Shift Up Now Athlete Therese Lahlouh earned a second-place finish in the Pro-Am Class—third overall—with teammate Thomas Merrill, for the second event of the 2026 GT World Challenge America presented by AWS series at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on Sunday, April 26, 2026.
Driving the No. 242 Porsche GT3 R car for Wright Motorsports, and sponsored by Byers Auto Group, Mobil1, and PMNA, Lahlouh prepared for a full weekend of track activity, starting with three practice sessions over Friday and Saturday.
Lahlouh had previously competed at COTA in Porsche Sprint Challenge, however this competition would mark Lahlouh’s first time on the 3.426-mile, 20-turn permanent road course in a GT3 car. Despite this, she was able to find more speed with each practice session, and felt confident going into the team’s qualifying effort.
On Sunday morning, Lahlouh set a personal-best time in qualifying. However, an untimely red flag during Merrill’s run stymied their effort and put them on the outside of row eight on the starting grid.
Just a few hours later, the three-hour race began at 12:30pm CST. Lahlouh was behind the wheel as cars ran two-by-two to the green flag. After the start, the field fanned out to three- wide heading into the first turn. They made it through cleanly and then settled into a single-file line. Lahlouh held her starting position in 16th, but after an early full-course caution for a stopped car, she began advancing through the field and into 11th place.
Just 15 minutes into the competition, the Wright Motorsports team elected to go off strategy and take one of their three mandatory fuel stops early. It paid off as a full-course caution flew when Lahlouh was in pit lane, allowing her to catch the back of the pack under yellow.
After the restart, she settled into the top ten overall—sixth in the Pro-Am class. At approximately the one-hour mark, other cars that had not yet pitted began pulling off. This moved Lahlouh up to third overall, which she would hold onto as she bested her qualifying lap time by setting a new personal-best 2:08.2.
Continuing the strategy of back-timing until the end of the race and making moves early, the No. 242 team pitted to swap drivers. Merrill would continue where Lahlouh left off, running fast lap times under green throughout the rest of the competition, and holding onto the third-place overall spot through the checkered flag.
In addition to finishing on the podium, the duo was also awarded the SuperFuel Hard Charger award.
“I am so proud of our results at COTA,” said Lahlouh. “It was a true team effort that took incredible strategy calls, world-class engineering, great driving, and a strong team environment. I’m really happy with my pace and progression, and to stand on a GT3 podium— both overall and in class—in my debut season is a testament to the development that we’ve done over the last three years. I can’t wait for Sebring!”
Next up, Lahlouh and Merrill head to California for round three of GT World Challenge America presented by AWS, at Sebring International Raceway on May 8-10, 2026.
