SRO America Indianapolis: Wednesday/Thursday Notebook

Action has kicked off at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for SRO America’s final weekend of the 2026 season. All SRO America sanctioned championships will be decided this weekend in addition to the Intercontinental GT Challenge championship after Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hours.

Let’s start our GT REPORT weekend coverage by recapping the last two days at Indianapolis.

Wednesday: McLaren Trophy America

Wednesday kicked off the racing weekend with the first of a tripleheader for McLaren Trophy America. Wednesday’s race is the make-up date from the Miami Grand Prix weekend, when the race was postponed due to impending weather. The cars were given a practice Wednesday morning before Wednesday evening’s event. The cars did line up for the fifty-minute race as they were due to line up at Miami in May. This means James Li in the RWE Motorsport entry starts from pole position.

Li lead the field through Turn 1 and everyone made it through the corner clean. The race itself was a clean and well-mannered affair. One exception was Spencer Schmidt on Lap 5 making contact with Tom Dyer, causing damage to his right front. Schmidt would only make it to Hulman Straight before stopping, unable to go any further. Schmidt’s stoppage would cause the race’s only full course yellow.

Oliver Webb would take the lead from Li right before the yellow was called. Webb would lead up to the pit stop when he hand over to Ryan James. James, an Am, is no match for Li’s pro teammate Sam Neser. Neser would make quick of James and Randy Highland to take the overall lead on Highland’s out-lap with seventeen minutes remaining and would keep the lead for good.

Neser and Li are victorious over Patrick Liddy and Tanner Harvey in the Forte Racing by just under five seconds. Cooper Broll is victorious in the Am class, finishing third overall. Moreover, his Am win Wednesday clinched the Am class championship for 2026. Finally, Ryan James maintained the Pro-Am lead for he and Oliver Webb to take class victory while finishing fifth overall.

Thursday

GT World Challenge America/IGTC

After a first test session on Wednesday and a second test session Thursday morning, times were counted Thursday evening during Free Practice. Loris Spinelli topped the time charts in the #64 Chicago Performance Lamborghini. Spinelli lapped the 2.45-mile circuit with a time of 1:23.686. The session was lead by the Pro-Am class filling the top seven positions. Behind Spinelli was Loek Hartog. The Dutchman pedaled the #88 Kellymoss Porsche to a lap of 1:23.710 to go second fastest. Alex Sedgwick rounds out the top 3 for the Dollahite Racing. The Brit turned in a lap of 1:23.726 in the #6 Mustang.

Topping the Pro class was Robby Foley in the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW. Foley’s 1:24.152 was only good enough for eighth fastest. Foley and full-season teammate Justin Rothburg are joined by newly crowned IMSA GTD PRO champion Connor De Philippi this weekend at Indianapolis. Finally, the Am class is led by Road America winners Scuderia Corsa. John Morrow and Mitchell Green are joined by Conrad Gunewald for Indianapolis. Gunewald did the honors of turning the time of 1:25.136. The Am class Mad Joker by Lone Star Mercedes was the only of the 28 cars to not register a time in the session.

Cars are back on track Friday morning for Pre-Qualifying.

McLaren Trophy America

The Greystone GT team are on the verge of a class championship after Thursday – Photo Courtesy: Fabian Lagunas

The second race of a McLaren Trophy tripleheader is the official first race of the weekend here at Indianapolis. Patrick Liddy would start from pole in the Forte Racing Artura. Liddy would leave over Wednesday’s make-up winner James Li going into Turn 1. Behind Liddy and Li, the attrition started early. At Turn 7, Ned McPherson went for a spin after going side-by-side with Kaia Teo. While trying to get going again, he collided into the GMG Artura of Randy Highland. McPherson pulled away despite heavy damage, but the debris field led to the full course yellow being deployed.

After eleven minutes under yellow to clean up said debris, the race went back to green again. But as they say in racing cautions breed cautions. Evan King was very late on the brakes and rammed into the right side of Alex Pollard. While both cars stationary in the Turn 1 grass, the yellow was deployed a second time. With the pit stop window opening under the yellow, some took advantage to take care of the service. Others waited to pit as the safety car returned to the pits.

When the dust settled from the pit stops, Oliver Webb assumed the overall lead. The Greystone driver would set sail and never look back. Webb and Ryan James win Pro-Am and overall by eighteen seconds. Flying Lizard’s program manager Darren Law returned to action with a joyous return, second overall and Am class winner for he and Michael Suco. Finally, rounding out the overall podium, Robby Stockard and Matt Bell score the Pro class win for Hooper Street Racing.

Season finale is set for Friday at 1:40pm local time.