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GMG Racing Fields Four 992 Cup Contenders at Laguna Seca Doubleheader
Beginning the second half of the Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West by Yokohama season the same way the championship-winning team started it, GMG Racing brings a four-strong entry of 992 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup teams and drivers to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend for a Saturday and Sunday doubleheader on the 2.238-mile Monterey road course.
Kyle Washington continues his winning Sprint Challenge Masters Class campaign in the No. 232 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and competes alongside a trio of teammates in the Pro-Am division.
Patrick Mulcahy in the No. 254 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and Jay Barron in the No. 223 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup contest their second Sprint Challenge race weekends after encouraging debuts in the season-opening doubleheader at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada in late March.
Mulcahy and Barron will be joined in the Pro-Am division by GMG Racing President and Founder James Sofronas, who makes his first start of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Season in his No. 214 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
“We ran four 992 Cup Porsches in the Sprint Challenge opener at Spring Mountain in March, and it is great to be back with the same amount of entries this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on IndyCar race weekend,” Sofronas said. “I have plenty of experience at Laguna, Kyle has a lot of laps there as well, and we look forward to helping Patrick and Jay, who are both in their first season in a top-level series as competitive as Porsche Sprint Challenge.”
Washington has been GMG’s Sprint Challenge “leader in the club house this season,” winning his first Porsche Sprint Challenge Masters Class race just last month at Utah Motorsports Campus. He charged from 10th on the starting grid to first in Masters in Turn 1 at the start of the weekend’s final sprint and held P1 to the finish. The victory was the third podium finish for Washington in the year’s first four Sprint Challenge West races. At the Spring Mountain opener, Washington secured an overall and Masters runner-up finish in the first race and a third-place Masters-class showing in the final sprint.
In his series debut in Nevada, Mulcahy was GMG Racing’s highest finisher in Sunday’s finale. He improved three class positions to finish fourth in the Pro-Am class and in the top-five overall and seeks his first Sprint Challenge podium finish this season.
Barron runs a select scheduled of Sprint Challenge races this year and suits up for just his second weekend in the series in Monterey after an encouraging debut at Spring Mountain. Finishing a solid 12th overall in both races, Barron’s top Pro-Am-class finish was sixth on Saturday in the Pahrump opener, and he gained a good amount of racing knowledge and an initial understanding of the 992 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup platform.
Sofronas makes his first Sprint Challenge start of the season after contesting the Utah and Sonoma Raceway rounds in the championship last year. An accomplished race winner and four-time World Challenge Champion, Sofronas already has two Pro-Am wins to his credit this season in Porsche Carrera Cup North America competition.
“The goal is to always finish first at GMG Racing, but my car in any series always comes last as far as preparation and planning back at our California races shops in Santa Ana, and later this summer, our all-new headquarters operation at The Thermal Club,” Sofronas said. “The GMG Racing team’s priority is always our clients first, but the stellar job they did in getting the three primary cars ready for Laguna Seca allowed me to compete as well.”
More podiums are the goal this weekend, but Sofronas competes with two different perspectives every time he takes the wheel alongside his teammates.
“We will all be racing to win and hit the podium, but first and foremost I am still a coach and mentor for all of our clients when we are on track together in any race,” Sofronas said. “It gives you an entirely different perspective that you can’t experience from pitlane or a data review, and I am really looking forward to getting an up-close view of Kyle, Patrick and Jay all weekend while also looking at our competition in the mirror!”
After qualifying Friday afternoon at 4:25 p.m. PDT, the weekend’s first race is scheduled to start Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. PDT with the second and final 35-minute sprint going green Sunday at 9:40 a.m. PDT.
Both races and more from Porsche Sprint Challenge will be livestreamed on YouTube on the official Porsche Motorsport North America YouTube channel: @PorscheMotorsportNorthAmerica.