Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO
Adam Adelson said winning the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro class championship is “validation” for years of narrowly missing out on titles in SRO America competition.
Adelson and Skeer were crowned champions following a second place overall finish in Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS, finishing first in the Fanatec GT America Pro class despite losing the overall win to Team WRT due to a five-second post-race time penalty.
It came in a race that saw third driver Laurin Heinrich put the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 R into the overall lead and also help secure Porsche the Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturer’s championship.
“There aren’t words to describe how it feels,” Adelson told Sportscar365. “I lost three championships in the last two years here, all of them in SRO, and all of them because of things out of our control.
“That was a really, really bad feeling considering the rise I’ve had through motorsport, which I largely credit to [Elliott] and the amazing teams that I’ve worked with.
“To not have a championship to show for it, and to have come in second so many times… Now it’s a dream come true. It’s validation for the fact that I dedicated my life to this sport.
“I’m just over the moon about it.”
The No. 120 Porsche broke DXDT Racing’s eight-race consecutive win streak in the Pro class, which was needed in order to walk away as champions.
“We’ve been at a pace deficit to the Corvette pretty much since they walked into the series,” said Adelson. “To come to a track where the Porsche is strong, and especially after the result we had here just two weeks ago…
“We always knew it was going to be a battle and we were just going to put our heads down and focus on ourselves because if you maximize your own performance, you’re going to give yourself the best shot.”
Adelson admitted the Ohio-based team is still investigating the root cause of the final-hour five-second penalty handed down due to a pit lane infringement.
Heinrich finished 4.7 seconds ahead of the No. 31 Team WRT BMW of Dries Vanthoor on the road, which meant the Wright Porsche lost the overall win by less than three-tenths of a second.
“I’m not even sure we still have a good grasp on why we got it right now,” said Adelson.
“It was something about impeding in the pit lane. I don’t think there was a single instance where we impeded anyone.
“Regardless, we just had to put our heads down and do what we could to put as much distance between us and the Corvette as possible and we got it done.”
Heinrich, who drove the car to the finish, revealed that he got the message about the penalty “quite late.”
“Obviously then I started to push a bit more,” he said. “Before I was more-or-less managing the gap before I knew about the penalty. And yeah, obviously then try to drive my heart out and then give it everything and actually extended the gap a bit, but it was not enough at the end.
“It’s a bit of a trade off, how much risk you want to go on the fuel saving. The guys are here to win a championship in their own class and the overall win doesn’t matter. So in the end, that’s what we are here for, to get the championship for the guys.
“I’m still super happy to cross the line first, get a great result and show some good pace and obviously bring that championship trophy home for Elliott and Adam.”
Skeer Proud of Adelson’s Massive Steps as Driver
After first meeting at a track day at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, outside of Las Vegas, in 2020, Skeer said he’s been blown away by Adelson’s progression as a driver, culminating with his first major championship title.
“Throughout all the rounds of SRO GT4, him going to GT America, doing some Carrera Cup and finally making the jump to GT3,” said Skeer.
“For me that was a big step personally. I really enjoyed it. He just seems to get better as the cars get meaner. He went out and blew everyone away in Dubai and we thought to keep it going in GT3 and off it went from there.
“It’s the last two years of turning from a GT3 driver into a proper racer.
“My favorite quote of the whole event was he was holding off one of the BMWs for six, seven, eight laps early on, and he goes on the radio asking if it was [Andy] Lee, Varun [Choksey] or whoever it was.
“We were like, ‘No, it was Philipp Eng.’ He had no idea and he’s holding on for seven or eight laps.
“To me, I watch that, and I never worry when he’s in the car. I just let him drive and every single time he’s in it, he impresses me more and more.”
Davey Euwema & Christopher DeHarde contributed to this report
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