Today, SRO founder Stéphane Ratel and SRO Motorsports America President & CEO Greg Gill addressed competitors, stakeholders, and media in the annual “State of the Sport” press conference held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
SRO America will accommodate six series from 2025 – including the new McLaren Trophy America championship that launches in 2025.
To make room for the new one-make series, the TC America touring car championship will be reformatted next season. The current TCX and TC classes will be consolidated into one class, and the TCA category will be eliminated.
Races will be shortened to 25 minutes from 40 minutes, and there will be three races per weekend at the two meetings where the McLaren Trophy is not present – at Sebring Raceway and Barber Motorsports Park.
TC America weekends will also shift to a Thursday to Saturday schedule, effectively making all SRO America race meetings run for four days.
While TC America is not covered extensively at DSC, it is worth noting that there had been talks to combine TC America into GT America and create a series similar in style to the Pirelli World Challenge as it was from 2008-13. However, due to safety concerns over the speed difference between the two categories, the two series will continue to race separately.
As it pertains to GT World Challenge America, there will be no changes to the race format – 90-minute sprints, two races per weekend.
However, tyre warmers have been banned from next season as a cost-saving measure, and trying to maintain uniformity with other series such as the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship which have each eliminated tyre warmers.
GT World Challenge America remains open to prospective GT2 teams that wish to participate, and Gill projected a minimum of 18 to 20 entries per round, last achieved (outside the Indy 8 Hour) in 2022.
Next year’s Indianapolis 8 Hour Race was moved to 18 October to accommodate the Suzuka 1000km return in 2025. For the 2024 Indy 8 Hour, Gill and SRO America General Manager Staci Langham said they expect an entry list of 22-24 cars, including nine international entries.
They also remarked on a previously untapped level of interest from Australian teams as they visited this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour.
As SRO America continues to try and entice teams into competing in the current GT2 formula, Gill confirmed that five GT2s will be present for the Indy 8 Hour weekend.
GT4 America’s structure remains unchanged in 2025, and today it was announced that the three-hour Lone Star Enduro at Circuit of the Americas will return next year.
Gill also highlighted a sharp rise in the driving standards this season in GT4 America: 87% of all race time this season has been run under green.
GT America will also remain unchanged – 40-minute sprint races for Bronze-graded drivers, and open to GT3, GT2, and GT4 cars. The series expects to have a larger presence at the 2025 Long Beach Grand Prix, even alongside IndyCar and IMSA.
Toyota has also extended its agreement with SRO America to promote and sanction the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Cup North America for 2025 and beyond.
Next year, GR Cup will feature a prize for drivers aged 45 or older, in an attempt to entice older drivers to participate on a full-time basis and against their peers.
SRO America announced a 21 per cent increase in spectator attendance across its three “tent pole” events – Sonoma, COTA, and Indianapolis.
The series also confirmed it has received 2.5 million live views on streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube since the start of 2024, and 4.1 billion impressions through streaming, social media, and even articles such as this one.
Vice President of Marketing & Business, Robbie Montinola, also said that SRO America will make an announcement regarding “new developments” that will continue to amplify the series’ collective reach by the end of the season.
The series currently has four outlets including YouTube, Twitch, and US-based channels MAVTV and Speed Sport 1, and both Montinola and Gill reiterated their desire to not put the series behind paywalls.
Images © Fabian Lagunas, Halston Pitman, Fred Hardy III / SRO Motorsports America
