Shift Up Now Athletes Sarah Montgomery and Ashley Freiberg, together with teammate Charlotte Traynor, earned a third-place finish for AE Victory Racing (AEVR) to claim the final podium spot in the GTO class during race one of the World Racing League (WRL) weekend at Watkins Glen International Raceway on October 17-19, 2025.
The Watkins Glen event followed a history-making weekend at Utah Motorsports Campus, where the AEVR team earned the first all-female victory in the WRL GTO class, and were anxious to continue their championship bid. Fellow Shift Up Now Athlete Laura Hayes was also on the team’s timing stand once again, lending strategic expertise to dial in the car for the weekend.
Driving the No. 119 Toyota Supra GT4, Montgomery, Freiberg and Traynor ran in two of the three practice sessions on Friday morning before qualifying later that afternoon.
Temperatures for the qualifying session were the coldest of the season to date. However, despite the challenging conditions and a competitive field, Freiberg’s run on the 3.4-mile, 11- turn road course earned the team an eighth-place starting position for the first race.
Saturday’s eight-hour competition began at 9:00am ET with Freiberg behind the wheel for a three-hour stint, starting on the outside of row four. Heavy rain and incidents early on in the race made her stint chaotic, but she managed to keep the car clean before handing it over to Montgomery mid-day for a triple stint.
Two hours remained when 19-year-old development driver Traynor took the wheel to close out the competition. Her training paid off when she laid down the team’s fastest lap of the day - a 2:01.8 - and brought the car home third in class.
The following morning, Freiberg was behind the wheel again to start Sunday’s seven-hour race. This time, the AEVR team was starting from 11th place after several competitors were sidelined due to incidents from the previous day’s race.
After a solid two-hour stint, Freiberg was running fourth in class when it came time to hand the car to Traynor, who also completed a consistent and focused stint. Finally, Montgomery took the wheel to close out the race with approximately two hours left.
When the team executed a flawless pit stop, the No. 119 Supra advanced from third to second, as the trio anticipated an even better podium finish. However, when a sensor issue forced the car back to pit lane and then the garage for diagnostic checks, the team was forced to retire from the race.
When reflecting on the weekend after Sunday’s race, Montgomery noted, “Saturday was a great race in which everyone worked really hard, and today we were set up to have even better success. Unfortunately with the mechanical issue, we weren’t able to finish it up but I’m immensely proud of our development driver Charlotte, and the whole team for working so hard. It was a great weekend.”
Freiberg agreed, adding, “I’m super pumped for the team with our consistent podium finishes! Everyone executed really well. It was a bummer to have to pull out of the race on Sunday, but I know we will come back in COTA [Circuit of the Americas] stronger!”
Despite the bad luck in race two, AEVR currently sits third in the WRL National Championship standings. Shift Up Now Athlete and AEVR team owner Erin Vogel said, “This weekend really showed how far we’ve come as a team. Our drivers, coaches, and crew executed with professionalism and heart. To see AE Victory Racing move up to third in the national championship standings, even if that may change since we don’t plan to run Sebring, is an incredible achievement. I’m so proud of every single person who helped get us here. It’s a reflection of our hard work, and belief in each other.”
Next up, AEVR heads to Del Valle, TX for the World Racing League National Championship finale at Circuit of the Americas on December 5-7, 2025.
