GMG Racing persevered through a hot and hard-fought “Florida Double” this weekend at the Miami Grand Prix IMSA Carrera Cup North America doubleheader and the Fanatec GT World Challenge and GT America powered by AWS series races at Sebring International Raceway. Fielding a pair of Porsches in both weekend races, GMG Racing and team drivers Kyle Washington, Tom Sargent, Ofir Levy and James Sofronas overcame near-record temperatures, on-track contact incidents and costly moves by over-zealous competitors for some season-best results and an encouraging debut performance.

The top results of the weekend were a pair of fourth-place finishes by Washington and his first-year co-driver Sargent in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R in the Saturday and Sunday GT World Challenge races at Sebring.

The Miami Grand Prix Carrera Cup highlight was debuting driver Levy’s solid seventh-place Pro-Am finish in Sunday’s final sprint that set the stage for that day’s Formula 1 race.

“Sebring and street courses are known for being notoriously tough and we had more than our fair share of hard knocks at both the SRO America event weekend and in the Carrera Cup rounds at the Grand Prix of Miami,” said Sofronas, GMG Racing Founder and Principal. “We didn’t have a single car of the combined four Porsche entries in both races that didn’t take a few body blows, some much worse than others, but in the end it is a testament to our drivers and the GMG Racing team for a no quit effort that still delivered some solid results. Kyle and Tom moved closer to their first GT World Challenge podium with some hard-earned fourth-place finishes at Sebring while Ofir honestly drove smarter than some of his more experienced competitors did for a seventh-place finish in his Carrera Cup debut.”

In only their second race weekend together, Washington and Sargent improved two positions for an overall eighth-place finish and gained a Pro-Am spot for the fourth-place class result in Saturday’s first 90-minute World Challenge race. A podium was the goal in Sunday’s final round but the No. 32 sustained heavy front-end damage in the fight into Sebring’s fast Turn 1 at the race start. The damage created quite a bit of speed-draining drag on the long Sebring straights, but Washington and Sargent still fought to the finish to duplicate Saturday’s P8 overall and P4 Pro-Am results.

“On Sunday the car unfortunately got hurt in the first 100 feet – or about the length of a football field – of the race,” Washington said. “It nailed the splitter on the front side, and Tom was fighting with a tough car from the start. We lost 15 mph down the front straightaway and then it didn’t like to turn left. We tried to fix it as best we could on the pit stop but it was a handful to get to the finish.”

An Australian, Sargent drove the No. 32 Porsche for the first time on a track he knew. In his American racing debut last year at Sebring, Sargent secured a pair of second-place Carrera Cup finishes.

“If you told us at the start of the weekend we would get two P4s, we would have gone to the moon,” Sargent said. “After the race, you always want more. I wish we had a couple of podiums, but ultimately it was still good results for a very, very new team and two very new co-drivers. Kyle and I feel so much more comfortable in the car, and we’re getting up to speed with the rules, regulations, pit stops and all of that type of stuff.”

Washington also drove the No. 32 in the GT America powered by AWS sprint races after his similar Type 991.2 model was sidelined early in the weekend. Battling to crack the top five throughout Sunday’s final 40-minute sprint, Washington secured P5 in the race’s closing minutes and earned the SUPERFUEL Hard Charger Award for gaining four race positions.

Levy survived a pair of true street fights on the temporary and tight Miami circuit, steering clear of the contact incidents that sidelined several competitors. Despite sustaining some damage to his Porsche, Levy made the most of the Sunday race’s limited green flag runs to set some of his fastest laps of the weekend. The seventh-place Pro-Am showing came in his debut with both GMG Racing and in Carrera Cup.

“I visit Miami often, I am familiar with the area, and I like it, and it was great being able to race in the Grand Prix of Miami,” Levy said. “These Formula 1 venues are really what drew me to Carrera Cup. I have been watching some F1 races in person, saw the guys out there racing in their Cup cars and thought, ‘man, I would love to be one of those guys.’ You can go racing and then watch Formula 1 at the same time. It was great to finally have the chance to do it with James and everyone at GMG Racing and I can’t wait for the next one.”

Sofronas competed in the Carrera Cup Pro-Am class alongside Levy, but his best memories from this year’s Miami Grand Prix happened off the track. Starting from the very back of the 37 car field for Saturday’s first race after just missing the minimum ride height in post qualifying tech inspection, Sofronas improved 14 positions to finish eighth in Pro-Am and 23rd overall. He took the green flag in 24th for Sunday’s finale but was one of seven contenders knocked out of the race in the first turn after a competitor’s overly ambitious move into Turn 1.

“For starters, I have to thank Ofir for a truly fantastic time and graciously hosting us all weekend,” Sofronas said. “We made sure he had a good time on the track, and he took care of us off it. Miami is great, the Grand Prix is truly a spectacle, and Ofir gave us an amazing time taking it all in. On track, all I can say is that I hope the driving is better in Montreal when we are on a big stage with Formula 1 again. We will move on from this weekend’s races and look ahead.”

The Sebring and Miami races kicked off a run of four-straight race weekends for GMG Racing and its drivers filling all four weekends in May.

Next up is Rounds 3 and 4 of the Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West by Yokohama series this weekend, May 10 – 12, at Utah Motorsports Campus.

The following weekend SRO America is back in action at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), May 17 – 19. That event is the first of two in a row for GMG Racing at COTA to close out May.

The Memorial Day weekend race at COTA is the first national Sprint Challenge event of the year, with the USA West teams on track with their peer teams in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama series, which races primarily East of the Mississippi.

The Memorial Day weekend event also features the debut of the new Porsche Endurance Challenge North America that brings the curtain down on the race weekend with a 60-minute race Sunday afternoon.