Turner Steps Up at Indy: A Pro Title as GMG Wins the Eight-Hour Finale
ROAD RACING · INDIANAPOLIS 8 HOUR · OCTOBER 13, 2026
Turner Motorsport arrived at Indianapolis with two consecutive Pro-Am championships behind Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg. It left with their first GT World Challenge America Pro title. The progression gave Saturday’s eight-hour finale a story beyond the overall winner: a familiar pairing moved into a tougher class and finished the season at the top.
That overall winner was GMG Racing. Kyle Washington, Riccardo Pera and Ayhancan Güven put the No. 32 Porsche first across the line, 56.209 seconds ahead of Archangel Motorsports’ McLaren. Turner’s No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, shared with Connor De Phillippi for the finale, finished third overall and first in Pro. The series’ posted classification records all three on 323 laps. The linked document is labeled provisional; the subsequent official race reports confirm those winners and title outcomes.
Feature photograph: Turner Motorsport’s No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO at the October 8–10, 2026 Indianapolis event. Photo: Sam Cobb / BMW Group PressClub. Published for editorial reporting.
Turner had to win its own race
Foley’s Friday Superpole lap was 1:22.805, only 0.002 seconds quicker than Güven’s best time. That established the BMW’s speed over one lap. Turning it into a championship required a different job over eight hours, with the AF Corse USA Ferrari becoming Turner’s key Pro-class opponent. SRO’s qualifying report provides the pole margin.
In the closing stages, Foley passed Frederik Schandorff’s Ferrari, then had to do it again after the final pit-stop cycle. The GT World Challenge America report describes the second exchange as a meeting between a BMW whose tires were already up to temperature and a Ferrari just leaving the pits. The pass secured the class lead and put Turner in position to finish the title.
BMW’s October 12 report confirms this was Foley and Rothberg’s third consecutive championship together, following two Pro-Am titles. That distinction matters. This was not a third straight Pro championship, and their third place in the overall race did not diminish the class result.
Why a Pro-Am Porsche beat the whole field
GMG’s win showed another side of endurance GT racing. A class name tells you about the entry’s driver lineup and the competition it is scored against; it does not keep that car from finishing first overall. Archangel’s second place made the first two finishers Pro-Am entries.
Washington completed his required driving time early, allowing Pera and Güven to handle the remaining stints. SRO’s Intercontinental GT Challenge report identifies an early stop, made before the maximum stint length, as the move that set GMG’s finishing sequence. The uninterrupted green-flag running later in the race let that plan play out.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s account records the final five hours and 39 minutes without a caution. At halfway, GMG’s lap-down position therefore told an incomplete story: its pit sequence and remaining driver obligations differed from the apparent leaders’. Reading an endurance race means asking what each car still owes before comparing the gaps.
GMG became the event’s first overall-winning Pro-Am crew, Washington secured the domestic Pro-Am drivers’ title and Porsche clinched the IGTC manufacturers’ championship. Meanwhile, Maxime Martin’s fifth place overall, fourth among IGTC entrants, earned the Mercedes-AMG driver the international drivers’ crown. Those are separate championships sharing one finish.
The ladder was visible in the same paddock
Rothberg’s move from Pro-Am to Pro supplied a concrete development story. In SRO’s post-race interviews, he credited racing against stronger opposition with pushing his driving forward. De Phillippi emphasized execution and the team’s undercut; Foley credited the season-long partnership. None of that suggests an automatic route to a factory seat. It does show a progression built around the same team and a more demanding competitive target.
There was also a direct next-step award. The series’ finale report named Ryan Yardley the SRO GT Academy winner, earning an opportunity at the 2027 24 Hours of Spa. The published Academy explanation describes a funded Silver Cup seat and evaluates eligible Silver-rated drivers under 30 through qualifying and race-pace measures. It is a specific development program, rather than a prize inferred from finishing position alone.
That is why this finale is worth following below the overall headline. One established pairing moved up and won. A Pro-Am team put its race plan ahead of the entire field. Another driver earned a documented next opportunity. Road racing’s ladder becomes much easier to understand when the result and the path behind it appear in the same story.
