Sargent ‘Has to Win’ Barber to Set Up for Double Points Finale

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Tom Sargent believes the entire GT World Challenge America powered by AWS campaign has been building up for next month’s season-ending Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour due to the nature of this year’s points structure, stating that he and GMG Racing co-driver Kyle Washington “have to win” this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park to put them in the best position of the Pro-Am title.

The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected driver and Washington slipped to second in the standings after Washington was collected in a multi-car accident at the Kink last time out at Road America.

It marked the team’s first DNF of the year after a controlling first half of the season that saw two class wins and an additional podium result.

“That’s the most disappointing way is the fact that it wasn’t Kyle’s fault, it wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t anyone of our fault, but this is racing unfortunately,” Sargent told Sportscar365

“As much as it sounds weird, you feel kinda better if you made the mistake but in this case we got caught up in someone else’s disaster, which is what happens.

“I suppose we’ve been lucky this year. We’ve avoided stuff, but this time we didn’t avoid this one.

“It’s crazy how much of a difference one race makes because we had a nice buffer going in and now we’re behind by a little bit.

“The good part is that Barber has been our best track of the season in the past.

“We’ve always been the fastest there. I think it’s a good track for the Porsche, with it being short and technical.

“I’m looking forward to this. In the end, we’re competing directly against Porsches, so it’s not like we have an upper edge.

“But we’ve been there before and it’s been good to us in the past, so I hope it’s going to be the same for us again.

“It just means we’re going to have to win.”

Sargent and Washington are still in the thick of the title hunt, however, sitting just three points behind fellow Porsche runners Ryan Yardley and Dave Musial Jr., of Wright Motorsports.

However, with double points on hand for Indy, Sargent said this weekend’s final regular-length race will be about trying to put them in the best position to attack at The Brickyard.

“In the end, you knew you could never win [the title] before Indy,” he said. “It’s just been the fact of trying to build the biggest margin you can, just to give yourself breathing room.

“The Indy 8 Hour, a lot of things can happen. It’s tough. We’ve been fast there in the past. Hopefully we get a good one this year.

“Now we have to win Barber so we’re going to put it all on the line to do that and give ourselves, hopefully, a small buffer going into Indy.”

When asked if he personally prefers the new-for-2026 format of one single endurance-style race over the previous two 90-minute contests, Sargent said this year’s change actually helps prepare them for the eight-hour finale in some ways.

“For sure it makes it hard to claw back points in a situation like this because if it was the old system at Road America, we’d have one race to rectify it,” he said.

“But that’s the way it is. I’m not dwelling on that.

“I think it actually helps coming to Indy. All of a sudden the step between a normal round and Indianapolis is not that big. It’s a little bit over double but the system is still the same about how we go about it.

“We’re adding one more driver of course. It’s more streamlined for everyone. But outside looking in, I think it’s going to be helpful for everyone, the team, Kyle, just trying to get up to speed a little bit more.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John