The final race of the SRO GT World Challenge America championship (GTWCA) took place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Indy 8 Hour race, which was also the final round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge championship (IGTC). Turner Motorsport came in trailing the leaders in championship points but came away with the GTWCA Pro class drivers’ title for Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg.
Unlike the previous few years, Team WRT did not compete in the Indy 8 Hour this year as an IGTC contender. Team WRT had won the race overall in two of the last three years but opted out of the full IGTC season this year and only did select races. BMW was represented in the race by three GTWCA teams, led by Turner Motorsport with drivers Foley and Rothberg along with third driver Connor De Phillippi in the #29 M4 GT3 EVO. Riley Technologies entered the #14 BMW for Andy Lee, Slade Stewart and Jesse Krohn, and Random Vandals Racing entered the #99 M4 GT3 EVO for Derek DeBoer, Hampus Eriksson and Indy Car star Marcus Eriksson, who also happens to be Hampus’ brother.
Aside from the broader IGTC race, the GTWCA teams and drivers had their championship on the line in the Indy 8 Hour. Foley and Rothberg came into the race third in points, just ten points behind leaders Michai Stephens and Mikael Greiner, who drove for the JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG team, and just one point behind AF Corse Ferrari driver Matias Perez Companc in second. The Turner team showed they would be a serious contender when Foley put the #29 M4 GT3 EVO on the overall pole, just .002 seconds ahead of Porsche factory driver Ayhancan Güven in the GMG Racing Porsche. The #14 BMW qualified in 12th, with the #99 further back in 17th.
Justin Rothberg (right), Robby Foley (middle) and Connor De Phillippi celebrate their win.
The Turner BMW stayed toward the front of the field for the entire race, but the championship picture changed throughout the race, as both the JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG and the AF Corse Ferrari led at times with the Turner BMW behind them, which would have given any of those cars the title if they had won. A key point in the race came when Foley made a great pass to get by the Ferrari with one hour to go, which put them in the lead in the GTWCA Pro class and third overall. They finished one spot ahead of the Ferrari and two spots ahead of the Mercedes, which secured the championship. The overall race was won by the #32 GMG Racing Porsche, which was a Pro-Am entry.
The GTWCA Pro class drivers’ championship was the third consecutive championship in the series for Turner Motorsport and drivers Foley and Rothberg, as they had won the Pro-Am class championship in the previous two years. This was their first year competing in the Pro class and they battled with the JMF Mercedes-AMG and AF Corse Ferrari teams all season, getting class wins at Sebring, Road America and Indianapolis. “I’m in a really privileged position to drive such a great BMW, and to drive with a great teammate like Justin, who has been with Turner now for many years,” said Foley. “It feels like a family, it feels like home, and this is three in a row for us. I’m just a lucky guy, and really happy with our one-lap pace there in qualifying, and then we did everything we needed to do in the race. Really proud of everybody.”
Random Vandals Racing finished eighth in Pro-Am.
The #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW of Derek DeBoer and the Eriksson brothers finished 13th overall and eighth in the GTWCA Pro-Am class, and the #14 Riley Technologies BMW of Lee, Steward and Krohn finished one spot behind them.
Riley Technologies finished ninth in Pro-Am.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]