GMG Wins the Indianapolis 8 Hour, Seals Pro-Am Titles

GMG Racing put the exclamation point on its 20th Anniversary season in motorsports Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, winning the season-ending Indianapolis 8 Hour overall with Kyle Washington, Ayhancan Güven and Riccardo Pera in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo. The win is GMG Racing's first major endurance race victory, and it sealed the 2026 GT World Challenge America Pro-Am driver and team championships, Washington's first championship.

The Indianapolis 8 Hour was also the season finale for the Intercontinental GT Challenge. The No. 32 is the first Pro-Am entry to win the race overall in its seven years, and the first Porsche to win it outright. The result 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."

Washington started mid-pack and avoided the early incidents that sidelined Pro division favorites and several Pro-Am competitors. He completed a two-stint cycle to meet his mandatory drive time, then handed Güven and Pera a clean, on-pace car.

"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.

"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," he added.

Pera moved quickly into the overall and Pro-Am leads. He and Güven then alternated behind the wheel and stayed at the front for the rest of the race, backed by top pit stops and strategy calls no other team matched.

"We realized we were fast, we could win the race, and we stayed out of trouble," Pera said.

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 strapped in for the final stint, it became clear the strategy was part of the plan. He took the checkered flag nearly a minute ahead of second place, the largest margin of victory in the history of the Indianapolis 8 Hour.

"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 said.

After seven years at Indianapolis, the North American IGTC round, first held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca from 2017 to 2019, moves to Circuit of The Americas (COTA) beginning in 2027.

Güven and Pera filled in for Tom Sargent, Washington's primary co-driver, who joined him and the team for the first races of the year. Together, Washington and Sargent won two races before Indy and finished third and fourth in two others. Sargent missed the finale after being sent to Europe to help another Porsche team in its bid for a European Le Mans Series championship.

McLaren Trophy America

James Sofronas and his 15-year-old son, Jenson Sofronas, co-drove together for the first time, sharing 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 final race of the season. It was Jenson's first major motorsports victory. The elder Sofronas, the then-reigning McLaren Trophy Am-class champion, was making his first start in the series this season. Jenson was driving a McLaren in competition for the first time, in his first two-driver race. The No. 14 pitted from the Am lead in each race and held the top spot to the checkered flag in Friday's finale.

"My victory with my son yesterday was super special," Sofronas said.

"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."

In the No. 7 GMG Racing McLaren Artura Trophy, first-time driver Randy Highland and teammate Michael O'Brien arrived with a top-three Pro-Am finish in every race run to date in Highland's first season of major racing. They finished third in Wednesday's make-up round for a sprint race cancelled in Miami earlier this year. In Thursday's opening Indianapolis round, contact from a competitor recovering from a spin knocked the No. 7 out of a race for the first time this year. The GMG Racing crew rebuilt the car for Friday's finale, where Highland and O'Brien finished sixth in Pro-Am.

Highland won the Pro-Am Papaya Cup, the season honor for the top-performing drivers over a certain age or of limited experience, and he and the No. 7 team finished third in the overall Pro-Am championship.

"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," Highland said.