Ilott Aiming to Help Wright Secure Pro-Am Title at Indy 8H

Callum Ilott says he’s aiming to help Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer capture the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am title in this weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour in his first GT3 appearance since 2021.

The NTT IndyCar Series star was confirmed as the third driver aboard the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R for the Fanatec GT season finale last week, partnering up with full season duo Adelson and Skeer.

The pairing left Sebring International Raceway with a narrow points lead over the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of George Kurtz and Colin Braun after they swept the weekend in the Pro-Am class.

However, the results from Race 2 remain provisional as ST Racing has announced intentions to lodge an appeal after Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen lost the Pro-Am and overall victory after post-race technical inspection.

The Indy 8H will mark Ilott’s first race start at The Brickyard in a non-IndyCar capacity since 2021, when he joined AF Corse for the eight-hour enduro and was in contention for the overall victory before a late-race clash with a GT4 car.

Ilott revealed to Sportscar365 that this surprise inclusion in the lineup for the Ohio-based squad came about through a longtime friendship with both Adelson and Skeer.

The relationship between the three drivers started when Ilott was still competing in single seaters in Europe and met Adelson in Monaco several years ago.

“They’re currently fighting for the championship in Pro-Am,” Ilott said. “I think we joked about a year ago that I would do a race with them someday.

“It just so happened that in the Indy 8H I was allowed to do it because I think the driver gradings, they are Bronze and Silver so I was able to fit in being Platinum.

“It just worked coincidentally and obviously they’re fighting for the championship and supposedly I’m a good benefit to have.

“I did a test a month or two ago in Indianapolis with them. It was good. I wanted to fill in my off-season and what better way to do it [than] in a GT3 in an endurance event.”

The test outing at the Indianapolis circuit presented Ilott with the first opportunity to drive the Type-991.2 GT3 R.

His previous GT3 outings all came at the wheel of the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, which he raced in both Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup and Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli.

Ilott described his first miles at the wheel of the Porsche as “quite interesting” because of the 911’s rear-engined layout.

“Obviously [having] so much weight on the rear, the style that I felt I needed to adapt, it was an experience I would say,” he said.

“I’ve never driven a car like that and the Ferrari was quite easy to just jump into and understand. Whereas I got into this and I’m like, ‘Oh wow, there’s quite a lot of pace that you can unlock from the car’ and it requires a certain type of style.

“Obviously [Adelson and Skeer] were used to that already so they were explaining it to me and the approach that they take.

“But I think what was very interesting was someone who never experienced it before, I’m naturally quite fast when I jump in, but they were quite interested in the way I took to the style of the car. 

“There were little things that maybe naturally they wouldn’t do that I was able to exploit. But in the same way I had to learn quite a few ways to maybe calm the rear or get it to rotate that they were doing.

“So it actually worked really well to to learn the car and to adapt to what it needed.” 

Ilott ‘Has Eyes on’ Daytona and Sebring 

In addition to his Indy 8H drive, Ilott revealed that he is looking for ways to join the grid for the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

The British driver has not raced in either of the two major IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events, but said that he would consider both prototypes and GTs as a means of securing a seat for either event.

“IndyCar is the kind of career path that I’m committed to but as most guys kind of try to do, they try and create a bridge between both IndyCar and IMSA,” said Ilott.

“Which is why my eyes are on Daytona and Sebring as the extra endurance driver.

“That obviously allows for the future, if things did go that way, to be able to jump across to do it full-time and commit to it the same way, also to add a benefit to any teams that need an extra driver and be able to give the best of both worlds.

“The endurance side of things is something that I was obviously interested in in 2021 and [am] still interested in to do in the future. It’s just with an opportunity like IndyCar, it’s something that you kind of need to pursue as well.

“I’m open to everything and I want to diversify as much as possible my racing career and make it as easy to do these one-off events and be able to jump over in the future to full-time if necessary.”