Foley: Class Win “Would’ve Been a Bonus” to Pro-Am Title

Robby Foley said winning the Pro-Am class at the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS “would have been a bonus” to Turner Motorsport’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS championship success, for which it overcame a significant points deficit to seal the drivers’ title.

Foley, Justin Rothberg and Patrick Gallagher finished second in class behind Herberth Motorsport in Saturday’s season finale, but secured maximum points in the battle for Fanatec GT America Pro-Am as Herberth was not eligible to score.

As a result, Foley and Rothberg overcame a 33-point deficit to ST Racing pair Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen to take the Pro-Am title in unlikely fashion.

Tan’s No. 38 BMW M4 GT3 stopped on track with a fuel pressure issue early in the second hour and lost crucial time in the garage as the issue was rectified, leaving the car way down in the running order.

ST Racing’s delay opened the door for Turner to take the title, but as Foley later said, that still required a strong result for the No. 29 BMW.

“We knew we had to score well,” Foley told Sportscar365 .

“We had to win the GT World Challenge America class and also that’s going to take being on the overall [class] podium. So we knew we had to be there.”

While Foley admitted he would have liked to have beaten Herberth’s No. 10 Porsche to take overall Pro-Am honors in the race, the championship ultimately took priority in the closing stages.

“We didn’t really consider them too much and we were basically just focused on our American cars,” said Foley.

“Of course we wanted to win the race and we were pushing. The end of the race was a bit strange just with the last full course yellow, that changed the strategy a bit.

“But we really weren’t concerned with the No. 10. It was all just about our point situation. [The win] would have been a bonus, but second is amazing.”

Tan: ST Racing “Kept Pushing” Despite Fuel Pressure Setbacks

Tan, Verhagen and third driver John Capestro-Dubets ultimately finished Saturday’s six-hour race 19th overall and tenth in Pro-Am, 41 laps down on Herberth.

Speaking with Sportscar365, Tan lamented the issue that put the No. 38 car in the garage early on, saying that the team “did all the preparation you can think of” going into the title decider.

“Unfortunately, the issue struck at my second stint,” said Tan.

“I mean, I already had a lap on the car that we needed to be fighting with in the first stint.

“So it was quite unfortunate. We were in the garage for, I think, like 30 minutes or so.

“You come into this race with a good championship lead and within an hour or something that’s all gone.

“We had like a lead of over 30 points coming into this race and we did all the preparation you can think of.

“We knew we just had to finish the race and keep it clean and run our own race.”

Despite the setback, Tan, Verhagen and Capestro-Dubets returned to the track as the Canadian squad clung to a slim title hope, only for the fuel pressure issue to rear its head again in the fifth hour.

“You never give up,” said Tan. “You’ve got to keep going until the end and we just kept pushing.

“Unfortunately, we ran into the exact same issue later in the race. Anything can happen in an endurance race. So we just kept pushing.”