Story By: JEN HORSEY / GRIDLIFE – MONTEREY, CA – The GRIDLIFE Festival tour comes to the west coast for the first time ever this October 20-22, bringing its unique youth-oriented music and motorsport event to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
An expected 175 race cars will hit the track over the course of the Festival weekend, which also features live music, a retro arcade, and late-night karaoke to keep the off-track party going long after dark. Tickets are available now at https://www.gridlifelaguna.com.
The GRIDLIFE focus on grassroots community leaves no doubt that car culture is very much alive for the younger generation. “You hear people saying that kids today aren’t into cars and that isn’t our experience,” said GRIDLIFE co-founder Chris Stewart. “We welcome everyone to car culture, from hardcore enthusiasts as well as those that may be just a little car curious and our numbers are growing every year.”
Motorsport entries sold out minutes after the event opened registration for GRIDLIFE Laguna, with 100 cars set to race GRIDLIFE’s NOS Energy TrackBattle Time Attack and 50 more in the open wheel GRIDLIFE Touring Cup competition. Some 25 of the best drift drivers in the world are also invited to run fan-favorite freestyle drift sessions all weekend long. A video of the experience is now live on the GRIDLIFE YouTube.
“We know there’s an amazing car scene in California and we’re excited to bring everybody together,” said Stewart. “We’re focused on inclusion and community and expect to see a little bit of everything come out to share our weekend, from low riders, to modern muscle, to overlanders and ‘90s JDM cars.”
The GRIDLIFE Concours invites up to 100 curated vehicles from the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s to join a special display. These vehicles are selected from a pool of applicants and owners receive a free ticket for the event weekend. GRIDLIFE Concours applications are open now.
So far this season, the GRIDLIFE Festival Tour has drawn 40,000 fans to enjoy live music and take in the action on track with as many as 300 drivers campaigning their cars each weekend. The GRIDLIFE Laguna Festival is the first time in the organization’s 10-year history that the tour has stopped on the west coast and the event is expected to draw crowds.
“When we pair a live music experience with an amazing on-track show, we know we are sharing our enthusiasm for car culture with a whole new audience,” said Stewart. “The best compliment we can get is when someone comes to our events one year as a spectator and then returns the next with a car to drive on track or display in the GRIDLIFE Concours.”
GRIDLIFE Laguna caps off a full tour of six festival events this season, with popular stops drawing crowds across the United States, including a return to the highlight Midwest Festival at Gingerman Raceway, and track takeovers at legendary venues including Watkins Glen in Upstate New York and Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.
In addition to the six-stop GRIDLIFE Festival Tour, the organization also hosts six GRIDLIFE Club Weekends across the United States. Structured as track days, GRIDLIFE Club Weekends focus on the driver experience and offer a great entry point for enthusiasts new to the track.
The GRIDLIFE Laguna stop will feature a full live streaming production on Friday and Saturday at https://www.youtube.com/gridlife. So far this year, about 650,000 viewers have tuned in to watch weekend streams online.
The 11-turn, 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca road course located on California’s central coast has hosted some of the most important motorsport events and moments in the United States, including IndyCar, IMSA GT, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Porsche Rennsport Reunion, and MotoGP motorcycle races.
At GRIDLIFE Laguna, the GLTC Championship will be decided as Jeremy Swenson takes on local drivers and defends from James Houghton, Luke McGrew, and Matt Waldbaum. Swenson aims to be the first repeat champion in GRIDLIFE Touring Cup history after winning in his rookie season in 2021.
The track’s Production Car Record is in sight for Dewey Dewitt as the GRIDLIFE TrackBattle championship leader aims to lock up the Street Modified championship and etch his name into the record book. To get there, he will have to beat the all-electric Tesla Model S driven by Andrew DeKonig.