Insight: How SRO America's "Major Upgrade" Has Revitalized Grid
John Dagys speaks with SRO America President and CEO Greg Gill on GT World Challenge America powered by AWS' off-season makeover, which has already produced results...
Sometimes, change can be a good thing in sports car racing. While there would arguably be an uproar if the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa or Nürburgring 24 turn into six or 12-hour races, going against decades of tradition, SRO America’s latest bet, in shaking up the series format of GT World Challenge America powered by AWS from two 90-minute races to a single three-hour headline race, appears to already be paying dividends.
Case in point: This weekend’s season opener at Sonoma Raceway is set to see a 20-car GT3 grid, the largest field for its flagship championship in a regular-format race weekend since 2019, in what was the first year of SRO Motorsports Group’s new-look GT World Challenge branding across America, Europe and Asia.
It was also the last time SRO America, under the leadership of President and CEO Greg Gill, made a major format shift, going away from World Challenge’s traditional single-driver sprint races to fully embracing the two-driver ‘SprintX’ formula that was first introduced in 2016 and gradually took over, despite mixed feelings from competitors at the time.
While that ‘old-school’ sprint format lives on in the FIA Bronze rated driver-enforced GT America powered by AWS series, Gill is hoping the latest “major upgrade” to SRO America will ultimately not only result in larger grids, but also better and more cost-effective GT racing.
As he explains, it wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction, but in fact more than a year in the making.
“While there’s been exciting growth in GT World Challenge, people that are part of the industry are aware that [discussions of a format change] have been going on since Sonoma last year,” Gill tells Sportscar365. “We have been talking with people both inside and outside the paddock about the best format.
“What was quickly established was that there was a tremendous interest in a 60-minute format, but it was also equally acknowledged that there were a ton of places that 40, 50 and 60-minute races, and even 100-minute races were already happening.
“What’s been the big success for SRO globally, particularly in Europe, with yet another sold out grid this year? Longer races.
“As we queried people in and out of the paddock and logged their votes for it, in reality what you saw was two 90-minute races now becoming 180 minutes on Sunday, allowing the teams more strategy, and at the same time what was equally important was allowing people to have a three-day weekend.
“People’s time is so important in today’s busy climate. They now start Friday morning and leave Sunday afternoon. That was really critical. You get the advantage of more time on track but less time at the circuit overall.
“That allowed in the same way, as we’ve seen in other series, of starting things on Thursday and running through Saturday in our other classes allowing us to do the same thing for GT4 America and TC America.”
The format shakeup, announced at last year’s 24 Hours of Spa as part of Stephane Ratel’s annual SRO press conference, didn’t come without resistance from a few series’ competitors, which were adamantly against the change. One team even attempted to gather paddock support to force a reversal, leveraging their OEM partner at the time to pressure the higher-ups.
However, SRO America held firm on its new direction, despite rumors of the majority of its paddock not returning for the 2026 season that were making the rounds at last October’s season-ending Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS weekend, which turned out to be wide of the mark.
While DXDT Racing and sister outfit Regulator Racing, along with Heart of Racing Team, have elected not to return, there have been growth within existing teams, such as JMF Motorsports expanding into a two-car Mercedes-AMG operation and AF Corse committing to a season-long Pro class Ferrari effort for the first time.
But it’s the newcomers or returning teams after several years away, driven by the new format, is what’s brought optimism for the season ahead.
Former GTWC America competitors TR3 Racing and McCann Racing have returned, while Riley Motorsports is set to mount its first full season effort in three years, bringing sister squad Kellymoss along with an impressive three-car Porsche effort, in addition to two Wright Motorsports entries.
A series record nine GT3 manufacturers are represented, including the return of Lamborghini, and beginning at the second event of the season at Circuit of The Americas, the series debut of IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge front-runners Rebel Rock Racing with its Aston Martin, while Ford has committed to supporting a Pro class entry for Dollahite Racing for the first time.
Gill says the mix of new and returning teams has brought “a nice level of energy” to the paddock.
“We’re also recognizing that as we start at Sonoma, this is brand new,” he says. “We’ve spent a lot of time with everybody in the off season, first starting with Jacquie Groom (SRO’s global sporting director) and everybody in Europe on the sporting regs.
“This is not reinventing the wheel. We’re doing these formats in Europe, so we had a baseline. But what we recognized, just as there are some things that are unique to North America, one of them being restarts. That doesn’t happen in other SRO series around the world. We have to be mindful of those things.
“We’ve spent a lot of time in answering questions, and will again in the briefings at Sonoma so that everybody becomes comfortable with the new format and they also feel free to comment and be part of it. We sent out draft sporting regs [last year] so the teams could give us feedback and have that communication process with us.”
While nearly mirroring the format seen in the ultra-successful GTWC Europe Endurance Cup, which features three-hour races and capacity grids, Gill says he understands there has to be a level of ‘North America’ to its new structure, which has also taken place.
“I think this is a major upgrade in what we’re doing,” he says. “It’s been very well received, so it’s confirmed in that regard already. We can’t claim to be the first series to say ‘by the racers, for the racers’. However, I do think our focus has been always on what we can do to bring the most value to the participants first, and then to the fans, to give them something that they can really enjoy and see.
“One of the great things that Stephane Ratel always brings up is that you’re winning in an overall GT race. Multi-class racing is exciting in itself. It’s a different subject and a different style. This is straight GT racing where you’re racing for the win in your class. That’s always going to be one of the most important points of what we do.
“When Stephane finished the 2019 season and had a meeting with Brian Hughes (SRO America VP of Operations) and myself and he talked about what we should do going into the 2020 season — and of course we didn’t know about the pandemic and the different things that were going to happen.
“He said, ‘It was an important time. I want this to be truly SRO America. It is SRO first. Second it’s in America. Make sure it goes that way.’
“I think this is that next step. It’s the next generation of Stephane’s influence and intention to be the best GT racing in the world. Going into the three-hour format is really a good way. At the same time, we’re retaining things like GT America, where we still have single driver sprint races.
“On the same token, look at the strength of Pirelli GT4 America where we have 31 cars enrolled for the year. The strength is still there for what we might call that traditional two-race format. I think we’re seeing the best of both worlds.”
While all of the ‘standard’ event weekends will feature three-hour races, the Indianapolis 8 Hour remains unchanged, and with the bolstered grid of full season entrants, Gill says he feels “very comfortable” of reaching 30 GT3 cars in the joint Intercontinental GT Challenge round in October for the first time.
“If you’re not changing, you’re going backwards,” adds Gill. “There’s no static in motorsports. There’s no same-old, same-old. We had six seasons with the two 90-minute races. It did not grow and did not attract new people. Now we move forward with our SRO core value of listening to our racers and working to deliver the best GT racing possible.”
Photos: Fabian Lagunas/SRO America