Fast off of a career weekend of championship-winning competition two weeks ago, Kyle Washington, James Sofronas and the GMG Racing team have arrived at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) for this weekend's season-ending IMSA Carrera Cup North America doubleheader during the annual COTA Formula 1 weekend.
Everyone on the GMG Racing team carries the maximum momentum of their biggest victory to date on Saturday, October 10, when Washington and all-star Porsche teammates Ayhancan Güven and Riccardo Pera scored an overall victory in the Indianapolis 8 Hour at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). The convincing victory in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo was a first on many fronts, led by Washington and GMG Racing winning their first major endurance races and clinching the 2026 GT World Challenge America Pro-Am driver and team championships. The GT World Challenge America driver title was the first championship of Washington's racing career.
"Indianapolis certainly couldn't have gone any better and it is all credit to Kyle, who has worked so hard, and the tireless GMG Racing crew that has consistently prepared the fastest Porsche in GT World Challenge all season," said Sofronas, GMG Racing Owner and Founder. "We also couldn't have done it without Ayhancan and Riccardo and our full-season co-driver Tom Sargent, who was the fastest Porsche driver all season. Along with Kyle, all four turned in fantastic performances at Indy or all season and now we look forward to taking that energy and momentum straight to COTA. We have seen some race winning success in Carrera Cup at COTA before, and the way everybody on the team is performing, there is no reason we can't keep our great season going right up until the final checkered flag of the year on Sunday."
Washington competes on the 20-turn, 3.426-mile COTA circuit in his No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 Cup in the Masters class. Sofronas drives the No. 14 Mobil 1/GMG Racing Porsche 911 Cup in the Pro-Am division.
With the year's primary focus on the accomplished goals of winning the GT World Challenge America championships, both Washington and Sofronas have each contested just one Carrera Cup race weekend this season. Sofronas had an early-season off-track injury that prevented him from racing for six months but he is anxious to get back into the Mobil 1 sponsored Cup car this weekend. GMG has traditionally run a select schedule of Carrera Cup races over the last four years, but the partial calendar has not stopped the team and drivers from winning success. Somewhat surprisingly, GMG Racing didn't compete in IMSA Carrera Cup before the 2023 finale at COTA, but Sofronas swept that weekend's Pro-Am races in his and the team's series debut.
Sofronas opened up the 2024 season going a perfect three-for-three to start his Carrera Cup career with his third series win in a row at Sebring International Raceway. In the short time span since the 2023 COTA debut, GMG Racing has quickly built tally of 10 career Carrera Cup victories, with Sofronas accounting for seven of the wins. Sofronas is also the only active Carrera Cup driver in any class who has scored a Carrera Cup victory on each of the three North American Formula One venues - Miami, Montreal and COTA - the Porsche series has visited this season or in recent years.
This year's Sebring opener was the site of Sofronas' first Carrera Cup race weekend in the 2026 season.
The two most recent GMG Racing Carrera Cup wins were also the team's first Pro class triumphs in the series. Sargent put in a pair of perfect races last April at the Grand Prix of Long Beach to sweep the weekend guest driving in Washington's No. 32.
Washington is a frequent visitor to the Masters class victory lane. A string of career third-place finishes, including the Formula 1 support races in Miami and Montreal, are highlighted by a career-best second at COTA in 2024. He made his 2026 series debut in the Carrera Cup weekend at Indy on the IMSA Battle on the Bricks weekend in September.
The Circuit of the Americas Carrera Cup weekend begins today with a single practice session at 2 p.m. CDT. The first 35-minute race starts at 2:35 p.m. CDT on Saturday while the second and final round is slated to go green Sunday at 10:35 a.m. CDT.
Both races and more can be seen live on the Porsche Motorsport North America YouTube channel or for subscribers on the NBC Peacock streaming network. International viewers can watch the action on IMSA.tv.