Jason Kanakry’s McLaren 720s Wins GridLife Track Battle at CMP

A McLaren 720s is different from what first comes to mind when considering a Time Attack car. Jason Kanakry, who lives just down the road from us in Commerce Township, Michigan, is making a supercar work as his Time Attack weapon of choice. With a few simple modifications for track use, it has consistently been winning in Track Mod since he acquired the car last season. To start the season, the GridLife Festival Tour recently visited Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, South Carolina, from March 31st through April 2nd. Not to our surprise, Jason was a winner in the Track Mod class, but he had to work for it! We were excited to be onsite, racing ourselves and supporting our GridLife customers like Jason.

As with most, Jason’s passion for cars and adrenaline-seeking started at a young age, “I have been into cars my whole life, basically since I could drive,” Jason tells us. “I was modifying anything I owned or driving my 2wd S10 on dirt roads in the country. I started out doing Autocross when I was in the US Air Force, and it just grew and grew. Many of us had a Ford Contour SVT or Taurus SHO, and we would go to Gingerman 5-10 times a year. My passion kept growing until I needed to scratch my competition/speed brain in the summertime because I Alpine Ski Race in the winter.” 

While choosing a McLaren 720s seems a little unusual for a traditional Time Attack car, Jason has had a history of trying to make supercars successful at this level. “I bought my 720 in July of 2022, but before that, I had a McLaren 600L. I put on a track event, and one of my buddies had a 600LT, and I had a GT3 RS at the time. Both of us are rather accomplished drivers, and the cars were almost the same data-wise in the corners, but the 600LT would just leave the GT3 RS on the straights. So I moved up to the 600LT and then more recently decided I needed the 720s next.” It seems to have paid off, as Jason is regularly a contender for a class or overall win at every event. We find it neat to see a modern supercar like Jason’s competing against radical custom builds like Eric Fleming’s Corvette for the overall honors. Where else can you see a McLaren and a Corvette Z06 running merely identical lap times in very different ways? 

Overview of Jason’s McLaren 720s Performance model:
-4L twin-turbo, with Ryft Downpipes and Titanium Exhaust.
-Pure Turbo inlets.  
-Velocity AP progressive springs
-Aero/body upgrades from TruSpeed Engineering: Dry carbon front splitter, 765LT style front fenders, side skirts, rear diffuser, rear air brake.  
-Signature wheels with Goodyear Supercar 3R
-Girodisc Rotors
-Cobalt XR2 pads

We asked Jason where he started with GridLife, and we weren’t surprised to hear it involved a friend who hooked him in. We’ve all been there before. “My buddy Barge, who has a street mod Subaru Forester, was doing Gridlife while I was expanding my business operations. Once I got it all sorted, I wanted to join him and be able to compare my driving with others at the same event. Gridlife has been super welcoming overall. A couple of people were a little salty that I was using a 100% stock McLaren 600lt in Street Mod the first year, but as the year progressed, it was obvious it wasn’t the fastest platform as Jackie’s Supra was. But the car gave me a path to be competitive in GridLife while still being able to put on the supercar events and rallies I organize without building and developing something,” Jason says. His impression is like many, “There are some amazing people, drivers, and personalities in Gridlife, and I’m glad to be a part of it.” 

Jason had a stellar weekend in South Carolina. 1st in Track Mod and 2nd overall. With a lap time of 1:34.4 on street tires, he bested Justin Peachy in his Corvette by 1.5 seconds for the Track Mod RWD class win. 

“Honestly, I don’t know if it could have gone any better,” he exclaimed. “I guess I could have won overall, but Fleming was flying! Going into it, I had only raced against Justin Peachy once at NCM, and he was significantly faster than me, so I thought I had my work cut out for me. Starting with practice, I went out on a set of 200tw tires from last year and started learning the track, looking at the data, and just cleaning up items.”

Jason made a change mid-weekend to improve his braking performance and grip. After all, he regularly drives his 720s in road rally events across the country on the street. “The only thing I swapped was the stock brakes for the Girodisc rotors / Cobalt pads, along with putting on my Goodyear Supercar 3Rs for Qualifying and the Podium Sprint.”

He reflected that he really liked CMP and feels it’s a safe track to drive, “It might take a touch away from the adrenaline side, but I think it’s a great mix of high-speed areas and technical turns.” As far as the new Podium Sprint structure goes, he really took a liking to it. To start the 2023 season, GridLife created this new format where the top 5 in each Time Attack class from qualifying then get selected to compete in a shootout-style competition called the Podium Sprint, where each driver gets two flying laps to set the fastest time possible.

“I think it lends itself to some of my skills. I’m used to downhill ski racing, where you look at something and visualize what you are going to do long before you ever do it. You have one chance; you can’t mess up and don’t want to make mistakes. I have spent decades with this mentality in ski racing, so I like this aspect versus every driver having nine chances with other drivers on track and varying conditions to set the fastest lap.” It puts pressure on all drivers to deliver a solid lap right away. We hope GridLife keeps this format moving forward. It’s fun for the drivers and entertaining for the fans watching online.

Jason’s fondest moment from the weekend was his girlfriend walking up to tell him he won after the Podium Sprint, as he wasn’t aware. He now has his sights set on trying to claim more wins and lap records at some of the existing tracks on the schedule. “My goals are just to keep developing whatever car I’m currently driving and do my best to drive clean and as fast as possible”.