Shift Up Now Athlete Laura Hayes ended the 2026 Pirelli GT4 America season with an Am class win in the second of two races, competing for Dome Motorsport at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) on October 8-11, 2026.
Fellow Shift Up Now Athletes Ashley Freiberg, Loni Unser, and Erika Hoffmann were also there competing in the Silver class in Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport entries for Kellymoss. Freiberg and Unser piloted the No. 24 “Be Your Own Hero” entry supported by PenFed and Acumatica, while Hoffmann made her return after missing the prior event at Barber Motorsports Park, and competing with teammate Eric Filgueiras in the No. 73 Coverly Home Protection | Connect Invest entry.
The race weekend took place alongside the Indy 8 Hour event on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn IMS road course, where Freiberg had previous raced in 2023 when she wrapped up the Porsche Sprint Challenge 991.2 Cup Championship. Unser had also previously competed in vintage races in 2018 and 2019, however this would mark her professional racing debut at the track.
The first practice took place on Thursday afternoon. The No. 24 car continued with the quick speeds from previous race weekends, running immediately inside the top 15 overall among the 35-car field. Hayes and Hoffmann, who were both running at the famed Brickyard for the first time, focused their efforts on learning the course and getting up to speed.
On Friday morning, the second practice would prove to be one of the most important sessions of the weekend. Filgueiras placed the No. 73 car inside the top 10, with Freiberg and Unser again in the top 15, and Hayes finding speed in the top 20.
Later that afternoon, qualifying initially went to plan. Unser was first in the No. 24 for Kellymoss, and she had one of her strongest qualifying sessions of the season, putting up the 13th-fastest time on the overall time sheets. Meanwhile Hayes was first qualifying driver in the Dome Motorsport entry, and set her personal best time of the weekend to be fourth in the Am class, and inside the top 20 overall, with the top 25 cars separated by less than 2 seconds. Hoffmann was the nominated first driver in the No. 73, and set the ninth-fastest time in the Silver Class.
However a timing and scoring issue caused each teams’ second qualifying attempt to be abandoned, and the series decided that the grid for the second race would be set from the second driver’s fastest times in the second practice session.
The green flag would fly for the first race at 10:00am EDT on Saturday morning in cool, crisp conditions. After two pace laps, the field lined up two-by-two as they approached the Yard of Bricks. All Shift Up Now Athletes were lined up on the inside row, with Unser in the seventh, Hayes in the ninth, and Hoffmann a few rows further back.
Unser was initially boxed in behind a slow BMW and was forced to drop inside the turn one curb to avoid what looked like an inevitable incident, which unfortunately earned her a time penalty from race control that would have to be served at her pit stop.
To further the frustration, an early full-course yellow at the end of the first lap kept Unser from moving forward or making a gap to minimize the penalty. The race only went back to green for one lap before the pit window opened, then Freiberg took over for the second half of the race. The duo would finish eighth in the Silver class and 17th overall.
On the same strategy, Hoffmann stopped early in the pit window, where Filgueiras took over. Together, the pair went from 33rd position at the start to a 12th place overall finish at the checkered flag.
Meanwhile Hayes and teammate Ed Killeen combined for a 10th place in class.
On Sunday morning, Killeen announced that he was under the weather. As a result, GT4 America officials gave Hayes special dispensation to compete as a solo driver for this one race. However, this also meant she would have to serve a longer pit stop than her competitors as part of the penalty for being a single driver.
The green flag flew at 10:25am EDT with damp track conditions. With a dry line just starting to emerge in several periods of the track, the entire field elected to start on slick dry weather tires, knowing that the first laps would be treacherous.
After two pace laps, the back several rows of the field were still stretched out, and in a chaotic formation with uncharacteristic gaps as the field came to the green. Filgueiras was behind the wheel first, starting in sixth. Freiberg rolled off from 12th, and Hayes ended up getting caught farther back behind some of the straggling cars.
The slippery race track created several moments of contact before a spinning car in the front of the pack caused havoc halfway through the first lap. Freiberg avoided all incidents and picked her way through without damage, and into 10th place. Similarly, Hayes used the compressed pack to gain lost time and make passes through the field.
As the field crossed the line at the end of the first lap, and the caution flew for the clean up, Hayes had gained more than 10 positions overall, claiming her spot in the top 20 overall. Once the race went green again, she continued her forward progress, moving into the top five in class before pitting early in the window and reemerging in clean air.
Meanwhile, Freiberg ran into the middle of the pit stop window before handing over the No. 24 to Unser and running just outside the top 10. Filgueiras opted to run longer into the pit window before Hoffmann then took over.
As the two cars ahead of Hayes fought and slowed each other up, her heads-up driving helped her make the most of a mistake from the leader, following the second-place car for a pass. Now running in second, she immediately started to put significant pressure on the new leader in the second half of the same lap. Then on the following, she made the pass in the first couple of corners to take the class lead.
Unchallenged for the rest of the race, Hayes finished first in the Am class, and 16th overall.
Hoffmann finished out the season with a top 15 overall, just in front of Hayes on the race track, and sixth in the Silver class. Meanwhile Freiberg and Unser combined for fifth place in the Silver class, and in the top 15 overall.
