GMG Racing, longtime team driver Kyle Washington and his third-year co-driver Tom Sargent reclaimed the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am championship lead with their second win in the year's first three races Saturday evening at Sebring International Raceway. Combined with a victory in the season-opening round at Sonoma Raceway in March, and a fourth place finish last month at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo team and its drivers provisionally lead the Pro-Am standings for the second time this season with 62 points, seven clear of the nearest challengers.
"This is a new era in GT World Challenge America with the three hour races and all of us at GMG Racing have been working on and within this new format since it was announced," said GMG Racing Founder and Principal James Sofronas. "We knew it would suit the championship experience of the GMG Racing team and would fit the driving styles of Kyle and Tom perfectly as well. The hard work you put into a racing program doesn't always equal success, but by just focusing on and maximizing everything within our control has paid off so far this season. We said going into Sebring, the third race of a season is when you typically take a look at the points. Now, leaving Sebring and heading to the mid-season race next month at Road Atlanta, the points picture is the best it has looked all year. The plan is to keep our heads down, our focus clear and keep doing what we have been doing one race at a time."
Unlike the breakout Sonoma victory, which was a relatively clean and controlled run to the finish, the Sebring three-hour felt more like a short-track Saturday night rough and tumble race. Starting driver Washington - no stranger to off-road racing - kept in contention and on the lead lap throughout his stint despite more than one hard hit and some bump-and-run incidents that started at the drop of the green flag.
"The team is really coming together," Washington said. "This is basically our third year together and we're really gelling. Tom is doing an amazing job, management is doing great, and we have great new facilities at The Thermal Club, so we can work on the cars a lot more. You know, it's a lot of people that have to come together. You have to be a really good team and a little bit lucky to make it to the top spot. We have been lucky a couple times already this year, but the saying is you make your luck, so it could mean we might be well prepared and good too! I do feel a little more pressure because we do have a big team now, and we're all counting on being in podium positions, and not just there for the racing. So, I take it a little bit more seriously, and I think my skills, with Tom's coaching and really all the coaches I have had in the last five years, it all adds up to understanding the car more."
Sargent took over for the run to the finish and once again set the fastest race lap as he dealt with his own contact incidents and and off-and-on excursion or two.
"Kyle took huge hits on the opening lap, which knocked him back, and then I finished it up with some pretty big hits as well," Sargent said. "Then I went flying through Turn 1 in the dirt, so to say it was not a clean run is a bit of an understatement! In my mind, it was just racing, there was nothing on anyone, and in the end we brought it home. The car is obviously so good, the GMG Racing team is doing great, and There's no denying that and we had the pace. The safety car in the last hour worked out too for us. The next race in Atlanta is the mid-season rounds, so it's good to be leading the championship again. Sebring and Sonoma have traditionally been our worst rounds of the year, but now we have won both of them, with some of our sweet tracks, like Road America and Barber, still to come. Road Atlanta is a bit of an unknown, but GMG Racing and Kyle have been there, and I think we will be okay. It suits our style."
Washington also stayed in title contention in the single-driver GT America powered by AWS sprint race championship that ran a Saturday and Sunday doubleheader at Sebring. He secured his third runner-up finish of the six-race season to date in Sunday's final 40-minute GT America race from the pole after a P3 showing in the sister No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo on Saturday. Washington was the only multi-series GT driver competing in the SRO America weekend at Sebring to reach the podium in three different races this weekend.
Next up for GMG Racing in SRO America is the new and mid-season race weekend event at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, June 12 - 14, where GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, GT America powered by AWS and McLaren Trophy America will be among the highlight racing series.
