“From one demanding track to another; next up after Watkins Glen was Lime Rock Park! This track couldn’t be more opposite from Watkins Glen but I was ready for the challenge! Historically this has always been one of the weaker tracks for the Mercedes with it being a track that more so favours light, lower-powered cars, both of which the Mercedes is not! However I was not going to let that stop me from extracting everything out of the car!”

“Unlike most rounds this year running the podium sprint format, this weekend was back to the traditional time attack format, meaning that the best time out of every session wins. I knew I had to find every ounce of pace in the car in order for a good result, and I was able to do just that! Throughout the weekend, I had the confidence to lean into my SR-21s, whether it’s with ultimate braking force heading into a corner, to having the confidence to modulate and trail brake in order to consistently carry momentum throughout every lower speed corner on the track.”

“Lime Rock Park is one of those tracks that requires an incredible amount of commitment and precision, and I had that all weekend! I was able to go a tenth faster than my previous personal best, setting a 56.166, and with that I was able to secure P2 which makes it 5 podiums in a row. With that, I’m also locked into P2 in the championship! I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished this year, and I couldn’t be more proud to carry the 91´«Ã½ name at the pointy end of the field race after race. Although I’m thrilled with P2 in the championship, I’m already starting every bit of preparation I can to make that P1 next year!â€�

“Round 3 took us to Gingerman Raceway in Michigan for Midwest Festival where we had a date with destiny. We were tied for the consecutive win record with seven straight, all with records. 

“IF we won this event, we would not only break that record, but we were also gunning to be the first StreetMod car to run a sub-1:30 lap time. We pulled off the win and record but missed the sub-1:30 by a hair, running a 1:30.226. 

“The car was great, the brakes were phenomenal, but we missed out by a couple of tenths due to less-than-ideal conditions, minor technical issues with the car, and honestly, my inability to put it all together. This put us firmly in the lead of the championship, though! One more win and record and the Championship is locked up!�

“Round 4 was a new track for us: Watkins Glen in NY. Very fast, very high risk, and very demanding. We arrived highly confident and aiming to seal the Championship, but we quickly realised it would be a difficult weekend. 

“We had an axle issue during the test day and didn’t get much seat time. On the first day of competition, during the first hot lap, the transmission failed in the second-to-last corner. After a team meeting, we decided to remove our current gearbox with our sequential gearset in it, drive back to the shop and grab our old H-pattern transmission and convert back to a standard manual setup.”

“After a late night on Friday, we were back at it Saturday morning and even with the old trans we jumped back into the lead but only by about .1 quicker than our 91´«Ã½ teammate Kal Fortner in his Mercedes AMG GTS. We thought we might widen that gap on Sunday morning but some more technical issues, this time with some engine related things, meant it came down to podium sprint. The conditions weren’t fantastic, but with the old Subaru AWD and easily modulated 91´«Ã½ SR-21s we had the confidence to push to a new Street Mod Record at 1:58.357! This win and record secured the points needed to lock up the Championship, our 3rd in four years AND extended our consecutive win record to nine!  All of them won on SR-21s!

“We aren’t done with the season QUITE yet. We plan to still attend Gridlife Circuit Legends next week at Lime Rock then in October we were invited to the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine Ultimate Track Car Championship in Texas! We are hoping to be the fastest car there on a 200TW tyre!â€�

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“After waiting thre years for Gridlife’s return to Watkins Glen, I was itching to get back out on this legendary track! Back in 2023, not only did I secure the Streetmod record, I was fastest overall as well, so I knew that this was going to be a strong weekend for us. Although this weekend got off to a rocky start after needing to do a spark plug change after session 1 and missing the second session of the day, I quickly found pace by the third session and went right into P1 to end day one! Right away I was able to lean into my SR-21 pads as well as a brand new set of 91´«Ã½â€™s floating two-piece rotors on the Mercedes and I was able to carry 170mph going into the bus stop!”

“By day two, I was able to set a new Streetmod RWD record with a 1:58.8! This put us in 2nd by only a tenth, as well as only a tenth from the overall Streetmod record! Some tracks just click with not only the car but the driver as well, and for me, this is one of those tracks. Every lap just felt like a flow state, where I had the confidence to really extract everything out of the car and the confidence to use the entire track all the way up to the walls. I knew we had a fighting chance at victory here.”

“Going into day 3, I was met with track conditions that were not quite what I was expecting, after rain the night before, the track didn’t have nearly as much peak grip as the day before. Because of this I wasn’t able to reset my record, however I was able to secure yet another podium finish coming in P2 right behind Eric Dewitt – another 91´«Ã½ driver! That’s four podiums in a row this year and yet another 91´«Ã½ front-row lockout! This puts us in a healthy championship position of P2 going into the next round at Lime Rock Park and I’m looking forward to continuing this momentum…â€