In the second round of the 2026 GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season at Circuit of the Americas, Wright Motorsports’ #31 Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Dave Musial Jnr and Ryan Yardley claimed not only Pro-Am class honours but also the overall victory in the three-hour main event on Sunday.
Musial “2.0” and Yardley took the win after two late-race penalties, including a ten-second post-race time penalty, knocked the #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Michai Stephens and Mikaël Grenier down to second place overall after dominating the race. Though, Stephens and Grenier would still consolidate a Pro class win, their second of the year.
Stephens led early but couldn’t break away from the pack due to two early Full Course Yellows. Any hope of the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 contending for top honours fell apart when the Ford broke down on the opening lap – Cameron Lawrence and Alex Sedgwick finished 12 laps down in 20th place overall.
The race didn’t resume for much longer before the second FCY. The #9 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG of Brayton Williams hit and spun the #69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren (720S) GT3 Evo of Todd Coleman. Coleman picked up a puncture in the incident, and debris from the orange and blue McLaren brought out the yellow.
But before that Full Course Yellow was declared, the #31 Wright Porsche of Dave Musial, as well as the sister #242 Wright Porsche of Therese Lahlouh and the #14 Riley Motorsports BMW of Slade Stewart, entered the pits for their first of three compulsory pit stops. Musial, Stewart, and Lahlouh inherited the top three spots once the race resumed, though Stephens would quickly rush his way back to the lead before any of the three Bronze drivers made their next pit stops.
With an hour and 40 minutes to go, Stephens passed the baton to Grenier, who left with a ten-second gap to the #31 Wright Porsche of reigning Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion Yardley – who was leading Pro-Am and running second overall. Lahlouh’s teammate Thomas Merrill was running third in the #242 Porsche.
Grenier stretched his lead out to nearly 20 seconds before making his last stop with a little over an hour to go. But the Canadian driver would get hit with separate penalties during his final stint.
One was a drive-through penalty for blocking the #13 Kellymoss Porsche of Riley Dickinson down the front straight. The other, was for passing the #71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin of Frank Depew beyond track limits in the esses – a ten-second time penalty.
To ensure maximum championship points in the Pro class, Grenier had to get a ten-second buffer to the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley. Adding to the difficulty, Grenier’s radio wasn’t working properly, and the #29 Turner BMW had also taken new tyres for its final stint.
Grenier overtook Yardley on the road with less than 20 minutes to go, but no championship points were won or lost in that exchange. The #34 JMF Mercedes-AMG took the chequered flag first, but the #31 Wright Porsche would inherit the overall win by 4.3 seconds. And in the end, both teams received the maximum 25 points in their respective championship fights.
Wright Motorsports would take a 1-2 finish in Pro-Am and an overall 1-3 with the #242 Porsche of Lahlouh and Merrill just 8.7 seconds off the win, a milestone for Lahlouh in only her second weekend of GT World Challenge competition, coming out of the Porsche Mobil 1 Female Driver Programme.
Foley and Justin Rothberg finished fourth for Turner Motorsport and second in the Pro class.
The last spot on the Pro-Am podium was contested fiercely at the end between RS1’s veteran Jan Heylen and GMG Racing’s young prodigy Tom Sargent – but Heylen held on, taking fifth place overall alongside co-driver JP Martinez, while Sargent and Kyle Washington were sixth by less than half a second.
Stewart and Andy Lee finished seventh in the #14 Riley “Sparklefarts” BMW, just ahead of the #8 McCann Racing Porsche (Michael McCann Jnr/Zachary Vanier) in eighth – and third place in Pro.
Making its first appearance of 2026, the #18 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 (Stephen Mascaro/Riccardo Agostini) finished ninth, followed by the #88 Kellymoss Porsche (John Gilliland/Loek Hartog) in tenth, bouncing back well after a testing crash at Sonoma forced them out of the opening weekend too early.
Honourable mentions are due to the #017 Kellymoss Porsche (Michael Clark/Colin Braun) which attempted an alternate strategy of changing drivers at all three stops – but would finish 11th after contact from the #16 AF Corse USA Ferrari (Matias Perez Companc/Frederik Schandorff). It was a frustrating day for the latter Ferrari as well, finishing 19th after needing repairs to a broken transponder during the race.
In Am, the #163 AF Corse USA Ferrari of Jay Schriebman and Oswaldo Negri Jnr won the duel over the #11 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG (Marc Austin/Jason Golan).
Damage to the front splitter forced the #27 JMF Mercedes-AMG (Jason Daskalos/Lorcan Hanafin) to retire while running top-ten overall in the last hour.
GT World Challenge America returns two weeks from now, travelling to Sebring International Raceway for a Saturday night main event on 9 May.
Images © SRO Motorsports America
