GMG Racing is all-in and more for a pair of season-ending event weekends Saturday and Sunday at Sonoma Raceway and next weekend in the Indianapolis 8 Hour SRO America and Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). The nearly two-week run of races will see GMG Racing hustle from the Porsche Sprint Challenge finale in Sonoma this Sunday night and head straight to the legendary Brickyard 2,250 miles away for opening practice on Wednesday.
The highlight of the nearly two-week stretch will be GMG Racing's Pro-Am effort in the Indianapolis 8 Hour with Fanatec GT World Challenge America contenders Kyle Washington and Tom Sargent in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. The winning duo of Washington and Sargent will be joined by Platinum-rated Porsche Junior Driver Ayhancan Güven in the Pro-Am class in the Indianapolis 8 Hour. Washington is a Canadian now living in California, Sargent hails from Australia and Güven is from Turkey.
Another international addition to GMG Racing for the Indianapolis 8 Hour is a logistics and technical partnership with German team Herberth Motorsport, which also fields a Pro-Am Porsche entry. The trio of Antares Au, Loek Hartog and Platinum factory Porsche pilot Patric Niederhauser co-drives the Pro-Am No. 4 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R. Au is a native of Hong Kong, Hartog is a top Porsche Carrera Cup driver from Holland and Niederhauser is Swiss.
"GMG Racing is proud to be a technical and logistics partner for the Herberth Motorsport effort in the Indianapolis 8 Hour," said GMG Racing Principal and Founder James Sofronas, who will also drive in competition during the Indianapolis 8 Hour weekend. "Antares Au has been a good friend for many, many years and is an excellent Bronze driver. We are providing everything from logistics and trackside and technical support from our extensive experience over the years on the Indianapolis road course, including the Indianapolis 8 Hour. We look forward to supporting Antares and his Porsche teammates as well as our season-long GT World Challenge America entry with Kyle Washington and Tom Sargent, who will be joined by talented Porsche Junior driver Ayhancan Güven. Fielding two Porsches in the 8 Hour is something we are very excited about, and we are ready to provide the infrastructure for Herberth and welcome Antares and the team and Ayhancan as they come to Indianapolis for the SRO grand finale event."
Both Güven and Au arrive in Indianapolis leading their respective driver championships going into the IGTC finale. Güven leads the overall Drivers championship with 50 points while Au is atop the Independent Cup driver championship standings with 50 points.
"I'm happy to join GMG Racing at the Indianapolis 8 Hour for the final round of both the IGTC and GTWC America championships," Güven said. "I've had a strong IGTC season so far, while GMG Racing has also had a successful GTWC America season up until now. Hopefully, together we will have a great weekend and achieve our goal of a class win. Definitely, last week's IMSA round gave us a good feeling about this track with Porsche winning both GTD classes. I think the Porsche 911 GT3 R suits the Indianapolis road course well. I’ve been to the USA once in my life, and that was for testing at Indianapolis with an LMP2 car. So, I know the track and am really looking forward to racing at Indy!"
One of the support series competing at Indy is GT America powered by AWS that will have a trio of GMG entries competing in the weekend's twin 40-minute sprints. Washington drives a second No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R and looks for his first win of the GT America season after recording both second place and third place podium finishes so far. CJ Moses runs in the GT2 class in his No. 58 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2 while Sofronas is always a contender for a win in his No. 14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO2. Sofronas picked up his first GT America win of the season the last time he ran the Audi last month at Road America.
The first order of business for GMG Racing, however, is this weekend's Porsche Sprint Challenge finale in Sonoma that brings the curtain down on both the overall North American championship and the USA West series. Washington takes advantage of the dual series format for the second straight race weekend and runs twin GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R entries - No. 232 in USA West and No. 234 in North America - in the Masters class in both series races for a total of four Sprint Challenge sprints over the course of Saturday and Sunday.
Joining Washington at Sonoma is Pro-Am class Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West competitor Patrick Mulcahy. A first-year driver, Mulcahy has shown great progress with GMG Racing and had his best USA West race weekend to date with a third-place Pro-Am finish in the Sunday Road America race in his No. 254 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Visit www.porschesprint.com for the Sonoma weekend event schedule, results from every session and live timing and livestreaming of all the races.
The action next weekend from Indianapolis can be viewed live on the GT World YouTube Channel, including Saturday's featured Indianapolis 8 Hour that starts at 12:15 p.m. EDT.