#GRIDLIFE Travels West for One-Day TrackBattle at Streets of Willow

Here’s where the strategy and gamesmanship comes into play. The  chase car is not allowed to pass, unless the front driver suffers a mechanical issue  and cannot continue. For cars that make speed in different ways, it’s the responsibility of the chase driver to manage the size of that gap at the beginning of the heat. Choose a following distance that’s too short, and there won’t be enough room to close before the lap has been completed. Additionally, drivers going beyond their limits and putting 4 wheels off the track during a hot-lap are automatically disqualified from the battle. Brackets are about being at peak performance on demand, and reward consistent high performance. The driver with the faster time of the heat is declared the winner, and on their combined cool down lap, the cars change positions. The drivers then go head-to-head again. If the same driver wins both, the winner is declared. In the event of a tie, a one-more-time battle takes place where the higher seeded car chooses to lead or follow for a winner take all showdown. Full description of the bracket competition rules can be found here.

Purists argue that this isn’t “time attack” in the traditional form, and they’re right, as it’s more of a competition format for time attack prepared cars. One thing that’s universally true is that this format is exciting to watch. Many of the staff on the #GRIDLIFE team have backgrounds in wheel to wheel club racing, and a battle happening on the last few laps of a w2w race is both exhilarating as a driver and as a spectator. Bringing that level of excitement and drama to time attack is the goal. With this format, setting FTD in class doesn’t necessarily guarantee a win. Drivers battle mechanical hardship, overheating tires, and pressure in their mirrors to set fast lap after fast lap, and upsets happen.

For inclusivity, all drivers were eligible to compete in the bracket competition. Traditionally, only the a top 4,8, or 16 bracket would take place depending on event size. While many of the early rounds were lopsided based on differences in performance, a few matchups in particular were great to see the parity in performance from dramatically different platforms. An early matchup between #GRIDLIFE regular Jackie Ding in a new Civic Sport and Brad Wintermantle in a Mustang made it to a one-more-time battle before bugs in Jackie’s development car cost him the battle.

Jackie’s time in the Civic bested Wintermantle’s by nearly two seconds, but it couldn’t be strung together in back to back laps. The car losing power on hot laps allowed Wintermantle to stretch the gap, and take the win. Jackie’s recap tells the story.