INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana – Mercedes-AMG clinched a third-straight GT America powered by AWS Manufacturer Championship to highlight a successful season-ending weekend of SRO America competition at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) that included GT4 and GT2 race wins and a three-day haul of six total podium finishes. The half dozen visits to IMS victory lane included a pair of podium showings by Mercedes-AMG Performance Teams GruppeM Racing and Lone Star Racing. Maro Engel, Jules Gounon and Mikael Grenier drove the No. 130 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to a second-place Pro-class finish while the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG Team Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller and Alex Palou rallied to third-place Pro honors in Saturday’s Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) Indianapolis 8 Hour.
The pair of Mercedes-AMG Performance Teams were joined on the Indy 8 Hour podium by the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Jeff Burton, Philip Ellis and U.S. debuting endurance race addition Elias Seppanen. The Fanatec GT World Challenge America regulars finished third in class to seal third-place Pro-Am season championship honors for Burton, Ellis and Regulator in the team’s first year of competition.
Following the first overall North American IGTC race win for a Mercedes-AMG Performance Team at Indy in 2022, Saturday’s P2 and P3 Pro podium showings replicated last year’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 results in the 8 Hour. Gounon was part of the runner-up team driver lineup each year and joined his teammates in both races in maximizing the performance of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 as they challenged the race winner to the finish in both 2023 and last weekend.
Lone Star, in its Mercedes-AMG Performance Team debut, rebounded for the third-place Pro finish despite never having a chance to fight for the victory. The No. 4 team and drivers persevered through electrical issues for the majority of the race, but the team, Stolz, Schiller and Palou turned in a no-quit performance straight to the checkered flag.
As the third driver in the rotation, the No. 4 was out of winning contention by the time Palou, the three-time and reigning NTT IndyCar Champion, took the wheel. He still shined in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 debut, however, qualifying the No. 4 on the outside front row in Friday’s Pole Shootout, just 0.114 of a second off the top qualifier’s lap time.
Mercedes-AMG secured its third-consecutive GT America Manufacturer Championship despite a heartbreaking weekend for top series team CRP Racing and its driver Jason Daskalos. The No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 team and Daskalos went into Sunday’s final 40-minute race of the year with a six-point lead in both the driver and team championship standings only to be spun and put out of title contention on the opening race lap.
After leading the championship for the majority of the year, CRP and Daskalos fell to third in the final standings, but they were the primary contributors to Mercedes-AMG’s third manufacturer crown. Daskalos and CRP won six of the year’s 16 GT America races – including doubleheader sweeps at Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park – while CrowdStrike by Riley and driver George Kurtz scored three race wins that were also deciding factors in Mercedes-AMG winning the third title on the strength of a series-leading nine race wins.
The Indy weekend’s Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing victories were earned by the No. 89 RENNtech Mercedes-AMG GT4 team on Sunday and on Friday by the No. 10 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2 team.
Starting 13th on the overall grid in Sunday’s final 60-minute Pirelli GT4 America race of the year, No. 89 RENNtech co-drivers Michael Auriemma and Matheus Leist began picking off race positions from the start. Auriemma pitted from the top 10 to hand the Mercedes-AMG GT4 off to teammate and race-closing driver Matheus Leist who took both the Pro-Am class and overall race lead with less than 10 minutes remaining on the clock.
The convincing victory ended the season on a high note for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing as it was just the second time this season a Pro-Am team scored an overall victory. Burton and Harris, in their first race win together, garnered both overall and Pro-Am GT3 honors in July at VIRginia International Raceway.
Auriemma and Leist were joined on the Pirelli GT4 America podium by the returning duo of Michai Stephens and Jesse Webb in the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4. Regular winners in the championship the last three seasons, the No. 34 team ran Webb and Stephens in SRO America for the first time this season at Indy and nearly walked away with the Silver class win on Sunday.
Shaking off getting knocked out of the weekend’s first race and an acceleration issue at Sunday’s start, both drivers combined to put the No. 34 in winning contention. Closing driver Stephens took the white flag first in the Silver class, and just behind overall leader Leist, only to be just edged for the win in the race to the checkered flag.
Despite the narrow loss, the second-place finish gave the JMF team and drivers a boost they needed to end the season on a high note as 2025’s plans get underway.
The GT2 win in Friday’s opening GT America race gave team owner and driver Dan Knox a three-for-three win record this season in the Lone Star Racing No. 10. After sweeping both 40-minute races last April at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Knox and Lone Star turned in a repeat performance in their first GT America race since the California double header. All three convincing victories were flag-to-flag triumphs from the pole.
The 2025 SRO America season begins at Sonoma Raceway, March 28 – 30. Next year’s Indianapolis 8 Hour weekend is slated for October 3 – 5.
