Gill Expecting “Moderate Growth” to Grids for 2024

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

SRO America President and CEO Greg Gill is expecting “moderate growth” to the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS grids next year amid a season of “predictability” within the overall organization.

The GT3-based series delivered hard-fought racing throughout the year, with champions in both the Pro and Pro-Am classes only being decided at the season-ending Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.

Further stability was brought into various aspects of SRO America, including the addition of ABB FIA Formula E World Championship race director Scot Elkins as the chairman of the stewards and Geoff Carter as its new GT3 series manager.

“In times’ past, people looked at World Challenge and felt that there wasn’t a great deal of predictability,” Gill told Sportscar365.

“We really wanted to work on our stewardship, our race organization and everything we do to be very predictable for our customers, so they knew exactly what they were getting when they signed up for it.

“This year we were able to deliver on that and we plan to do more of the same. I think we’ll see an increase in the grid and that same level of stability.”

While regularly featuring grids in the high-teens, Gill said he expects slightly more growth next season despite several existing teams understood to not be returning due to various reasons.

Both Conquest Racing and MDK Motorsports have confirmed IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD programs for 2024, although the Eric Bachelart-led Conquest team is aiming to also remain in Fanatec GT next year.

However, in addition to the two new DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, growth is expected in the BMW camp, with both Turner Motorsport and Fast Track Racing planning to enter M4 GT3s.

“I think we’ll see moderate growth again in terms of grid,” Gill said. “It’s not just because of the Corvettes being added but we’ll see customers stepping up from GT4 that are moving into it.

“We’re very clear and have good conversations with our friends at IMSA all the time about where SRO America fits in the hierarchy and where SRO fits globally in GT sports car racing. We understand that.

“There’s always going to be people saying, ‘Hey, my goal is to get to Le Mans, and to do that, I need to learn my craft, start in SRO World Challenge and then maybe I want to do more endurance races than one eight-hour race at the end of the season. I want to be able to do this.’

“We’re seeing teams now looking at it, as IGTC gets a more predictable calendar and some really main races between Núrburgring, Spa, Indy, etc, that people are saying, ‘I want to do IGTC.’

“You’re going to see customers doing those kind of things but I would say there’s no surprises. Eric from Conquest was quite clear in saying, ‘This is the natural evolution. This is where we’re going next.’

“As he said too, ‘I want to have programs here.’ Ferrari has made it clear they want to have programs and they have a couple of customers in mind for us.

“I’m very comfortable with that and any time someone steps up from one of our other classes or another series to join us, it’s great.”

Gill said he feels comfortable with new GT3 manufacturers Chevrolet and Ford entering the fray in what are strictly customer racing programs, at least in Fanatec GT, which contrasts to GM’s previous GT3 endeavor with the Cadillac ATS-V.R in the then-named Pirelli World Challenge.

“I think that’s an exciting example of what GT racing does so well,” he said. “The model in GT3 was not first-and-factory but in fact for customer racing. Then it became more factory supported and different things like you see with GTD Pro.

“Our attitude with SRO has always been that the customer drives the program and what the customers want. Manufacturers have to design and market cars that customers are interested in.

“When Mercedes first presented things to us in December of 2015, showing us what the reliability was going to be with the GT3 cars and what they were looking at, we had a very good feeling this car was going to do well.

“Now eight years later, we see a tremendous level of success for their program and you can attribute it to their very thoughtful execution of what they’ve done and the customers have supported them in that.

“You see something as exciting as the new Corvette, and certainly there at Indianapolis, you could see the fans walking around the car and the excitement in the paddock, and in some cases jealousy of DXDT Racing and what they’ve pulled off in getting to be one of the first cars out there.

“There’s an expectation but it really matches up to what people say, ‘Hey I know the Corvette is going be a good program. General Motors is embracing customer racing. This is going to be exciting.’

“We’ll look at it the same way, but people will also understand new cars coming from Aston Martin and the [Porsche] 992, customers have found the way to drive it to success. We’ll see growth there and the same thing with the [Ferrari] 296.

“You’re not just going to see a new Corvette but expanded efforts from brands like Porsche, Ferrari, AMR, BMW, etc.”

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