They entered the final DESDER Indianapolis 8 Hour Race as potential contenders to win the Pro-Am class, yet thanks to some incredible strategy and the speed of its three drivers, GMG Racing scored a surprising overall victory in the final round of the 2026 Intercontinental GT Challenge and GT World Challenge America season.
The #32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kyle Washington, Riccardo Pera, and Ayhancan Güven won in a landslide, giving Porsche its third successive IGTC race win en route to Porsche securing the IGTC Manufacturers’ Championship.
Washington, the Am driver of the #32 Porsche, also won the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am championship in the American series’ finale, despite the absence of his regular co-driver Tom Sargent this weekend.
Strategy helped put the #32 GMG Porsche up front and kept them in front. The seeds were planted during an early full course yellow when Washington drove in to reset his stint length, which allowed him to deboard the #32 Porsche with just enough time for Pera and Güven to drive the car, very quickly, to the finish.
GMG not only benefitted from the fast driving of Pera (who set the fastest lap of the race) and Güven, but also from long green flag runs: The last five hours and 38 minutes of the race were run under green flag conditions. And as the leaders’ strategies converged with a little over two hours to go, Güven retained a massive lead over the rest of the field.
A threat of late race rain showers never materialised until the chequered flag, by which point, Güven and the Buc-ee’s-liveried Porsche completed its commanding victory in the last IGTC endurance race at Indianapolis, completing 322 laps and winning the race by 56.209 seconds.
Pro-Am cars actually finished first and second overall: The #69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO of Todd Coleman, Tom Fleming, and Aaron Telitz drove a somewhat understated but very productive race, finishing runner-up ahead of the leaders in the Pro class.
The #29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Justin Rothberg, Robby Foley, and Connor De Phillippi battled back late in the race to finish third overall; more importantly, they finished first in the Pro class.
That sealed the GT World America’s premier class title for Rothberg, Foley, and Turner Motorsport – their third successive championship in GT World Challenge America, after the team and drivers won back-to-back Pro-Am titles in 2024–2025, also clinched in the final round at Indianapolis.
The championship was decided in a hearty duel between Foley and Frederik Schandorff in the #12 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo. Schandorff led Foley, defending his position after a pit stop cycle with two hours to go. With 82 minutes left, Foley pounced on a mistake by Schandorff and took the class lead in turn one.
The Ferrari momentarily overcut the BMW after the final round of pit stops, but that lead would last only a little under a lap before Foley muscled his way past in the final corner to retake the championship-clinching position for good.
Schandorff, Nicklas Nielsen, and Matías Pérez Companc finished fourth overall after their #12 Ferrari led at half-distance.
The #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Michai Stephens, Mikaël Grenier, and Maxime Martin finished fifth to make it five manufacturers in the overall top five.
Stephens and Grenier missed out on the GT World America Pro title, but their co-driver Martin, the winner of this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour and 24 Hours of Nürburgring, was able to coast to his first IGTC Drivers’ Championship. The points earned by Martin allowed the Belgian to overtake the absent Maro Engel in the standings, while fellow AMG Performance Driver Luca Stolz was knocked out of contention before he could ever drive the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG.
The rest of the top ten was rounded off by a five-pack of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs, led by the #31 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Dave Musial Jnr/Ryan Yardley/Laurin Heinrich) in sixth, ahead of the #28 RS1 Porsche (Danny Dyszelski/Daan Arrow/Jan Heylen), the #91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche (Ralf Bohn/Alfred Renauer/Robert Renauer), the #120 Wright Porsche (Morris Schuring/Thomas Merrill/Kévin Estre), and the #86 High Class Racing Porsche (Li Kerong/Leo Ye Hongli/Anders Fjordbach).
For good measure, McCann Racing and the #017 Kellymoss Porsches finished behind them in 11th and 12th.
In the Am class, the #11 Mad Joker Racing Mercedes-AMG (Marc Austin/Ben Keating/Peter Dempsey) took the chequered flag first, ahead of the #163 AF Corse USA Ferrari (Jay Schreibman/Oswaldo Negri Jnr/Benny Simonsen).
Dempsey received a post-race time penalty for a collision with Estre in the final hour, but with the #11 Mercedes-AMG a lap ahead, it did not change the result.
Only five out of the 27 starters failed to see the chequered flag after eight hours of racing: The #14 Kellymoss Porsche pulled off in the last half-hour with a possible electrical issue, dropping out late along with the #71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin.
They joined the #27 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG which was eliminated due to a drivetrain failure, the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 Evo with a broken left-front suspension, and the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG due to an accident just four laps into its race.
Images © SRO Motorsports America