Jeff Burton, Driver – No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I’m so new to this sport, and this was definitely my best season. To actually be on the podium at Indianapolis is really cool. As an American kid, I knew early that everybody knows that Indianapolis is the icon of all racing places. Philip helped me break so many bad habits I was taught earlier in my career – and they were all good teachers – but with him in this car, it’s just a totally different approach. He does it so effortlessly, and I need to capture that approach as I continue to grow. I am my worst enemy, my biggest critic, but I have a competitive nature. I’ve been an athlete all my life, and I just enjoy the heck out of competing. With Philip’s help and my drive, hopefully I can continue to get better at this.”
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It’s been a very fun season. We had a couple of what we will call unlucky incidents on two occasions which kind of put us out of the championship hunt, but all in all it’s been a great season. It’s been very successful for Regulator Racing, and our sister team DXDT Racing as well. I think everybody has played a big part in making the overall program a lot better this year, making a step forward, and hopefully doing the same next year. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 gives you a lot of confidence straight off the bat, and that’s what you need with Bronze and Am drivers. We could get Jeff to a good enough level to fight for podiums and overall victories. We’ll just keep building on that over the winter.”
Elias Seppanen, Driver – No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was a really nice experience to come here with Jeff and Philip and Regulator Racing. In America, everything is done quite big. The podium is a lot different compared to Europe, and I have to say I really enjoyed my first time racing here in the U.S. It was not the smoothest race. We had an issue with the pit stop early on that put us back on the strategy. But, thanks to the engineers and the whole team, we managed to come back to P3 in the class. I think a class win would have been possible without the issue, but we settled for third. It was nice as well to help the guys finish P3 in the championship. Just a big thanks to Regulator Racing, Jeff, and Philip for giving me the opportunity to be here and help them. Hopefully I will be back soon.”
Jules Gounon, Driver – No. 130 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Great job by the GruppeM Racing team. I am very happy for the team – they did a perfect job, faultless. We cannot be unhappy – we did our best race with no mistakes, and we were quick. We got everything out of the car, and we were the fastest AMG-Mercedes, but just couldn’t quite compete for the win with the other cars. Still, a podium in IGTC and the Indy 8 Hour is very good.”
Alex Palou, Driver – No. 4 Mercedes-AMG Team Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was a fun experience. I had a great team around with the Mercedes-AMG group, Lone Star Racing and all my teammates. Learned a lot and had fun, but it’s a shame it didn’t go the way we wanted. From the beginning, we were fighting some issues and lost two laps very early on. We were fighting that deficit since stint one. We tried everything and got one lap back, but then we were again two laps down, and at the end we had some more issues. Hopefully we can be back soon and go for a win.”
Dan Knox, Driver – No. 10 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2: “This Mercedes-AMG GT2 is a great, great automobile. Lots of fun to drive. It’s a driver’s car. You’ve got to really drive it hard to get it to go and do the things you want it to do. It feels great winning here at Indy again. After winning at Long Beach, the big events seem to be my best races. It would be great to see more GT2 cars out here running, but we’ll take what we can get.”
Michael Auriemma, Driver – No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “This victory tastes sweeter than any other. We started the season on a high note. We had really high expectations for the season and thought we were a good driver pairing. We’ve had ups and downs with all kinds of issues, but we wanted to walk away with a win and carry that momentum into the offseason. Hopefully, next year we can show what we’ve got and have a better result in the championship. The car was great. It took a bit for the tires to come up to temp, so when they finally did, I just tried to keep the tires under me and give Matheus a car that he could go race. Clearly that’s what happened. He drove like a man on a mission.”
Matheus Leist, Driver – No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “It was awesome. In the first race, I knew we had a good car, but I made a little mistake at the start from pole. We made some changes for the second race, and honestly, the car was really good. I have no complaints. I feel like everybody was sliding and struggling, and we kept getting better and better. We had a bit of a radio issue in the race. I didn’t really know where I was, and I couldn’t see the times or anything. I was pretty sure I was racing for the overall win, wasn’t too sure, but I got the message at the end and gave everything I had. Happy that Michael and I put it first overall. This place is always special. I won here in the past, a long time ago. It’s one of the best places to race in the U.S. and I’m very happy that we got it done at Indianapolis.”
Michai Stephens, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “It’s just such a privilege to be a representative of Mr. John Farrow’s gift – JMF Motorsports – and to be part of the entire collaboration with Mercedes-AMG. To be standing beside Jesse in victory lane at Indianapolis in the last race of the year is really what dreams are made of. We can’t thank everybody enough for their support. We went down swinging, came up a little short, but that’s just the humble pie that has to be served sometimes. It’s very important to end on a high note, at least for the soul. We’re in motorsports to feed our hearts in a way, and everybody has their own individual relationship with it. It’s nice to be able to keep growing.”
Jesse Webb, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “I personally thought it was a bit of a jumped start there and it caught me a little off guard on Sunday. There were a lot of close championship fights, so they were going all out, and I just didn’t want to have the car get damaged or anything like that. I wanted to preserve it to the end. The last 20 minutes is when you really, really go all-out. We learned, we improved, and we move on. Our Mercedes-AMG GT4 handled well, and we were able to challenge at the front. Super important to end well. We got roughed up a bunch, but glad we can go into the break happy and enthusiastic for next year and excited for what’s ahead.”