Gridlife Midwest 2017
This past weekend marked another event for ZZP’s 2017 racing season with Gridlife Midwest at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan. The weekend was packed full of events, on and off the track, from Friday morning to Sunday evening.
On track events showcased driver’s skills from novice to pro, with instructional based racing, time attack, and drifting. Off track events during the day included booths showcasing vendors and professional racers, a constantly going carshow (which had a wide variety of all types of cars including slammed, VIP, track/race/drift, euro, muscle and much more!), and at night the whole event shifted away from racing and into live music!
Of course for ZZP the main focus was on the track events. This year we had entered four vehicles to show off, our twin turbo 3.6 ATS-V, 2.0 LTG ATS, 4-door Cobalt ss and 1.4 turbocharged Sonic.
A lot of work has gone into all of our racers vehicles for the weekend’s event. However, Tim’s vehicle (the ATS-V) required the least amount of prep. It already had our ZZP downpipe and a custom tune, but got the power turned down to 485 HP to better suit racing on a road course. We knew it could make a ton of power and torque, but this proved that the V is the whole package and more than capable of coming out on top in whatever kind of racing you throw at it.
Ryan’s 2.0 LTG ATS had a vast number of mods prior to this race including the ZZP cold air intake, flex fuel conversion kit, intercooler kit, downpipe, big front and rear brake kit. However, the most recent updates and preparations made for this event include a myriad of prototypes including a clutch setup, lowering springs, connecting rods, pistons, cams, valve springs and our Z54 turbo. To top it all off, the vehicle was set up with a custom dyno tune to make the most of these modifications.
Noah put in countless hours of work getting his Cobalt setup for the track. As an autocross oriented car, he set up his 4 door SS with a full package of ZZP bolt on suspension mods. On top of that he ran E85 fuel, so not only could handle tight corners, but make enough power to fly between corners.
Tyler’s Sonic proved to be a very stable and reliable vehicle throughout the race. Some of the parts that its success can be attributed to include its front and rear sway bar, control arms, and some sticky Pirelli P Zero tires. There were also some soon to be released valve-train components that gave this Sonic an extra boost.
The main focus of the event we had entered our cars in was not only to see where each vehicle would stand in comparison with racers outside of ZZP, but also within. There was a bit of internal (but friendly) competitiveness between our racers that pushed them to test the limits of our vehicles which made for an exciting event! Ultimately Tim’s ATS-V came out on top followed by Ryan’s ATS. Noah gave it his all and pushed his Cobalt beyond its limits which ended in him going off the track, and finally Tyler followed the pack with the Sonic (while still ahead of many other racers). For those of you wondering, Noah and his Cobalt are well and ready to race again.
All in all, this was a great weekend for ZZP and a perfect warm up into an exciting event filled summer of racing. Our racers did an excellent job representing what ZZP is all about and they had fun while doing it. If you couldn’t make it out to Gridlife Midwest this year, you missed an awesome weekend of camping, racing, live music, and having fun! If any of those things sound like a good time to you, make sure to come hang out with us next year at Gridlife Midwest 2018!