GMG Racing led a one-two finish by Pro-Am teams in the Indianapolis 8 Hour endurance sports car race Saturday, the final event of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway season.
Ayhancan Güven of Turkey drove to victory by 56.209 seconds in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO that he shared with Kyle Washington of the United States and Riccardo Pera of Italy. It was the first time a Pro-Am and a Porsche team won this Intercontinental GT Challenge sports car endurance race at The Racing Capital of the World, and Washington clinched the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am class championship.
“This year we came for the title (in Pro-Am class),” Guven said. “But then during the race, after Kyle did a really good stint, the strategy paid off, and in the middle of the race we said, ‘Maybe we can go for overall.’ And then from that moment, we started to push with Riccardo, and at the end, it worked pretty well.”
The No. 69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO – another Pro-Am entry – shared by Todd Coleman and Aaron Telitz of the United States and Thomas Fleming of Great Britain finished second.
Pole sitter Robby Foley drove the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO that he shared with fellow American drivers Connor De Phillippi and Justin Rothberg to third after climbing to that position with a daring outside pass with one hour remaining. That was enough for the Turner team to clinch the GT World Challenge America Pro season championship, as that series and the Intercontinental GT Challenge teams ran simultaneously on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
The No. 12 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO placed fourth, the only other car on the lead lap as the eight-hour race ended in darkness with headlights on at IMS.
Maxime Martin of Belgium rounded out the top five in the No. 34 Mercedes-AMG Team JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO he shared with American Michai Stephens and Canadian Mikael Grenier. That finish clinched the Intercontinental GT Challenge drivers’ title for Martin.
“We understood today that we really didn’t have the pace to try to win it, so we showed the IGTC was quite important to me,” Martin said. “I’m really happy to win it.”
The road to victory was a bit longer for GMG Racing than expected. Güven qualified second Friday, just two-thousandths of a second behind Foley, but the No. 32 Porsche was moved to the ninth starting spot due to ground clearance violations found in post-qualifying inspection, one of four cars penalized for infractions after qualifying.
At the halfway point, AF Corse USA’s No. 12 Ferrari led the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG by 12 seconds. GMG’s Porsche was a lap down in 10th, but that deceived. Just before the halfway point of the race, GMG switched to an alternate strategy after a strong double stint by Washington to open the race.
Pro drivers Güven and Pera drove the rest of the way, with Pera climbing back on the lead lap with three hours remaining. Güven was fourth with two hours left, but the alternate strategy had the team on a path to the lead when other teams made their final driver changes during pit stops.
Güven was out front with 90 minutes remaining and cruised to the victory by a record margin for this event.
GMG’s strategic ploy was helped by the last five hours and 39 minutes of the race running caution-free. That was quite the contrast from this race in 2025, when just two laps of green flag racing took place in the final four hours of the race due to waves of lightning and heavy thunderstorms that rolled through Central Indiana.
Five-time and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou never turned a lap in the race today. His teammate Lin Hodenius couldn’t avoid the spinning No. 13 Kellymoss Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO driven by Todd Parriott just nine minutes into the race, hitting the car and inflicting terminal damage on the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG Team Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO in which Palou qualified seventh Friday.
Fellow Indianapolis 500 winner and NTT INDYCAR SERIES race winner Marcus Ericsson finished 13th in the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO that he shared with his brother, Hampus Ericsson, and Derek DeBoer of the United States.
