GMG Drivers to Team Up in Car Collection Porsche for 24H Spa

Photo: James Sofronas FB

GMG Racing will team up with Car Collection Motorsport for next month’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, adding to the SRO America team and driver presence in the Belgian endurance classic.

James Sofronas and longtime GMG customer Kyle Washington are set for their race debuts, alongside Dutch veteran Jeroen Bleekemolen and a fourth, yet-to-be-announced driver in a Pro-Am class Type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

“I’ve done the support races a few times,” Sofronas told Sportscar365. “Watching the [24-hour] race, it’s nothing quite like 70-plus GT3 cars; there isn’t anything like it in the world.

“I told myself, ‘I need to do this race before I hang up the [racing] shoes.’

“I’ve talked to Kyle about it many times and since he got a new [911 GT3] R, but it’s not getting delivered until early June. The first thought was to just take delivery of it in Europe and run it.

“Then through some of my connections from Audi, they introduced me to Denis [Ferlemann] at Car Collection. He was like, ‘I have an extra [Type 992] R that we’re running. I said, ‘Well, we’d like to rent that!’

“It came together rather quickly. We pulled Bleekemolen in the mix rather early on; he’s done endurance racing with us. We have a fourth driver we’re going to name shortly.

“Car Collection is obviously a very capable team.”

Sofronas said that several members of his California-based team will be inserted into the German squad, with Joe Foster set to head up GMG’s logistics for the event.

“For me, this is going to be a great experience but it’s really more about opening up Kyle to this new opportunity,” said Sofronas.

“He hasn’t raced in Europe, so that’s why it’s important we do the test [next week]. But he also gets to run the [new] R and get a lot of experience before he starts to run it in SRO America.

“If you know Kyle, he embraces life flat-out. The guy is one of the most friendly, intoxicating zest-for-life individuals I know… very generous.

“If I can bring opportunities to him that he normally wouldn’t get, which he can get pretty much any opportunity he wants, it’s special.”

Sofronas added: “We’re super pumped. I just sat down with [Stephane] Ratel this morning going over some future plans and sharing ideas of what we’re doing at Thermal and the new GT2 class.

“But he’s equally excited about this year’s Spa because he’s never seen a field like this and the demand is so high.

“To be a part of it is pretty exciting.”

Washington won’t be the only GMG customer competing at Spa, with Todd Parriott, who typically competes in Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America and Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama races with the team, set to drive a Racing One-prepared Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in the GT4 European Series races that are on the support bill.

“We’re bringing the GMG clients over because we want experiences that we can offer not only in the States but frankly worldwide,” Sofronas added.

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