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New GMG Racing Headquarters at The Thermal Club Takes the Spotlight in Gala Grand Opening

Author GMG Racing
Images GMG Racing
Date November 7, 2024

A dream of a lifetime that became a top priority in this decade is now a spectacular reality in the heart of the greatest high-performance automotive and road racing facility in the country.

GMG Racing Principal and Founder James Sofronas and his family and team unveiled their all-new and long-awaited headquarters facility located within the Thermal Club in a Grand Opening celebration last weekend that attracted a who’s who of VIPs and a guest list of both longtime and new customers of the top street performance shop and championship-winning racing team.

“It truly has been a lifetime goal of mine with GMG Racing to introduce a new and state-of-the-art multi-purpose headquarters facility to service our customers and top street car and competition clients,” Sofronas said. “The question of ‘where’ was answered when the amazing Thermal Club facility was introduced 10 years ago, and the right time for ‘when’ was at the beginning of this decade five years ago. Now, to finally cut the ribbon and unveil this true labor of love and unbridled high-performance automotive passion is an honor and privilege. GMG Racing’s future is at the Thermal Club!”

Sofronas, his family, key members of the GMG Racing team and the company’s entire staff and managers welcomed at the Grand Opening more than 250 guests who were the first to see the new Thermal Club GMG Racing headquarters. Notable attendees included Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) President Volker Holzmeyer, Mobil 1 Global Motorsports and Sponsorships Manager Jei Gort, Thermal Club Owner Tim Rogers, SRO America President Greg Gill, Senior Manager of Motorsports for Lamborghini North America Erik Skirmants, President of Troy Lee Designs Troy Lee and an enthusiastic group of GMG friends, clients and Thermal Club members.

Longtime GMG Racing team driver Kyle Washington, a close friend of all on the team, joined Sofronas for the actual facility ribbon cutting. Sofronas and Washington later reunited for the evening’s promised special car unveil, which was the first North American delivery of the new Porsche GT3 R Rennsport edition. The ultimate 992 Porsche track car, the GT3 R Rennsport unveiled at GMG – finished in Bare Carbon livery – is one of just 77 units that will be built in the production run, all featuring incomparable performance and a heritage-inspired retro spoiler best known in the U.S. as a “whale tail.”

The Thermal Club is a premier an unparalleled motorsports facility in the Greater Palm Springs region of California and known around the world. From there, GMG will continue the fine service it has provided to valued clients and customers for decades, but now with improved operations and customer support with a state-of-the-art facility with nothing but new installations and the latest technology and equipment. GMG will continue to accept all cars at the new location and provide its renowned products to clients, dealers and shops worldwide. And if a customer cannot get their car to the new facility personally, GMG’s safe and secure transport service is always available for a true door-to-door experience.

The relocation from GMG’s shop for more than the last two decades in Orange County marks a major milestone as the company approaches its 25th year of business as a leading high-performance shop for both street and competition cars in Southern California and beyond. The company’s current lineup of products and services will continue to be made available along with the introduction of innovative and new products for both existing and future vehicle platforms. With the new shop just 20 seconds away from Thermal pit lane, GMG Racing will be able to conduct rigorous testing and prototype development with unprecedented efficiency, ensuring that every product meets the high standards customers have come to expect.

With the Grand Opening complete, the current timeline for GMG Racing is to be fully 100% operational at the Thermal Club in the next 30 days after the final transition out of its Santa Ana facility in Orange County. An immediate program is the support of GMG Racing’s non-stop schedule of Thermal Club Winter Series races as well as exclusive track days and continuous off-season testing for the 2025 racing year ahead.

We Are On The Move! GMG Racing Confirms New Headquarters at The Thermal Club

Author GMG Racing
Images GMG Racing
Date October 21, 2024

Dear Valued Clients and Partners,

Exciting News: We’re Moving to The Thermal Club!

All of us at GMG Racing are thrilled to confirm that we’re relocating to The Thermal Club, a premier motorsports facility in the Greater Palm Springs region of California and known around the world. Please know that this move will not only continue the fine service we provide you and our other valued clients and customers but even improve our operations and customer support with a state-of-the-art facility with nothing but new installations of the latest technology and equipment.

We will continue to accept all cars at our new location and provide our renowned products to clients, dealers and shops worldwide. And if you can’t get your car to us personally, we will be happy to provide our safe and secure transport service for a true door-to-door experience.

This relocation marks a major milestone for GMG Racing as we approach our 25th year of business as a leading high-performance shop for both street and competition cars in Southern California and beyond. We’re not only excited to maintain our current lineup of products and services but also to introduce innovative new products for both existing and future vehicle platforms. With our new shop just 20 seconds away from PitLane, we will be able to conduct rigorous testing and prototype development with unprecedented efficiency, ensuring that every product meets the high standards our customers have come to expect.

These are exciting times for GMG Racing and for you, our valued customers, clients and partners! Should you need assistance, here are the key contacts who are ready to help.

Meet Our GMG Team:

Local Servicing, Track Preparation & Performance:
Allen Ward – Allen@gmgracing.com

GMG Product Sales & Wholesale Inquiries:
Jorge Reynoso – Jorge@gmgracing.com

Motorsport Director:
Tate Fredlow – Tate@gmgracing.com

Owner, Founder and Principal:
James Sofronas – James@gmgracing.com

We’re incredibly excited for this next chapter and invite you to visit us at our new state-of-the-art facility at The Thermal Club.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership. We look forward to continuing to service you from our new home!

Noteworthy: While the next order of business for GMG Racing is the move to the new Thermal Club headquarters facility, this weekend GMG Racing closes out it’s national racing schedule with the season-ending Porsche Carrera Cup North America doubleheader at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in support of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. Rounds 15 and 16 of the all-Porsche championship will run on Saturday and Sunday on the 3.4-mile, 20-turn Austin, Texas circuit.

