$20,000 at Stake: The Speed Ring by Motovicity!
The Speed Ring by Motovicity is the richest Time Attack event held in North America. The fastest time of the weekend headed home from The Speed Ring with $20 000.00 cash in their brand new briefcase. Plus, the ultimate bragging rights as the fastest Time Attack car in North America – backed up by a big, shiny, and hugely coveted 'Ultimate Badass' trophy. This is the second year that Motovicity has held The Speed Ring and it is, without a doubt, a not to be missed event. 2017's Speed Ring took place in the mid-west at Michigan's new M1 Concourse. It was a two day event with Saturday being a standard time attack event while Sunday was a crowd pleasing Touge style bracket race with the best two out of three laps coming out on top as the winner. Motovicity teamed up with GridLife as they continue to build and refine this two year old motorsport event. That means that the 2018 event is one that you must plan on attending!
Trophies and cash prizes were available for podium placements on both days of The Speed Ring. The prize for the Fastest Time of The Weekend was open to drivers of all classes throughout the event. Photo Credit: Motovicity.During this two day event, there were multiple chances of getting on the podium and putting some money aside for next year's racing budget! During Saturday's Time Attack event, a second place finish garnered $300 with first place valued at $1000! Sunday's spectacular Touge bracket racing saw third pick up $300, second pick up $500, and first place pick up $1000! With the fastest time of the weekend picking up the aforementioned 20K (that is almost $26K in Canadian currency). There is no wonder why many of the fastest cars in North America were gathered and competing at Pontiac, Michigan's M1 Concourse on September 30th and October 1st.
Vibrant Performance, a major sponsor of The Speed Ring, was one of several teams fielding cars at the Speed Ring. While the flagship Vibrant Performance Honda Civic was stowed in the hold of a carrier ship enroute to World Time Attack, they were well represented by Aaron Weir's CRX 2000, a GSR powered EG Civic, and Will Au-Yeung's Acura RSX (behind the crowd). Photo Credit: Motovicity.Teams came from the Pacific Coast, the Atlantic Coast, and everywhere in between. There were also a large number of Canadian teams crossing the border for this second running of this event. 2016 was the inaugural event and it took place in California. 2017 saw the event move to M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan. This track is closer to Motovicity's head office – within ten miles of home base – and Motovicity implemented a number of lessons that had been learned at the first event. There is no question among the drivers that I spoke with – they were very impressed with the organization of the Speed Ring event and the track facilities at M1 Concourse, which was a new venue to many of the drivers. Being new, no driver had the home track advantage! Unfortunately, we cannot showcase every car in the event, but congratulations to all of the drivers and teams. Well done.
The black Can-Jam STi piloted by Richard Boake was the event's dark horse. This car and team haven't been to a GridLife Event. Or Global Time Attack. Or any other recent Time Attack specific events south of the border. Of course, those who have had the privilege of seeing this car run were not surprised to see it carrying the briefcase full of cash back to Canada. Photo Credit: Motovicity.Three paragraphs of anticipation is more than enough. Can-Jam's Richard Boake piloted his Subaru STi to a blistering 1:03 to step seconds ahead of the crowd and claim the Fastest Time of the Weekend. He set the pace on Saturday and, while on course to better it on Sunday, put four wheels off, thus this run was disqualified. There was no question about it; this was the weekend for Richard and his car, known as Black Storm. Lyfe Motorsports' Nissan GTR and Cole Powelson, who claimed victory in 2016 at The Speed Ring over the HKS USA Nissan GTR and driver Nobuteru Taniguchi, simply could not pull together the session that they required to take down the new Speed Ring Champion and Canadian team, Can-Jam's Subaru STi and driver Richard Boake.
“Thank you to the Speed Ring for putting on an incredible event and taking drivers' inputs into consdieration. Thank you to Motovicity Distribution, yet again, for giving me the chance to be the 'Ultimate Badass', and thank you to the M1 Concourse for having such a beautiful facility”, exclaimed Boake. Photo Credit: Motovicity.Running down the list of drivers and teams at The Speed Ring and you have a veritable Who's Who of time attack racers. Au-Yeung, Calabrese, Faessler, Faessler, Houghton, O'Donnell, Powelson,Samuel, Smedegard, Hoo, and Weir in Unlimited. Boersma, Boysen, Crenshaw, Fuentes, Gardner, Grossi, Harding, Hinsperger, Jenson, Joraanstad, Little, Miles, Orlowski, Ortiz, Parlett, Richardson, and Zajac in Track Mod. Bickford, Byram, Chiang, DeReus, Ding, Duong, Gains, Halka, Krebsbach, Lopez, Marouski, McCurdy, McPherson, Miller, Montgomery, Naumann, Ortiz, Pagano, Ramrakhyani, Rogers, Samala, Soliman, Thompson, Westergaard, and Yonkers all in Street Mod. (Our apologies if any drivers have been omitted.) This list of names simply points to some amazing competition with some of the fastest AWD, RWD, and FWD cars in North America ready to fight it out for the top prize.
