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Team Falken Outperforms At GRIDLIFE Summer Apex Festival

ELKHART LAKE, WI – Team Falken put on a winning exhibit at the GRIDLIFE Summer Apex Music & Motorsports Festival. The festivities and races were held in Road America, also known as “America’s National Park of Speed,” which features four miles of challenging turns and lightning straights amidst the serene Wisconsin forest. Team drivers Peter Granberg, with his Subaru BRZ, and Luca Barberis, with his Mitsubishi Evolution, took 1st place in their respective classes. Over at GLTC, Team Falken driver Luke McGrew demonstrated his wheel-to-wheel racing prowess with his Chevrolet Corvette. Team Falken’s vehicles at this event are outfitted with Falken Azenis RT660 tires.

GRIDLIFE’s ClubTR class is a lightly modified class that features daily drivable street cars with common track modifications such as minor engine bolt-ons and aerodynamic parts. In comparison, the Street class allows drivers to modify their vehicles a bit further with full bolt-on modifications and factory aerodynamic parts. For this year’s event, both Granberg and Barberis were determined to set the perfect lap time and hold their respective track records that they set last year.

The Summer Apex Festival event went smoothly for Peter Granberg, so he was able to direct all his focus on setting fast lap times without much distraction. With his ClubTR track record of 2:33 in mind, Granberg utilized Friday’s practice sessions to get reaccustomed to the track and understand the course’s current conditions. Granberg also worked with a coach from Robertson Racing and took advantage of Fire Laps – a data analysis app for drivers that provides lap analytics. With additional support from KPower Industries and Abbot Auto Performance, Granberg and his team devised a plan to keep his ClubTR record and win the event.

Granberg and his team’s plan proved bountiful with faster lap times. In every session on Friday, Granberg found his zone and kept shaving off tenths of a second, lap after lap, which resulted in him setting a new ClubTR track record. Peter’s initial hot streak ended on the first lap of Saturday’s session, as a safety truck was on the track throughout the rest of his session. This setback caused Peter to park his car early and miss out on track time, which resulted in him getting bumped to 4th place and simultaneously losing his track record to another competitor.

This minor setback did not unsettle Granberg, as he reclaimed his record during the midday session with a 2:31.80 lap time. This put Peter in 2nd place overall before the Podium Sprint, where the top 5 from each class advance, and each qualifier runs two undisturbed solo flying laps for the win.

“I tried my best not to get in my head for the Podium Sprint,” recalled Granberg. “I went out on the hot lap, set my reference points, and pointed the car where I needed it to, and I just let it rip.”

In a thrilling Podium Sprint, Peter’s first hot lap was his winning lap, and he set a new RWD ClubTR track record with a 2:31.266, beating the class leader, James Houghton, by two-tenths of a second. With his stellar performance, Granberg now sits in 1st place overall in the ClubTR class with 87 points.

The Street class was a rollercoaster of an event for Luca Barberis. The course itself was very punishing to the Mitsubishi Evolution. On Friday’s session, Luca’s Evolution faced transmission problems, where his third and fourth gear would pop out of gear and into neutral under load. These gears would pop out too frequently, which caused Barberis to drive most of the track with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the shifter to hold the gears in.

Driving with one hand on the steering wheel while racing in a manual transmission car makes it tricky to be consistent, as it causes a driver to miss a lot of nuanced feedback that would be normally perceived through the steering wheel. Since track cars constantly move at swift speeds, steering is a lot more challenging and heavier for the driver since it takes greater force to change direction. This characteristic means that steering with one hand is much more physically demanding for a track driver since the intense driving puts the load on one arm instead of dispersing the load evenly with two.

Despite the challenge, Luca was able to hold 1st place throughout the weekend and was still able to confidently chase his Street class record set from the previous year. Coming into the Podium Sprint in 1st place, Luca grew accustomed to his vehicle and the course and successfully put down an even faster lap time.

Luca succeeded when it mattered most during the Podium Sprint and was able to set a new Street class record by over seven-tenths of a second and secured 1st place for the event, putting down a lap time of 2:25.792. Luca remains in 1st overall for the class with 100 points.

“The RT660’s held up great to the high speeds and high heat,” said Barberis. “I used the set that I was struggling to fire up at Mid-Ohio’s new surface and here they reactivated immediately, confirming that something is unique about the other track’s compound.”

After this event, Barberis is looking to cement his championship run with another win and seeks to break the next course record.

Luke McGrew’s experience in his GLTC class was eventful as usual since drivers in this event race wheel-to-wheel for position rather than for best lap times. McGrew’s Corvette is the heaviest in the field due to the class’s weight and horsepower restrictions. The added reward weights pushed the Corvette to weigh in at 3,740 pounds, and the engine’s power was dyno-tested and rated at 265 horsepower.

The beginning of McGrew’s event went smoothly. During the qualifying round, he achieved the fastest lap time on his second lap and qualified to start in 1st place for the first race. During the first race, Luke lost his first-place position in the first and second turns. McGrew kept his cool, made his own pass, and regained his position on the same lap. Drivers in the first race were limited to a few laps before being restricted by a Full Course Yellow course condition. Despite the course caution, McGrew finished the first race in 1st place.

The second race started similarly for Luke, with a battle for position on the first two turns. But this time, he came out on top and maintained his first-place position. McGrew set the fastest lap during this race and held onto his first-place position. However, a Red Flag stopped competitors from competing further for the remainder of the race due to another competitor’s vehicle catching fire.

The intensity started to pick up for Luke in the third race. Once again, the first two turns were tricky, but Luke managed to retake the front position with a pass on a straight section of the course. With no cautionary flags in this race, Luke was able to garner a generous lead and secured the fastest lap time, so he let off a bit on the last lap to keep the car and tires safe from the grueling Road America course.

With the fourth race as the inverted grid race, McGrew rolled the dice and started in 11th place. Initially, McGrew intended to reach the front and sweep every race in 1st place. However, he navigated through the traffic as safely as he could without taking any damage and found himself finishing this race in fifth place. Luke finished the event with the most points and remains in 1st place in this open 200-Treadwear class with 361 points.

The next event will be GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends, which will be held at Lime Rock Park in Salisbury, Connecticut on August 16, 2024.