Shift Up Now Athlete Therese Lahouh earned a fourth-place finish in the Pro-Am field, and a sixth-place finish overall in round five of the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season at Road America on August 28-30, 2026.
Driving the No. 242 Porsche GT3 R car with teammate Thomas Merrill 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.
The first practice took place on Friday afternoon in dry conditions. Unfortunately, the team’s gearbox went down, which turned the session into more diagnosis than the testing Lahouh had hoped for, having never been to Road America with this car prior.
On Saturday, Wright Motorsports used half of the first session to break in the new gearbox and rebuilt differential. Later that day, weather for the final practice was rainy, and Lahouh took the opportunity to gain some experience in the wet conditions.
Qualifying took place on Sunday morning. Although Lahouh felt “behind the eight ball” after lacking sufficient practice time, she was still able to shave a second off her time and lay down a 2:09.6 qualifying lap.
The field for Sunday afternoon’s race consisted of 24 GT3 cars, and the Pro-Am field was stacked with 17 of them.
The three-hour competition began at 2:00pm CST with dry weather conditions. Lahouh was behind the wheel first for the No. 242 team, and lined up on the inside of row 11. After one pace lap, the field ran two-by-two up the steep hill to the starter’s stand on the 4.048-mile, 14-turn permanent road course.
The pole-sitter had a relatively late acceleration at the start, then the entire field was fanned out 2-3 wide on the run into turn one. Lahouh held the inside line for a clean start and held her position.
The first full-course caution emerged when one of the cars ahead slid into a spin at the exit of turn six. Lahouh was able to avoid the spinning car and only lost one position in the melee.
Because of a lengthy caution period that followed, the Wright Motorsports team and several other competitors decided to go off strategy and take an early pit stop. Taking advantage of the time behind the safety car, they effectively got a free stop and were able to catch up to the back of the field.
When the green flag flew again, the restart initially looked clean, however a large incident involving several cars at the exit of The Kink immediately brought out another full-course yellow. And for the second time, Lahouh’s heads-up driving allowed her to pick her way through without damaging the car.
After the second restart, she advanced into the top 15 overall, and the top 10 in the Pro-Am class. The race then settled into a long green-flag rhythm and the team’s strategy calls began to pay off. Lahouh kept putting in fast laps, moving up the order one car at a time, until she was in sixth overall as pit stop cycles continued.
Merrill then took over just before another full-course yellow with just over an hour to go in the competition. This packed the field up again and Merrill was running in 10th overall at the restart. Just like Lahouh, he focused forward and began to quietly pick off competitors as the race stayed green.
When the checkered flag fell, the No. 242 car crossed the finish line fourth in the Pro-Am class, and sixth overall to earn the team their second-best run of the season. In addition, the duo passed a combined 15 cars during the race, giving them the Hard Charger Award.
“I’m very proud of my Wright Motorsports team and co-driver Thomas Merrill, for their incredible work at Road America,” said Lahlouh. “Together we were able to overcome so much adversity and chaos, and bring home a solid haul of points and a clean car. It’s not easy coming back after a long break and I’m thrilled we’re able to carry this momentum to the Alabama rollercoaster next.”
Next up, Lahlouh and Merrill head to Alabama for round six of GT World Challenge America presented by AWS, at Barber Motorsports Park on September 25-27, 2026.
