART 1 (linked above).
Post Script: M2 CSR
Speaking of sim racing, iRacing released a new free car last week, and it is quickly becoming my favorite. The BMW M2 CS Racing has the speed of a GT4-class car, but it is more playful, demanding, and perhaps more of a realistic analog to anything that I drive IRL. The baseline setup is very pushy, but I've had fun creating a new setup and learning the ins and outs of driving this fast car at its limit. The steering feedback really allows you to feel the weight transfer and grip, and driving it is helping me keep my skills sharp during the off-season.
