Photos by Luis Villalobos, Mikey Bryzzzzinskiski, and my Adam's phone

just so cool in person.  Forsberg, Tuerck, Gitten Jr, Rob Parsens, etc. — just so cool in person. Forsberg, Tuerck, Gitten Jr, Rob Parsens, etc.

Around 13 or 14 months ago, Chris Stewart, founder of Gridlife, and myself, Motorsports Director, flew down to Road Atlanta to see what that place was about... because they asked us to potentially do a Gridlife Festival there. I rapidly became obsessed with the track, traveling across the country a couple times in the last year to race there, and hopping airplanes too many times to do things to prepare for this event. All in all, it was a pretty successful first Road Atlanta event for the ever-growing, ever-evolving company we call Gridlife, and we think it built a pretty good audience for a first year thing. Amazing time attack sessions happened with our TrackBattle series , the third and final round of the year for us. Full sessions of beginner, intermediate, and advanced/instructor groups spent 3 days lapping the amazing facility (with almost NO incidents....maybe they really listened in my drivers meetings, and paid attention to the advice of the workers in grid!), and the drifters put on some of the best shows we've ever seen. This was the first time drifters (including some of the top pros in the world) were ever allowed to drift the full course, and if you haven't seen the videos, check them out. Weeks later my Facebook feed is still clogged up with videos of them and the incredible spectacle they put on.

One of the best parts of each Road Atlanta trip this year , for me, has been getting to spend it with a different group of buddies. This trip, Rambler's Racing Team, a bunch of my closest track friends , piled in trucks and left from my house in Chicago. We bombed south all night, and arrived the next day around noon. Long nights on road trips are almost impossible to forget, yet I'm glad we had some legitimate photographers with us to take weird and random pictures. Instead of a million pictures of the cars, and smokey drift party, etc, here is a sampling of the completely sleep depriving and unique week we had, being a part of Gridlife South. This was a really special week in my life, and I keep hearing people say similar things. That, to me, is the mark of a successful event. You should probably go on a road trip with your buddies soon. Start setting it up right now.