GMG Racing Wins the Indianapolis 8 Hour Overall and Seals the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am Championship

GMG Racing closed its 20th anniversary season in motorsports on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an overall win in the Indianapolis 8 Hour. Kyle Washington, Ayhancan Güven and Riccardo Pera shared the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, and the result sealed the 2026 GT World Challenge America Pro-Am driver and team championships. It is GMG's first major endurance race victory and Washington's first championship. It is also the first overall win for a Pro-Am entry in the race's seven years, and the first outright Indianapolis 8 Hour win for Porsche.

The Indy 8 Hour was also the season finale of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, and the No. 32's win helped seal Porsche's fourth IGTC manufacturer championship.

"It means a lot, especially for a guy like Kyle who gives and gives and gives and rarely takes," said GMG Racing Owner and Founder James Sofronas. "I'm super proud of him. He deserves it. He worked hard for it. He earned it. You know what, they dominated on Saturday and Kyle had a big part in it."

Washington started mid-pack and stayed clear of the early trouble that sidelined the Pro division favorites and several Pro-Am competitors in the opening stages. He ran a two-stint cycle to cover his mandatory drive time in the first hours of the race and handed Güven and Pera a clean, on-pace car to take to the finish.

"Well, as I say on my kids' report cards, I think we exceeded expectations for the year, and I couldn't be prouder of the team," Washington said. "When I first got into racing, I didn't really understand how many parts there were to the program. We have 30-plus people on the team, every one of them with a specific job, and if one of them doesn't do it, it all falls apart. Every single one of these guys just worked their asses off, way more than me, quite frankly. I am just so proud of them. They gave us a great car every weekend, and, you know, we got lucky. We had some luck on our side too. You got to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good. And we were good."

Pera moved quickly into the overall and Pro-Am leads, which put the team in position to fight for both wins for the rest of the race. He and Güven alternated from there and kept the car at the front for the distance, helped by fast pit stops and strategy calls that no other team matched.

"The execution of the race was really good," Pera said. "The team did a really good job on the car and on the strategy side. I jumped in the car after Kyle did a really mega job, and then I was able to make up some positions and get to the front. Then Ayhancan also drove really amazingly. The strategy was good. We realized we were fast, we could win the race, and we stayed out of trouble. At the end, we just reached first position. It's amazing."

Strategy and the Finish

For most of the race, the broadcast described the No. 32 as "off sequence" on pit stops compared with the competition. When Güven got in for the final stint to take the car to the finish, it became clear that the pit strategy was part of the plan to win.

Güven's closing stint was quick and comfortable, and he took the checkered flag nearly a minute ahead of second place, the largest winning margin in the history of the Indianapolis 8 Hour. It was also the final IGTC round at Indianapolis. The North American round, first held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca from 2017 to 2019, moves to Circuit of The Americas (COTA) from 2027 after seven years at the Speedway.

"I came here two years ago with this team as the IGTC leader but unfortunately we had a really bad race," Güven said. "However, ever since that day, we've kept telling ourselves that we'd come back stronger. Kyle put in a really good stint, and we were hopeful that the strategy would pay off. Halfway through the race, it became clear to us that we might even be able to aim for overall victory. From that moment on, with Riccardo at the wheel, we really put our foot down, and in the end, it worked out really well."

Güven and Pera were between them filling in for fellow Porsche ace Tom Sargent, Washington's primary co-driver, who drove the season's earlier rounds alongside him and the team. Washington and Sargent won two races together before Indianapolis and finished third and fourth in two others. Sargent reluctantly missed the finale after he was sent to Europe to help another Porsche team chase a European Le Mans Series championship, and the No. 32 would not have arrived at Indianapolis in the position it did without what he contributed over the season.

McLaren Trophy America: James and Jenson Sofronas

Saturday's win followed another milestone for GMG Racing on Friday. Sofronas, a sports car driver with several championships on his résumé, co-drove with his teenage son, Jenson Sofronas, for the first time. The two shared the No. 14 GMG Racing McLaren Artura Trophy in the weekend's twin 50-minute McLaren Trophy America races and won the Am class in Friday's season finale.

The elder Sofronas came to Indianapolis as the reigning McLaren Trophy Am-class champion, making his first start in the series this season. His 15-year-old son was driving a McLaren in competition for the first time, in what was also his first two-driver race. The No. 14 pitted from the Am lead in both of the weekend's races, and in Friday's finale the Sofronas pair held the top spot all the way to the checkered flag.

"My victory with my son yesterday was super special," Sofronas said. "To be with Jenson for his first win and see Kyle finally get a deserved championship are both incredibly special because I've seen Kyle through the entire journey, started him when he just got into this, and to see this success just makes me very proud. Now we are starting Jenson's journey too and it makes me even prouder to see both the initial and long-coming success for each of them. Much more to come!"

It was Jenson's first major motorsports victory, earned at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a car he shared with his father.

"It felt amazing," Jenson Sofronas said. "Racing alongside my Dad, doing driver change pit stops with him, has been a dream of mine since as long as I can remember, and the win was just a great way to end the weekend. Across other series, I have had some trouble this year, but winning with my Dad makes it all better. I am so glad and hope to do more races with him in the future. We will see where we go from here."

McLaren Trophy America: Randy Highland and Michael O'Brien

Indianapolis also closed a strong first season of major racing for first-time driver Randy Highland and teammate Michael O'Brien in the No. 7 GMG Racing McLaren Artura Trophy. The No. 7 arrived with a perfect Pro-Am record of top-three finishes in every race run to date, and its weekend actually began on Wednesday, with a make-up round for a sprint race cancelled in Miami earlier in the year.

Highland and O'Brien finished third in the "Miami" race. In Thursday's opening Indianapolis round, a careless competitor trying to recover from a spin made contact with the No. 7 and knocked it out of a race for the first time this year. The GMG Racing crew rebuilt the McLaren in time for Friday's finale, and O'Brien and Highland brought the repaired car home sixth in Pro-Am.

The season didn't end the way the No. 7 drivers and team wanted, but Highland won the Pro-Am Papaya Cup, the season honor for the top-performing drivers above a certain age or with limited experience. He and the No. 7 team also finished third in the overall Pro-Am championship.

"The season finale wasn't quite what we were hoping for, but it started out with a nice podium P3 finish for the Miami make up race," Highland said. "My qualifying for Indy race one went well and pace for qualifying has definitely been my strength this season. Unfortunately, an incident with another car took us out of race one on the first lap through no fault of our own, which ended our podium perfect ride. Michael had a great first stint in race two, putting us in the lead coming out of the pits. I struggled with grip and wasn't able to hold on to our lead, which was disappointing, but I'm extremely happy with our overall results this season in the McLaren Trophy America series. We finished third in overall points for the Pro-Am class, and winning the McLaren Papaya Cup was definitely icing on the cake in my first year of racing. None of this would have been possible without a well prepared car, capable of winning every race this season, and to our race team, Trevor, Nevin and Jack, and GMG Racing, who made it happen I'm extremely grateful. My race partner, coach and good friend Michael O'Brien is the best, and has made the first year's journey a phenomenal learning experience and loads of fun along the way. So, cheers to 2026, and looking forward to an even better '27 racing season!"