As the year comes to close I think back to some of the wild events I attended this past year. If I was to summarize Gridlife in a handful of words, I'd say "automotive carnival" is fairly accurate.  I've bounced around race tracks around the Midwest for the last ten years and nothing comes close to the diversity of enthusiasts and cars in attendance. I’ve been to road racing, circle track, motorcycle racing, drag racing, NHRA and the atmosphere at Gridlife was different. It was an atmosphere of fun, sure there were guys out there competing, but they didn’t let that get in the way of their fun. As people continue to evaluate the automotive industry (and motorcycle industry for that matter) and its future, it comes back to one thing for me - FUN. It’s gotta be fun.

Without the fun, there is no reason to spend shitloads of money on wheels, tires, exhaust, spoilers, coilovers and all the shit that you can weld or bolt onto your car, truck or motorcycle. Not to mention the countless nights undoing stripped bolts and watching YouTube video after YouTube video trying to figure OUT WHY UNBOLT THE DAMN CONTROL ARM AND TIE ROD AND THE CALIPER JUST TO GET THE FRONT SHOCK OFF. Want to get younger kids involved in motorsports? Make it fun.

I was on the fence about even heading out there - I could only be out there for the day and was staring down a 8 hour round trip from Milwaukee to Gingerman. After deliberating I decided it would be worth the trip, so I loaded up a cooler full of beer and was hammer down east. Plus, a handful of industry friends would be there so I had a few reasons to get out there. I made decent time and blew through a shitload of tolls (which I regretted months later) and made it the entrance at 1PM. Despite it being Friday afternoon, there was already a long line of cars waiting to get in. And even though I bought a Sunday ticket and showed up on Friday, I got in. Nothing like preparation, right?

Once inside the track there was a little of everything to see. I walked past a few tastefully modded VWs, Skyline GTR, Corvettes, S13s, Evos, Miatas and even an ex-Bondurant driving school Mustang. As I mentioned there’s a little bit of everything at the event. You can see some of the awesome cars that showed up here.

After taking in time attack and drift demos then spending a bit checking out all the metal around the pits, I linked up with my friends over at Race Service. They were responsible for all the chase footage and had outfitted one of Vaughn Gittin Jr’s RTR Mustangs with a camera rig to capture Ryan Tuerck, Chris Forsberg, Tanner Foust, Chelsea Denofa and Vaughn doing tandem full-course drifting.

As the day winded down, my friend Taylor and I drove around the campgrounds and got a taste of the party side of Gridlife. Campsites were going up while many, many beers were going down - and it wasn’t even dark yet. I’m wasn’t sure if it’s all the exhaust fumes or just the Midwest summer taking effect, but race fans like to get lit. And this crowd was no exception.

After grabbing some food from one of the many food trucks at the event and browsing some of the vape offerings, we made our way over to the stage. The first few acts were getting warmed up and the mixture of car people, ravers and professional drivers was an eclectic mixture of personalities. Once the music started things got crazy with glow sticks and inflatables and vape and liquor and everything else. Even my friend Jarod needed a little help from a dead fox to fit in.

I have to say Gridlife for 8 hours was a helluva good time. I’ve already cleared my calendar for 2019 and will definitely be spending the weekend at Gingerman with a truck full of glowsticks and beer. And I hope that they’ll keep making cars fun.