Longtime GMG Racing team driver Kyle Washington looks for his first Masters Class race win of the season after third-place finishes this year at Sebring International Raceway and in the support races for the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Washington competes alongside GMG Racing owner and team driver James Sofronas who swept the victories in both Pro-Am class races last year at COTA in the No. 14 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Sofronas has demonstrated similar winning performance in 2024 with Pro-Am victories at Sebring, Montreal and, in the most recent weekend he and Washington contested, at Road America in August.

The COTA Carrera Cup schedule began with a single practice session on Friday. Following qualifying Saturday morning, the first of the weekend’s two 35-minute races goes green at 3:40 p.m. CDT. Sunday’s race is scheduled at Noon CDT, setting the stage for the United States Grand Prix that follows. Tune into https://www.imsa.com/tvlive/ for livestreaming race coverage.

GMG Racing’s schedule of Winter Series track days and race events at The Thermal Club will be released in the coming weeks.

GMG Racing Fields Four 992 Cup Contenders at Laguna Seca Doubleheader

Author GMG Racing
Images GMG Racing
Date June 19, 2024

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.

Tuning

Date April 7, 2017

GMG specializes in the performance tuning of Porsche, Audi, and Ferrari automobiles. GMG works with today’s leading tuning equipment from worldwide automotive technology leaders.  We offer installation of performance-related parts and equipment plus we engineer, develop and manufacture our own line of performance products and wheels under the GMG World Challenge and LMS lines for Porsche , Audi and Ferrari vehicles.

GMG is a leading installer and tuner of standalone engine management systems from Motec and Link as well as AIM.  As a development partner with GIAC, we can go beyond the ECU reflashing offered by most shops to instead custom calibrate a software tune for your specific vehicle with your specific hardware.  GMG uses a state of the art chassis dynamometer housed in its own diagnostic studio with a controlled environment and proper airflow to simulate all road and race conditions. The Mustang 500SE 2WD and 4WD chassis dynamometer is housed in a sound proof room that flows over 100k CFM per minute.  The end result is a properly calibrated tune whether you are running a stock style ECU or a complete independent stand alone ECU.

GMG’s dyno diagnostic studio has been used by today’s leading automobile manufacturers and top tuners as well as aerospace and military corporations due to its real world performance figures and unsurpassed repeatability.

 

GMG offers a concierge service based around a driver’s particular needs for each tuning project. Our staff is trained and well-versed in the needs of a particular driver and his or her intended use of the vehicle.   Unlike most shops that sell parts out of a catalog, GMG brand specialists have firsthand experience with the products , services and results involved around each vehicle modification.   No two individuals are alike so no to vehicles are tuned the same way at GMG.

Alignment

Date

GMG is proud to be a technology partner to Beissbarth and is one of the exclusive facilities in North America which has used this technology since 2004. Beissbarth is the OEM supplier of alignment measuring equipment to some of the leading automobile manufacturers in the world including Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, VW and Rolls Royce as well as the chosen aligner for Porsche Motorsport on the 911 GT3R Hybrid.

The Beissbarth aligner is one of the most technologically advanced aligners on the market, which is not a surprise considering Beissbarth has been manufacturing this type of equipment for over 100 years. The aligner is so precise and advanced that it is also used as a measuring device for collision repair to pinpoint problem areas. It even has the ability to compensate for lowered vehicles and vehicles with suspension geometry out of factory specifications.

Whether your car is stock and in need of alignment or your car has been lowered and you need to ensure it is aligned properly to minimize tire wear, GMG techs along with the Beissbarth aligner will get the suspension geometry into perfect specification, be it factory or custom, without any problems.

The level of equipment and training that each of our techs receive when it comes to suspension work has made GMG the facility that many dealers and other shops in Southern California send their alignment work to. GMG is the shop of choice when others can’t get a car into specification or if they have a car that is modified beyond the scope of a standard aligner.

For those customers who require more track-oriented alignments, GMG’s racing department offers specialized care and expertise including setting rake, adjusting ride height, corner balancing and more.

GMG offers specialized alignment services specific to Porsche, Audi, Ferrari, Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Lotus and McLaren.

 

CORNER BALANCING

GMG’s experience in chassis set up is second to none in the industry and now road car customers can benefit from this experience.

GMG offers competition corner balancing and chassis setup for race cars and road cars which are equipped with coil over type adjustable suspensions. Corner balancing is a key component in improving your vehicles handling a proper corner balance will optimize the vehicles handling characteristics while also improving the vehicles balance. A corner balance is simple effective way to get the most out of your vehicles handling performance.

Porsche

Date April 5, 2017

GMG specializes in the performance tuning of Porsche automobiles. GMG is an authorized dealer and technological partner with many of the industry leading companies and we also engineer, develop and manufacture our own line of performance products and wheels under the GMG World Challenge and LMS lines. With the technology, experience, and knowledge transferred from our professional race program, these upgrades will further refine will further refine your road going vehicle.

GMG is a leading installer and tuner of standalone engine management systems from Motec, Link, and AIM. As a development partner with GIAC, we can go beyond the ECU reflashing offered by most shops and, instead, perform a custom calibrated software tune for your specific vehicle with your specific hardware.

GMG offers a concierge service based around a driver’s particular needs for each tuning project. Our staff is trained and well-versed in the needs of a particular driver and his or her intended use of the vehicle. Unlike most shops that sell parts out of a catalogue, GMG brand specialists have firsthand experience with the products, services and results involved around each vehicle modification. No two individuals are alike so no two vehicles are tuned the same way at GMG.