Forgestar & MOMO Drivers Represent at GRIDLIFE Alpine Horizon Festival
Forgestar & MOMO Drivers Represent at GRIDLIFE Alpine Horizon Festival
Screeching tires, roaring racecars, and thumping bass: GRIDLIFE Alpine Horizon Festival is an event buzzing with the youthful energy of automotive anarchy. Picture Forza Horizon, but in real life. GRIDLIFE Alpine Horizon combines competitive racing, exhibition drifting, live music, food, and fun to manifest the Woodstock of car culture at the famous Pike’s Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colorado.
Adding a series of hairpin turns on Pike Peak’s famous oval track, GRIDLIFE creates a unique “roval” course (road racing + oval track) hosting time attack, drifting, and the GRIDLIFE Touring Cup throughout the 3-day festival. With a unique blend of grass-roots racers and professional competitors, friends of Forgestar Dylan Hughes, Matt Field, Chris Forsberg, and Bryan Heitkotter hit the track to represent.
Meet Our GRIDLIFE Drivers
Meet Our GRIDLIFE Drivers
Matt Field
@mattfield777
- Sponsored by MOMO
- Sponsored by Forgestar
- Drives a wicked C6 Corvette
- Formula Drift Pro Driver
- GRIDLIFE Drift Exhibitor
Dylan Hughes
@dylanhughes129
- Sponsored by MOMO
- Sponsored by Forgestar
- Drives a 2JZ swapped E46
- Formula Drift Pro Driver
- GRIDLIFE Drift Exhibitor
Chris Forsberg
@chrisforsberg64
- Sponsored by MOMO
- Drives a 1,300 HP Nissan Z
- Formula Drift Pro Driver
- GRIDLIFE Drift Exhibitor
Bryan Heitkotter
@bryanheitkotter
- Sponsored by MOMO
- Representing Forsberg Racing in his 370Z
- Ten-time SCCA National Autocross Champion
- GLTC Competitor
- Awarded the Spirit of GTLC
GRIDLIFE Drift – Just Send It!
There are only two rules to GRIDLIFE’s exhibition style drifting segment:
1.) Fun comes first
2.) FULL SENDS ONLY!
In an informal unscored driving sesh, GRIDLIFE Drift uses the massive road course roval track to facilitate smokey sideways stunts at speeds unseen in professional drifting competitions.
Our friends from the Formula Drift Pro series Matt Field, Dylan Hughes, and Chris Forsberg pushed the limits in their professional Forgestar-sponsored drift builds between music sets all day and all night. As the Night Shift Drift crew kept the party going between headline music acts, tire smoke pooled from the track and over the stage lasers resulting in an enchanting light show that could put a Phish concert to shame.
GLTC (GRIDLIFE Touring Cup) – Wheel to Wheel
In GLTC (GRIDLIFE Touring Cup), racers must exhibit a diversity of driving skills in oval, drag, and road racing on the one-of-a-kind roval track. GLTC class scatters four rounds of racing, including qualifying, across the 3-day event.
Representing MW Company (the automotive powerhouse consisting of MOMO, WELD, and Forgestar) in the competitive GLTC class was last year’s champion Bryan Heitkotter of Forsberg Racing. Kicking off with qualifying in this 4-course meal, Heitkotter landed the 4th place starting position with just a fraction of a second separating him from 1st.
Throughout Round 2 it became apparent to onlookers that Heitkotter was struggling to control his brakes as he dropped to 5th place throughout the first series of turns. Approaching turn #9, Heitkotter attempted to seize an opportunity to close in on the competition by accelerating through the hairpin turns but instead flew off course into the cones for a second time. Heitkotter finished out Round 2 in 10th place, barely scraping into the Top Ten Shootout.
After earning his 3rd place starting position in the Top Ten Shootout, Heitkotter wasn’t wasting the opportunity to #FullSend, soaring into first place out of the gate. Leading the pack, Heitkotter approached the same series of turns that gave him trouble in previous rounds but again struggled to slow his vehicle in time to make the apex. You could taste the disappointment as Heitkotter’s 370Z flew off course into the grass. Despite a wave of racers leaving him behind, Heitkotter worked his way back into 4th place before the end of the race, using aggressive acceleration throughout the straightaway to pull away from the competition.
Not long after Round 3 concluded Heitkotter’s team realized the reason for his Z’s powerful performance in the drag portion of the roval was due to an uncapped tune that would disqualify his performance. Taking the L, Heitkotter’s team did the right thing by alerting GRIDLIFE officials of the mistake immediately. The result was a disqualification of Round 3, forcing Heitkotter to begin Round 4 in dead last.
Despite the disadvantage, Heitkotter worked his way back into the ranks throughout the final race, moving from 23rd to 7th place! Unruly brakes, uncapped tunes, and penalties aside: Heitkotter showed tenacity and persistence throughout the ups-and-downs of the weekend, earning him GRIDLIFE’s Spirit of GLTC!
