Only a few hours after the chequered flag came down at Le Mans, GT World Challenge America powered by AWS returned to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the fourth round of the 2026 season. A JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO would claim overall victory in Road Atlanta on Sunday, but not the #34 of Michai Stephens and Mikaël Grenier – instead, top honours went to Jason Daskalos and Philip Ellis in the Pro-Am #27 JMF Mercedes-AMG.
Instead of a same-day qualifying session, the grid was set on Saturday evening. Stephens led the first leg of qualifying with a 1:20.501, but the #12 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Matias Pérez Companc was only 0.012 seconds behind. Then in the second leg, Robby Foley in the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO led the way, while Pérez Companc’s teammate Frederik Schandorff timed in fourth-fastest, with JMF’s Grenier in eighth.
Those results put the #12 AF Corse USA Ferrari on pole, lining up alongside the #34 JMF Mercedes-AMG on the front row for Sunday’s race. Before the race got underway, a heavy rain shower lashed Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and brought many teams to change to wet tyres for the start.
Though the track was damp at the start of Sunday’s three-hour race, a few cars, including the #27 JMF Mercedes-AMG, #14 Riley BMW, and #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW, elected to start the race on slick tyres, hoping that the late spring heat would cause the track to dry quickly.
Stephens took the lead from Pérez Companc on the second lap, but the track would dry out fairly quickly, and the rest of the field would have to pit early for slick tyres. This boosted the #27 JMF Mercedes-AMG of Daskalos to the overall lead, while the top Pro car was now the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 Evo in the hands of Cameron Lawrence. Dollahite Racing was the first Pro team to switch to slick tyres, and it helped Lawrence jump ahead of Pérez Companc – who was back in second place – and Stephens.
55 minutes into the race, the #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW of Derek DeBoer misjudged an overtaking attempt on the #28 RS1 Porsche of JP Martinez badly, and the #99 BMW hit and spun the #28 Porsche, sending both cars off, into the wall, and out of the race. Neither driver was hurt, but the Safety Car was deployed.
Shortly after the race resumed came another round of routine pit stops, in which Alex Sedgwick took over the #6 Dollahite Ford, followed by Schandorff and Grenier. But the advantage was short-lived, as the #6 Dollahite Ford lost drive while running in the net lead and retired from the race.
At the halfway mark, the #8 McCann Racing Porsche and #9 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG – which pitted under the yellow for the DeBoer/Martinez collision – ran first and second, ahead of the #12 AF Corse Ferrari of Schandorff, the #34 JMF Mercedes-AMG of Grenier, and the #29 Turner BMW of Foley.
Then, with an hour and 10 minutes to go, the #29 Turner BMW broke down, taking Foley and Justin Rothberg out of the running and triggering another Safety Car. This set up the last round of pit stops under the Safety Car, and while Grenier would come out second behind the #9 TR3 Mercedes-AMG of Brayton Williams, he’d soon be hit with two pit lane penalties, adding over six seconds to his time after the race.
Williams fell back on the restart, and Grenier took the lead on the road from Schandorff and Ellis in second and third. With 30 minutes to go, Ellis – already the Pro-Am class leader – passed Schandorff for second.
And then with less than 16 minutes to go, Ellis passed Grenier through the final corner to secure the win on the road for him and Daskalos, a long-time competitor in the series going back to its days as the Pirelli World Challenge, but who’d not yet won in GT World Challenge America.
Ellis was appointed to drive the #27 Mercedes-AMG after Daskalos’ regular teammate, Lorcan Hanafin, was called on to be a last-minute addition to the field at Le Mans.
With nine minutes left, Schandorff closed the gap down to Grenier and drove the blue #12 Ferrari past into the turn 10 complex to grab second place overall, and first place in the Pro class for AF Corse USA. It was the #12 team’s first Pro win of the season, just 2.5 seconds off the overall victory.
Rounding out the overall top three was the Pro-Am runner-up, the #69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO of Todd Coleman and Aaron Telitz, who closed out a very strong weekend with Telitz narrowly fending off Tom Sargent in the #32 GMG Racing Porsche by two-tenths of a second.
Sargent and Kyle Washington still finished fourth overall (third in Pro-Am) ahead of the #017 Kellymoss Porsche (Michael Clark/Colin Braun) in fifth.
Grenier faded late in the race due to a momentary loss of power but still brought the #34 Mercedes-AMG over the line to finish sixth after its penalties.
Behind it was the #31 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Dave Musial Jnr/Ryan Yardley) in seventh place, the #8 McCann Racing Porsche (Michael McCann Jnr/Zachary Vanier) which finished third in Pro and eighth overall, followed by the #14 Riley Technologies BMW (Slade Stewart/Andy Lee) and the #9 TR3 Mercedes-AMG (Brayton Williams/Daniel Morad) in ninth and tenth.
With three races left, JMF’s Stephens and Grenier still lead the Pro class standings by eight points over Pérez Companc/Schandorff, and 11 points over Rothberg/Foley.
In Pro-Am, Washington and Sargent – who will venture off to Japan for a one-off GT World Challenge Asia cameo later this month – lead their championship by 12 points over Musial/Yardley.
AF Corse’s #163 Ferrari, driven by Jay Schreibman and Benny Simonsen, finished 14th as the sole Am entry.
GT World Challenge America returns after a two-month summer break on 30 August for the annual visit to America’s national park of speed, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Images © SRO Motorsports America
