Indianapolis Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

***GMG Racing’s overall victory in the Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour marked the first time a Pro-Am class entry won an Intercontinental GT Challenge race outright since the 2022 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour when Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz and Martin Konrad took top honors aboard SunEnergy Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, in what was a Pro-Am-enforced race.

***Porsche factory driver Ayhancan Guven notched his third career IGTC win but first-ever victory on U.S. soil, teaming with Manthey-contracted driver Riccardo Pera and GMG stalwart Kyle Washington, who took home the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am class title in the process.

***Guven said: “I came here two years ago with this team as the IGTC leader but unfortunately we had a really bad race. However, ever since that day, we’ve kept telling ourselves that we’d come back stronger. Kyle put in a really good stint, and we were hopeful that the strategy would pay off. Halfway through the race, it became clear to us that we might even be able to aim for overall victory. From that moment on, with Riccardo at the wheel, we really put our foot down, and in the end it worked out really well.”

***The No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo recorded a 56-second win over the No. 69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, the largest margin of victory in the event’s seven year history, with Guven, Pera and Washington completing a total of 323 laps, just nine laps shy of the race’s distance record achieved in 2023 by Team WRT.

***It marked the first GTWC America team to win the race outright, which had previously seen triumphs only from IGTC-nominated squads. Walkenhorst Motorsport won the inaugural edition in 2020, followed by Sainteloc Racing (2021), Craft-Bamboo Racing (2022) and Team WRT (2023-25).

***WRT, which won last month’s Battle on the Bricks IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, was not present at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend, missing its first IGTC round outside of the Nürburgring 24 for the first time since 2022.

***Porsche claimed its consecutive overall IGTC win, after Lionspeed GP’s victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa and AO by Absolute Racing’s win in the Suzuka 1000km. The German manufacturer won its fourth manufacturers’ title in the globe-trotting GT3 series, putting it equal with Audi, and its second in the last three years. Porsche had never previously won the Indy 8H overall.

***Head of Porsche Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach said: “This title is particularly close to my heart, as I greatly appreciate the fundamental concept behind this global championship: local customer teams compete in major GT3 endurance races across different continents in the Porsche 911 GT3 R. We find this approach very appealing. We therefore place a very high value on this title.”

***Maxime Martin became the 11th different driver or driver pairing to have won the IGTC drivers’ championship, following most recently in the footsteps of Kelvin van der Linde (2025), Charles Weerts (2024), Gounon (2023) and Dani Jucnadella (2022).

***The Mercedes-AMG factory ace, who kicked off the season with overall wins at Bathurst and the N24, achieved the feat with five different teams (GruppeM Racing, Winward Racing, GetSpeed, Craft-Bamboo Racing, JMF Motorsports), a first in the full five-round championship, although 2017 champion Markus Winkelhock achieved the same feat but back when the calendar had just three rounds.

***Mercedes-AMG drivers took the top three places in the IGTC drivers’ championship. Martin ended the season with 70 points, with Maro Engel, who missed the final two IGTC races due to his DTM commitments, finishing second on 68 points and Luca Stolz in third. The best-placed non-Mercedes-AMG driver was Laurin Heinrich in fourth, after missing the 24 Hours of Spa.

***Stolz, who entered the weekend one point ahead of Martin in the drivers’ title race, didn’t get to drive in the race after co-driver Lin Hodenius crashed the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG in the opening hour. It also meant that five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou did not get any seat time in the race, either.

***Stolz said: “It hurts when you no longer have any control over the outcome. I would have loved to win the Intercontinental GT Challenge and take home this beautiful trophy, but I’ll just have to try again in 2027.”

***Palou added: “Today, we really couldn’t finish the business but I am really happy for the opportunity both Lone Star Racing and Mercedes-AMG have given me, and all of my teammates as well. I am excited to see when our next one is going to be.”

***Washington claimed the GTWC America title as a solo driver after regular co-driver Tom Sargent missed the season finale due to his European Le Mans Series commitments in last weekend’s season-ending 4 Hours of Portimao, where the Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver claimed his second LMGT3 class victory of the season, but came up two points short of the championship title.

***With Sargent missing Indianapolis, he also forfeited the SRO GT Academy championship, which went to fellow PMNA Selected Driver Ryan Yardley, who has secured a seat in Team Motopark’s Mercedes-AMG in next year’s 24 Hours of Spa, joining British GT SRO GT Academy winner Jarrod Waberski.

