McLaren Trophy Set for U.S. Debut in Sonoma

Photo: McLaren

McLaren Trophy America is set for its inaugural event this weekend at Sonoma Raceway, with 15 McLaren Artura Trophy Evo cars set to take part in the pair of races.

Building off the SRO Motorsports Group-organized McLaren Trophy Europe, which debuted in 2023, the North America-based single-make series will feature on five SRO America weekends this year, beginning in Northern California.

The entry list features the likes of veteran U.S. sports car racing operations such as Flying Lizard Motorsports, GMG Racing and Riley Motorsports and well-known drivers to the SRO America paddock including Eric Filgueiras, John Capestro-Dubets and James Sofronas.

Teams have the option of running one or two drivers per car for the 50-minute races, which will mandate a pit stop, while there will be three classes of competition: Pro, Pro-Am and Am.

As previously announced, Flying Lizard fields a pair of McLarens for the driver pairings of George Lawrence/Spencer Bucknum and Brandon Kreutz and Canaan O’Connell, the former which is confirmed for the Pro-Am class.

They’re joined by longtime SRO competitors TechSport, which will see Colin Harrison drive solo in Am.

GMG will have a pair of Artura Trophy Evos, featuring Capetro-Dubets and K.C. King, with team owner/driver Sofronas driving solo in a second Am class entry.

Three-time SRO America champion Filgueiras will team up with long-time supporter Tom Kopczynski in a Riley-run McLaren in the Pro-Am class.

Longtime McLaren operator Motorsports In Action will have Jesse Lazare and Alexandra Hainer in Pro-Am, while fellow IMSA competitor Forte Racing will field Neil Langberg and Kevin Madsen in the RP Motorsports-backed entry in Am.

Skip Barber Racing will have entries for Cooper Broll and Tommy Pintos, the only confirmed Pro class entry due to both drivers’ FIA Silver ratings, with Skip Barber also operating the Aero B Motorsport-backed entry for Jason Guzman and Chris Leichtweis.

Other teams set for the first two rounds include Dark Horse Racing (Deniz Teoman/Jeff Cook), a two-car effort from RWE Motorsport (John Dempsey/Andrew Davis and Casey Denis/James Li) Orlando Motorsport Services (Stephen Sobaro), and Hooper Street Racing (Robby and Bob Stockard).

McLaren Trophy entries will have a 60-minute test session on Thursday prior to two 45-minute official practice sessions on Friday, with split qualifying sessions for Races 1 and 2, the first round set for Saturday at 12:05 p.m. PST and Race 2 on Sunday at 10:25 a.m.

Both races will be streamed live on SRO’s GT World and McLaren Automotive YouTube channels.

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