GMG Racing shined in the rain Saturday in SRO America competition at Road America with a McLaren Trophy America Am-class win in a race cut short by inclement weather and a third-place finish in a rain-soaked GT America powered by AWS sprint.
GMG Racing Founder and Team Principal James Sofronas won a class-leading fifth race of the year Saturday in the shortened McLaren Trophy race in the No. 14 GMG Racing McLaren Trophy Evo. In the GT America race that followed, Kyle Washington then slipped and slid his way to a third-place finish in his No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R after challenging for the lead in the rainy race.
Sofronas backed up his Saturday win with a calculated run to a second-place Am-division finish in Sunday’s final race that went the full 50-minute distance. The Road America weekend’s victory and P2 finish were enough for Sofronas to actually build his Am championship lead with only October’s season-ending McLaren Trophy doubleheader at Indianapolis Motor Speedway left on the schedule.
“I’m racing for a championship and trying to be smart with my decisions,” Sofronas said. “When the opportunity presents itself to go for a win, however, I certainly always want to push to take advantage of it. That happened Saturday when I had the opportunity to make a move for the lead, which turned out to be the race-winning pass when the race was called due to the stormy weather. On Sunday, the smart move was to just take the second-place points and move on to the finale weekend at Indianapolis. I was hit with a 10 second pit stop ‘success penalty’ after the Saturday win and started on scrubbed tires when at least eight others were on new slicks. Taking P2 and losing by just 4.8 seconds was a bummer, but we’ll take the championship points lead to the final weekend. The championship has always been the goal for this season!”
A known “Regenmeister” who already has two rain-race victories this season – including the season-opening SRO America race weekend on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway in March that was run in a deluge – Washington was more than ready for Saturday’s wet GT America race. Unfortunately, a rare slip up on the tricky rain-soaked track charging to the front while running second relegated Washington to a third-place finish in his white No. 32 Porsche.
“I do like the rain, but there is no question visibility Saturday was a little bit more of a factor than traction, at least for me,” Washington said. “I only had one guy in front of me, and I couldn’t get around him, even on the straightaway. I couldn’t tell what lane he was in. Visibility was just really tough. It would have been nice just to tuck in behind the leader and get second-place points, but that’s not my style. I push and race hard, but in Turn 5 I just came in there too hot. That issue cost me the second, but I fought back to third.”
Washington also fought to the finish in Sunday’s final GT World Challenge America powered by AWS final 90-minute race of the weekend. Shaking off some car issues from an early hit on the black No. 32 Porsche he co-drives with Tom Sargent, Washington was right in the middle of the lead pack of competitors for a thrilling one-lap shootout to the checkered flag. A late-race caution bunched up the field for the one-lap dash, but Washington made the most of it after taking the dual green and white flags in 10th overall but advancing to fifth in the Pro-Am class at the finish.
“Kyle had a really good finish,” Sargent said. “We had some gearbox issues, and I took a decent amount of damage at the start from a McLaren, which didn’t help. That all factored into a bit of a longer pit stop than we would have had. That cost us position wise, but we never quit, and some things did go our way at the end. We ended up getting a few spots out of the late safety car period, which is good. Kyle held his own right there at the end with a slightly damaged car, so I’m super proud of what he did. We really had to overcome more setbacks than just about anybody, but the car GMG Racing gave us was super good. The team did well. It just wasn’t our weekend in total at the end, but the next race at Barber Motorsports Park will be a good one for us.”
Next up for GMG Racing is the SRO America race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, September 5 – 7, that will be highlighted by doubleheader races for GT World Challenge America and GT America.
“My main priority is always making sure GMG Racing’s customer competitors are the main focus and get the top attention,” Sofronas said. “Any racing I am lucky enough to do – and I have been fortunate to make the most of it this year – is an extra. My personal goal this year was to help develop our McLaren Trophy program for 2026 as we have three more cars being delivered this fall. I can now speak firsthand as to the performance of the car, the different setup options and how to properly maintain it throughout the season for both reliability and performance. It will also be nice, with McLaren Trophy idle the next two months before the Indy finale, to go to Barber and work even closer with Tom, Kyle and our GT3 teams to close out the year with some top results. Kyle has already won in GT America a couple of times, and hit the GT World Challenge America podium with Tom, but we want even more victory lane visits for them in the final races of the season. That is the goal at both Barber and Indianapolis.”