***While Washington was unable to take advantage of the rule, due to the down-to-the-wire points battle in Pro-Am, Pirelli GT4 America Pro-Am champion Sam Craven “renounced” his four points earned during the Road America event to put him equal with Kenton Koch, so the two drivers could share the title.

***The clause in the SRO America sporting regulations, first introduced in 2025, must be approved by the sporting board for reasons of force majeure and only applies to a renouncement of points from one round.

***Tom Fleming revealed that he drove his final stint in the Archangel McLaren with virtually no visibility due to a faulty windshield tear-off. “Pretty much all the sticky part of the tear-off stuck onto the car,” the McLaren GT3 Junior told Sportscar365. “I couldn’t hardly see a thing.”

***The 24-year-old Briton, whose only other race on U.S. soil came in last month’s FIA World Endurance Championship Lone Star Le Mans event, was elated with the overall runner-up result with the Mike Johnson-led team and his new-found passion for American racing.

***Fleming told Sportscar365: “This is my first proper American race; I’ve done COTA in WEC but this is a very different environment. I really, really love the culture here. It’s laid back, it’s positive and there’s a real sense of camaraderie. Everyone’s hungry and everyone wants to be the best and do the best job possible for everyone else. I could settle down here!”

***Turner Motorsport notched its third consecutive GTWC America championship, but first in the Pro class, with Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg, who were in a must class-win scenario to claim the hat-trick of titles. Foley and Rothberg finished ten points ahead of second-place Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens, of JMF Motorsports, with Matias Perez Companc just three further points back in third.

***Rothberg said: “ I’m really happy to be racing in the Pro class. I learned a ton racing against everyone with all these really great drivers that pushed me to drive my very best. Robby and Connor came in, and this race went incredibly well for us. I wasn’t really that proud of my first stint, but these two just absolutely clutched it. Robby’s been fantastic all season; he’s a wizard in this car, and I’m so happy to have three amazing seasons with this guy.”

***Mad Joker Racing claimed the Am class win in rather unlikely circumstances after Peter Dempsey incurred a post-race time penalty of 68 seconds, equivalent to a drive-through, for incident responsibility with the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Kevin Estre in the final hour.

***Dempsey’s No. 11 Mercedes-AMG that he shared with fellow FIA Bronze-rated drivers Ben Keating and Marc Austin finished less than ten seconds ahead on the road to second-placed Benny Simonsen in the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari, although the two cars were split on the final lap by the overall race-winning No. 32 GMG Porsche of Guven, which gave Dempsey effectively a one-lap margin at the end.

***It marked the U.S.-based Irishman’s second victory at The Brickyard on the day after winning the first GT America powered by AWS of the weekend outright in Risi Competizione’s Maserati MC20 GT2 car. He backed it up with another win on Sunday. “ This place has always been special and kind to me,” said Dempsey. “I’ve won a race here, a four-way finish back a long time ago (Freedom 100 Indy Lights race, 2013). To come back here with Ben and Marc and have this opportunity to do it has been phenomenal.”

***Kerong Li’s perfect season of IGTC Independent Cup class wins, when taking his drop score at Spa into account, was dashed in the final hour when his High Class Racing co-driver Leo Ye slammed into the wall in the final corner after battling Heinrich for sixth overall in the race and was forced to pit in the final 30 minutes. It handed Herberth Motorsport’s Ralf Bohn the class win, having finished eighth overall.

***Li clinched the Independent Cup championship in last month’s Suzuka 1000km after a remarkable season that included an overall podium finish at the Bathurst 12 Hour.

***The No. 64 Chicago Performance and Tuning Co. Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 incurred a two-lap and 11-second post-race time penalty due to one of its drivers exceeding the 3 hour and 30-minute maximum drive time by 2 minutes and 59 seconds. It dropped the car to a 16th place overall finish.

***With the 11th season of IGTC now in the books, attention shifts to the new-look 2027 campaign, which will see the U.S. event moved to Circuit of The Americas for the Texas 8 Hour in early May. Next year’s campaign kicks off with the Bathurst 12 Hour on Feb. 14, while the GTWC America season will open at Sonoma Raceway on April 2-4.

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