29-year-old Adam Adelson became the youngest IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team owner in April of 2025, when he officially acquired Wright Motorsports. Taking over from team namesake and founder John Wright, Adelson ushers in a new era for the highly decorated team this season.
Adelson reflected on how the leadership change affected the Wright team, which he was acutely conscious of in his first season of team ownership. Adelson put in a lot of work proactively alongside John Wright in late 2024 before officially taking over as team boss.
“I feel great, you know, having bought the team a year ago, and starting to learn the operation several months before that. It was a bit difficult wearing both hats last year at times,” he says. “As much as you try for there not to be any dynamic shift, there naturally will be.”
Balancing his development on track with the business operational side of team ownership took some getting used to for Adelson last season. Sometimes, there are simply not enough hours in the day.
Adelson further remarked that his routine on race weekends had to undergo significant changes as he transitioned from driver to team owner ahead of Long Beach, having two races under his belt.
“How do I drive the best I possibly can? And I don’t want anything else to bother me or be on my mind. Now there’s a dichotomy of needing to be a leader and a figurehead for the team. So, I am also focusing on that. I would say just finding the balance between the two when to put my team owner hat on and when to take that off and put my driver hat back on.”
Thankfully, the Wright Motorsports crew is more than equipped to face any challenges and changes that come its way in this new chapter. The team’s championship-winning history and commitment to building and re-expanding their racing campaigns over the last two decades have shown their competence and adaptability.
“Trying to decide what to pay more attention to, it can definitely be difficult. But the team was operating as such a well-oiled machine well before I joined as a driver, and I came on as an owner.
“Relying on the experience of all the guys in the team has been really massive for me. They’ve taught me a lot, and they’ve been super accommodating and understanding and getting me up to speed, giving me all the important information necessary to make the big decisions that need to be made.”
Adelson is headed into the rest of the 2026 IMSA season re-energised, with a newfound drive to improve on last year’s top-five team finish. The young American driver’s passion for racing is palpable, and his drive to improve indicates his athlete mindset.
“I’ve always participated in action sports, growing up, things that sports that require the same type of qualities that racing requires out of an athlete, out of a driver. I’ve just been playing catch-up, just learning as much as I can, in addition to the preparation.
“I recognise that this is the industry that I want to be in for my life. And so, I jumped both feet in,” he says.
“I don’t want to say I’m just getting started, because this will be my sixth full season of racing, but I still feel that way. I still feel like, as a driver, I haven’t reached my full potential. There’s still a lot more that I want to do in the sport.”
Adelson continues to improve year on year as a driver, thanks to his commitment to the racing side of the operation and his close relationship with now-former driving coach Elliot Skeer. This season, the Wright team brought back Callum Ilott, experienced in both open-wheel and endurance racing, to further Adelson’s driving development, as well as provide another layer of knowledge to the mix with his multi-series background.
“First of all, I can’t talk about Callum without first talking about Elliot [Skeer], who’s mentored me since I started. But I realised that if I want to make it to the next level, I can’t just learn from one guy.
“We realise that not only can [Ilott] bring a lot of value to me as a driver, he can bring a lot of value just to our performance, but he could also bring a lot of value to the operation with all the different teams and formats of racing that he’s participated in,” he says. “His knowledge of the sport, team operations, and driving across all different kinds of racing is really valuable to us.”
Adelson has ushered in a 2026 expansion effort, which was officially announced in late February as a three-pronged SRO America commitment. The #31 and #242 cars will compete full-time in GT World Challenge America powered by AWS in the Pro-Am class, which began with the season opener at Sonoma on 27-29 March.
The two cars feature top-level talent, alongside up-and-coming drivers. Reigning Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion Ryan Yardley and Dave Musial Jnr in the #31 finished second in class at the opening round, behind the #32 GMG Racing car co-piloted by Wright IMSA driver Tom Sargent.
Debuting GT3 driver Therese Lahlouh and her coach, Asian Le Mans Series GT and SCCA Trans Am TA2 champion Thomas Merill, in the #242 finished fifth at Sonoma. Dave Musial Snr is racing full-time in the #72 Wright Motorsports car in the multi-class Bronze series, GT America powered by AWS, and brought home a third-place finish in race two of Round One.
This expansion is a great step in the right direction, marking a return to full-time racing in SRO for the first time since 2024, when Adelson and Skeer won the GT World Challenge America Pro title.
“Historically, Wright Motorsports has been considered one of the highest calibre GTD teams in IMSA and GT3 teams in North American racing. At Wright Motorsports, we have championships in every series that a Porsche can race in.”
“It was my prerogative to bring Wright Motorsports back up to the level of involvement in motorsport that it had several years ago, before John Wright decided to downsize and focus a little more on his home and family life.”
“I think it’s important that Wright Motorsports has a foothold in every top-level racing series, because we’re one of the few teams that can compete at the front wherever we go. So I think it would be a shame not to capitalise on those opportunities.”
Wright Motorsports’ IMSA season opener at Daytona turned out to be a nightmare scenario on track when the #83 AF Corse LMP2 car caused a high-speed collision with the #120 Wright car with Adelson at the wheel. They were running eighth at the time, just under an hour into the 24-hour race.
After picking up just 131 points at Daytona, the team had some serious ground to make up. Thankfully, Sebring saw the team take home a podium finish after a clutch final lap performance by Ilott, passing two cars to snatch third in GTD. Ilott was meant to miss the IMSA Long Beach round due to his IndyCar Series commitments, but with the collapse of Prema Racing’s IndyCar programme, Ilott is available this weekend to complete the full 2026 season – to Wright Motorsports’ benefit.
Currently sitting in seventh in the GTD Teams’ championship, they look to keep the pressure on as they enter the sprint-heavy section of the IMSA calendar. Adelson spoke about potentially taking more chances than those looking to defend their positions.
“To be able to finish third and just score all those points is absolutely massive, but I mean, we’re going to be fighting from the back foot maybe for the whole season, unless we just have a magic Long Beach and Laguna [Seca].”
“I think fighting from the back foot means we have to maybe take a little more risk. The drivers may have to go for it a little harder and, you know, go for more passes rather than the protecting the car mindset. From a strategy standpoint, just take those gambles and do what we can to be bold and end up at the front.”
Adelson and the #120 Wright Motorsports crew come into this weekend at Long Beach ready to defend their Sebring podium this Saturday.
Images © Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com, IMSA, SRO Motorsports America
