Gill: SRO GT Academy “Raises the Profile” of Silver Drivers

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

The expansion of SRO Motorsports Group’s GT Academy program to include regional GT World Challenge powered by AWS series and British GT Championship helps “raise the profile” of FIA Silver-rated drivers according to SRO America President and CEO Greg Gill.

A total of nine GTWC America drivers — Zachary Vanier, Ryan Yardley, Riley Dickinson, Hampus Ericsson, Tom Sargent, Matias Perez Companc, Lorcan Hanafin, Alex Sedgwick and Justin Rothberg  — are all eligible as they met the SRO’s criteria of being both FIA Silver rated and under the age of 30 on Dec. 31, 2026.

The initiative will see the winning driver in GTWC America, Australia and Asia, plus British GT, all receive a fully funded drive in next year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, sharing a GT3 car fielded by a yet-to-be-named team, but described by SRO as an “accomplished professional team.”

Not to be confused by the former Nissan GT Academy, devised by Darren Cox that brought gamers to professional racers, SRO’s GT Academy stemmed from the FFSA French GT Championship, where last year’s winner Gaspard Simon received €150,000 ($175,000 USD) towards a GTWC Europe Sprint Cup ride this season.

Simon has lined up in one of Walkenhorst Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos in the series, which kicked off last weekend at Brands Hatch.

“I believe it raises the profile of people who want to make a profession out of driving,” Gill told Sportscar365. “They want to be professional sports car drivers. They’re putting the time and effort in to do that but there are a lot of them globally.

“I think there’s over 2,000 registered Silvers in the FIA database, so to stand out, how do we help them?

“We’ve now given them a platform to help them stand out.

“Especially for the people on the younger side of their Silver ratings, their whole career is in front of them.

“So the more exposure they can get, earlier in their career, this is only going to help them for the long haul. That’s our goal.”

Unlike a traditional championship where drivers are ranked according to their results in track, the SRO GT Academy utilizes an assessment-based process to reveal each driver’s true ability and potential, eliminating external factors such as co-driver performance, reliability and luck.

Race results are not considered. Instead, points are be awarded for the quickest qualifying and race laps, as well as the average time across each driver’s fastest ten race laps. Points will be deducted when a driver is deemed responsible for an accident by the panel of Stewards, or for losing control of the car off-track.

Sargent, who posted the quickest qualifying and race laps in last month’s season opener at Sonoma Raceway, jumped to the top of the standings after the first race and extended his advantage with another perfect 36-point score at Circuit of the Americas.

Gill said he expects this initiative to be particularly beneficial for GTWC America, as Silver drivers often have a different role to Silvers in other regions.

“In North America, Silver drivers have more of a journeymen reputation and they’re sandwiched between Golds and Platinums and well-funded Bronzes and they’re in the middle,” he said.

“They haven’t had the chance to get a ton of exposure. You have people like Kenton Koch who has moved up (from Silver to Gold) and different people have been along the way and we can certainly name some great Silver drivers in this country.

“But it hasn’t been one that you can really get that opportunity to get on the global stage and get global recognition.

“There’s been so much attention given to Bronzes and then to the Pro Silvers and Pro Golds, there’s not much attention paid to the Silvers and you really don’t get an opportunity for a global race.”

Gill said each winner will also get a “full immersion” into the world of SRO Motorsports Group, spending a full day with is global sporting director Jacquie Groom, as well as time with GTWC Europe sporting contractor Didi Cazzago and global technical director Claude Surmount, the mastermind behind SRO’s Balance of Performance system.

“We’re really trying to give these people experience,” said Gill. “‘You are in the motorsport profession and this everything that’s going on in our GT racing.’

“Then we have them sit with our PR people the same way, to give them the full PR experience, so when they are a graduate and winner, it really is an academy.

“Not only did they earn enough points to be part of it, but we’ve come along side of them, giving them all that extra support.

“It’s not just, ‘I hope you enjoyed the time at Spa.’ It’s instead, ‘We’ll equip you so that when teams look through and go, ‘Ok, I’ve got 300 Silvers I can look at for this ride, who’s got all the skillsets that’s going to give me every understand and give me a good experience.’

“I think that’s really going to help people’s careers.”

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