Shift Up Now Athlete Therese Lahlouh, along with teammate Thomas Merrill, earned a fifth- place finish in the Pro-Am class during the season opener of GT World Challenge America presented by AWS at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, March 29, 2026.
Driving the No. 242 Porsche GT3 car for Wright Motorsports, and sponsored by Byers Auto Group, Mobil1, and PMNA, Lahlouh was excited to make her GT World Challenge America debut on the 2.52-mile, 12-turn road course that she considers her home track. Previously, she competed in Porsche Sprint Challenge, and is a graduate of the Porsche Motorsports ladder system to GT3 racing.
The race weekend began with three official practice sessions under sunny skies for one of the largest GT3 fields in recent history, featuring 20 cars. Lahlouh’s Pro-Am class comprised the majority, with 13 entries.
Lahlouh and Merrill used the practice time to gather data, dial in the Wright Motorsports Porsche, and get up to speed for qualifying.
GT World Challenge America announced a new format for 2026, replacing two 90-minute races on back-to-back days with a single three-hour race on Sunday afternoons. The new format also puts qualifying on the morning of race day.
On Sunday morning at 8:45am PST, Lahlouh was behind the wheel for the first stint of qualifying. Both drivers’ times would be averaged to determine the team’s starting position. Lahlouh noted that the cool track conditions made it challenging to get her tires up to temperature quickly.
“It was only my second morning sticker run, and bringing the tire in at a track like Sonoma is really difficult,” she said. “The cold conditions definitely made it a challenge to get the maximum performance out of the tire quickly, and with track evolution making the track faster as the session went on, it was also important to treat the tires in a way that extended their peak.”
When the qualifying session ended, the No. 242 duo had secured a starting spot on the inside of row nine for that afternoon’s race.
Later that day, the three-hour competition began at 1:45pm PST and Lahlouh was the first to take the wheel for the team.
The 20-car field ran the standard two-by-two formation for the start. When the green flag flew, they continued side-by-side up the hill from turns one into two. Lahlouh had a clean start, gaining a position into the carousel on the first lap.
Ten minutes into the race, a two-car incident caused a full-course caution. The team elected not to pit, so Lahlouh stayed out to gain track position, advancing to seventh in class (13th overall).
Just over 30 minutes into the race, the Wright Motorsport team elected to pit Lahlouh, opting for a short stop, and effectively re-setting the drive-time clock. This set up their strategy to keep her in the car for another 50-minute stint before the driver change to Merrill, who would drive to the finish.
As the pit stop strategies started to play out in the middle of the race, Lahlouh cycled up into the top ten overall, and fifth in class. She pitted to hand over to Merrill just before the halfway point of the race, running in ninth place overall.
With 50 minutes remaining, Merrill came in for the team’s final pit stop, where the team had to serve a penalty for a procedural error at the previous pit stop. However, he ran a clean race until the checkered flag and brought the car home fifth in class to start the 2026 season.
“It was an incredible start to my GT3 career here at Sonoma Raceway,” said Lahlouh. “We were so close to a podium finish, but unfortunately, a penalty kept us from the result we deserved. My co-driver Thomas had an awesome stint, and I’m super proud of a top five, thanks to the world-class leadership and engineering at Wright Motorsport. We couldn’t be in better hands, and we’re looking forward to taking the fight to COTA. Thank you to my sponsors, PMNA, Byers Auto, and Mobil1.“
Next up, Lahlouh and Merrill head to Texas for round two of GT World Challenge America presented by AWS, at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on April 24-26, 2026.
