GMG Wins Indy 8H; Porsche, Martin Claim IGTC Titles

Photo: GMG Racing/Sideline Sports Photography

GMG Racing’s Ayhancan Guven, Riccardo Pera and Kyle Washington gave Porsche its first overall victory in the Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour, in a strategic race that saw the German manufacturer claim the Intercontinental GT Challenge title and Maxime Martin crowned IGTC drivers’ champion.

Guven drove the Pro-Am class No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo to 56.209-second victory, marking a landmark win for the James Sofronas-owned operation, and giving Washington the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am class championship.

Turner Motorsport, meanwhile, claimed the GTWC America Pro title with Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg, thanks to Foley’s gutsy move around the No. 12 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff for the class lead with one hour to go.

The GMG Porsche went on an alternate strategy just prior to halfway, that saw the team back-time the remainder of the race.

A steady opening double stint by FIA Bronze-rated driver Washington, who gave way to reigning DTM champion Guven and Silver-rated Pera, subbing for Washington’s regular co-driver Tom Sargent, to handle driving duties to the finish.

It marked the first overall win for a Pro-Am class driver lineup in the seven editions of the race.

Porsche won its fourth IGTC manufacturers’ championship along the way, and its second in the last three years, following a challenging race for Mercedes-AMG, which saw one of its two Pro class bullets, the No. 80 Lone Star Racing entry, crash out in the opening hour in the hands of Lin Hodenius.

The No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Michai Stephens and Mikael Grenier, who entered the GTWC America double-points paying season finale in the Pro class championship lead, finished fifth overall and third in class.

However, it was still good enough for Stephens and Grenier’s co-driver, Martin, to overthrow the absent Maro Engel to win his first IGTC drivers’ title.

Turner’s Foley and Rothberg, who earned their third consecutive GTWC America championship, following back-to-back Pro-Am titles, shared the Pro class-winning No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with recently crowned IMSA GTD Pro champion Connor De Phillippi.

The No. 69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo finished an impressive second overall, which was brought to the finish by McLaren Junior driver Tom Fleming, who shared the Pro-Am class entry with Aaron Telitz and Todd Coleman.

Telitz passed Schandorff for third overall just prior to the final round of pit stops, with Fleming then emerging ahead of Foley for the final stint.

The No. 31 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Ryan Yardley, Dave Musial Jr. and Porsche factory star Laurin Heinrich completed the Pro-Am class podium in third, finishing sixth on the road.

Heinrich was in a must-win overall scenario in order to take the IGTC drivers’ crown.

The German passed the No. 86 High Class Racing Porsche of Hongli Ye for position with with 23 minutes to go, which led to Ye slamming into the SAFER barrier on the final corner.

Ye made a late-race stop, promoting the No. 28 RS1 Porsche of Jan Heylen to seventh, with Robert Renauer crossing the line eighth in the No. 91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche.

The No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Kevin Estre, who spun after contact with the No. 11 Mad Joker Racing Mercedes-AMG of Peter Dempsey in the final hour, was ninth, with Ye completing the overall top ten in the car that featured IGTC Independent Cup winner Kerong Li.

The No. 11 Mad Joker Racing Mercedes-AMG of Peter Dempsey, Ben Keating and Marc Austin won in Am despite having been handed a post-race time penalty equivalent t0 a drive-through penalty for Dempsey’s late-race incident with Estre.

While Dempsey crossed the line just ahead of the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari of Benny Simonsen, the two were split on laps, which proved to be crucial with the post-race penalty.

Simonsen’s co-driver, Jay Schreibman, meanwhile, crowned as the GTWC America Am class champion by just starting the race.

All three of the race’s retirements were contenders in their respective classes.

In addition to Lone Star Racing’s crash, which didn’t see five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou get any seat time in the race, the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO dropped out in the second hour after suspension damage from Scott Dollahite running over a curb.

It came after co-driver Alex Sedgwick led the opening hour of the race.

The No. 27 JMF Mercedes-AMG also retired after Pro-Am title contender Jason Daskalos stopped on track with gearbox failure, which brought out the race’s fourth and final caution.

The final five hours and 39 minutes of the race ran caution-free.

RESULTS: Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour

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