Round 2 of the 2026 GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season was held at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday.

At the start, polesitter Michai Stephens lead the field to Turn 1. Behind Stephens, a battle between Justin Rothburg and Matias Perez Companc for second saw the Argentine emerge with the position. Before Lap 1 was complete, heartbreak for Dolahite Racing. Cameron Lawrence lost drive out of Turn 16 bringing the #6 Mustang to a halt. The stationary Ford brought out a full course yellow.

After a quick yellow, the yellow returned very quickly. Brayden Williams in the #9 TR3 Mercedes collided with Todd Coleman in the Archangel McLaren at Turn 12. The #69 McLaren did drive away with a flat left rear tire and missing bodywork. The bodywork left behind would cause the second full course yellow. Both of these incidents are taking place in the race’s first 20 minutes. For causing the collision (resulting in the FCY), Williams was to serve a drive through penalty.

Down…but not out

The AF Corse Ferrari of Matias Perez Companc was suffering gear problems with the actuator. The car came to pit road first as a reset, but the problem persisted. It was during their first trip to pit road the team unfortunately suffered a drive-thru penalty due to being too fast in pit lane. The second pass through pit lane however is a much longer stay to go in and replace the part. AF Corse did get the problems resolved but the car lost six laps.

Dolahite Racing also put their head down once the car returned to the pits after being stopped on Lap 1. The team went to work to fix their drivetrain issues. After nearly forty minutes – and twelve laps lost – Cameron Lawrence brought the #6 Mustang back into the fight.

Strategy Talk

SRO America made some changes to the pit stop regulations after Sonoma. The main changes include max stint time increased from 50 to 65 minutes and mandatory three fuel stops. The early full course yellows allowed teams to get creative with their strategies. Primarily, the Pro-Am would short pit their drivers hoping to get their one stop in and maximize a stint to meet the required driver time for the Bronze drivers.

The #017 Kellymoss team decided to take a different route. They decided to single stint their drivers for the whole race. Colin Braun got in around the half hour mark replacing Michael Clark. This would help in the short-term, putting the car up front in Pro-Am. Unfortunately, the strategy would eventually go for not due to Clark making contact with Frederik Schandorff sending the Porsche for a spin.

Grenier Self Destructs

The final hour consisted of two key moments for Mikael Grenier that would determine the fate of the race. The first would be contact with the #71 Rebel Rock Aston Martin of Frank dePew in the esses. The second would be making multiple moves defending on the #13 Kellymoss Porsche of Riley Dickinson on the front stretch. The moment with dePew would result in a ten second post-race penalty. Initially, that did not sound too bad with a healthy lead over the rest of the field.

However, seconds later, the real dagger was lodged. Race control announces a drive thru penalty to Grenier for his multiple moves with Dickinson. Grenier subsequently approached the pits with 38 minutes remaining to serve the penalty. Accordingly, Ryan Hardley moved into the lead with the #31 Wright Porsche. Equally significant is Robby Foley seven seconds back of Grenier with the post-race penalty looming.

Grenier put down his head and got to driving. By lap 72, Grenier caught and passed the Kiwi Hardley to move back into the overall lead. Simultaneously, he reached the ten second gap he needed over Foley to cover the post-race penalty…in the Pro class.

Breakthrough for Wright

As for the gap to Yardley and the Wright Porsche, that would be a different story. Grenier put the pedal to the floor for the last 20 minutes to pull a gap. Yardley kept his pace. At the finish line, Yardley came home 5.6 seconds behind Grenier on the road. With the penalty, Yardley and Dave Musial Jr. scored an improbable overall victory for the Wright Motorsports squad.

Importantly, for Grenier, he managed to maintain the gap to Foley and secure the Pro class win for he, Michai Stephens and JMF Motorsports. Behind Turner Motorsports, the McCann Porsche scored a breakthrough podium for Michael McCann and Zachary Vanier.

Wright Motorsports scored a well-earned 1-2 in the Pro-Am class. Give a call to Therese Lahlouh and Thomas Merrill earning an overall podium with their class runner up. This is the duo’s second race in GT3 competition and this is quite a massive result for the pro and pupil.

Rounding out an all-Porsche Pro-Am podium for the second race running is RS1. A quiet day saw Juan Martinez and Jan Heylen finish fifth overall. Finally, despite some competition, AF Corse goes two-for-two in Am with Oswaldo Negri and Jay Schriebman.

Short Break before The Bumps

The teams and drivers only get a week to rest before they are back on track again. GT World Challenge America heads to the bumpy surfaces of Sebring International Raceway for Round 3 of the season May 8-10.

Featured Image: The #31 Wright Motorsports Porsche Photo Courtesy: Fabian Lagunas/SRO Motorsports Group