Gill: Six Driver Pairings Needed to Green-Light Format Change

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

SRO America President and CEO Greg Gill said they will need to have at least six commitments for its optional two-driver lineup proposal to be officially green-lighted in GT America powered by AWS next year.

Announced last month, the series revealed intentions of introducing a Pro-Am category, pit stops and driver changes as part of an expanded 50-minute race format.

However, Gill has clarified that the two-driver optional format would only go ahead with a certain number of confirmed entries.

Official registration for the 2025 season opened on Friday.

“There’s no real word yet on people being interested in having a shared driver [lineup],” he told Sportscar365.

“We’ve seen a few hands raised on that, but not anything that I think we’ll have to wait until registration opens up to see how that fleshes out.

“But overall car count is definitely increasing for 2025.”

When asked specifically on the number of cars SRO America would need to have to move forward with its proposed format shift, Gill said: “At least six, and we would prefer eight to make it good for people.”

He added: “We’d keep the same changes in that we’ve done [for 2025], the only difference being that we do have the 40-minute races at Long Beach due to the way the calendar is set up there.”

The proposed format change, which would require each car to make a mandatory pit stop, even with single-driver lineups, was met with mixed initial reactions during the Indianapolis Motor Speedway season finale weekend.

“I think it opens up the opportunities for more entries,” said GMG Racing team principal James Sofronas at the time. “You see the growth in Super Trofeo [with two-driver entries] and I think that has carried them to grow their grids.

“But I don’t want to lose that sprint format, old World Challenge-esq race program that I’ve always enjoyed.

“I think it has some merits, we have to work through it, and see what the driver pairings would be like. I’m always supporting SRO and will continue to do so.”

Gill said a final decision would likely be made in the coming weeks but stressed that all GT America rounds except the two Long Beach races would still be increased to 50 minutes, regardless of the potential mandatory pit stop and optional driver change addition.

He added: “GT America looks like an increase on entries, based on what the commitments we’ve received so far, with the pre-season entry program that we had in October.

“That’s looking very good; we’ve been very pleasantly surprised.”

GT America Format Working Great for ‘Pure Bronze’ Drivers

Gill has hailed the success of GT America that has seen a number of drivers, either young up-and-comers or seasoned veterans, graduate to other SRO America-run series such as Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “The word at the F1 race in Austin, I talked to one of our drivers who was doing some other things.

“They commented to me what they loved about GT America was the ‘Pure Bronze’ nature of the series.

“Even though there’s been some derogated drivers there, they understood they’re Bronze drivers. They’re people who are starting out or who are very experienced and they’re legitimate Bronzes.

“I think that’s the key thing for us is to continue in that light because it’s growth opportunity, it’s predictable and it does allow people that can either go up to a shared ride with somebody else and stay at a Bronze status or if they move, like an Adam Adelson to a Silver, then it works well for them too.”

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