Therese Lahlouh battles to 11th place finish at Road Atlanta
- LIAM REDFORD
- 7 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Therese Lahlouh’s strong run in mixed conditions at Road Atlanta was curtailed by a penalty which put the team out of contention after running inside the top-5 in the latest round of GT World Challenge America. Despite not scoring the result the team were looking for, Lahlouh's progression across the weekend was once again impressive.
Therese Lahlouh’s strong run in mixed conditions at Road Atlanta was curtailed by a penalty which put the Wright Motorsports team out of contention after running inside the top-5 in the latest round of GT World Challenge America.
In her maiden GT World Challenge American season, Lahlouh has impressed as she takes her first steps in GT3 level competition. Racing alongside teammate Thomas Merrill, the duo had scored championship points in the first three rounds of the season and sat in a superb fourth position in the standings arriving at Road Atlanta. The Wright Motorsports duo were now aiming to continue this momentum as Lahlouh embarked on a learning-oriented season among a highly competitive grid of GT3 drivers and teams.
With Road Atlanta having only featured on the 2025 Porsche Sprint Challenge North America calendar, it was one of Lahlouh’s more unfamiliar circuits heading into the weekend. Nonetheless, her improvements over the course of a race weekend having been a particular strength and with changeable conditions forecast, Lahlouh’s adaptability skills were set to be further tested.
On-track action began on Friday morning with the official test session allowing the drivers to familiarise themselves with the circuit. Completing 43 laps during the session, the Wright Motorsports duo banked valuable knowledge on their way to a quickest time of a 1:21.567 which placed them in 13th position within the Pro-Am class.
Friday’s afternoon’s running began with the bronze test which was a productive thirty-minute session for Lahlouh. Improving upon her fastest time from the earlier test by one and a half seconds, the Wright Motorsports driver was particularly quick through turns 10 and 11 as she set a best time of a 1:25.546.
Friday’s action concluded with the first official free practice session which saw Merrill gain significant track time. Setting a fastest time of a 1:21.217, Merrill improved upon his quickest lap from the official test by a quarter of a second. This placed the Wright Motorsports duo in 11th position within Pro-Am, but less than one second away from the pacesetting time of Aaron Telitz.
Free practice two was held on Saturday morning with Lahlouh and Merrill completing a further 24 laps. Merrill set the fastest time with his 1:21.974 placing the duo in 13th position within the Pro-Am class.
The final session prior to qualifying was free practice three and this gave the teams one final chance to adjust on their cars ahead of the two timed sessions. Lahlouh found over one second from her previous best lap to set a fastest time of a 1:23.998. Merrill’s quickest lap of a 1:20.843 saw the team end the session in second position within the Pro-Am class.
Saturday’s action was completed by the two qualifying sessions which were held back-to-back. Lahlouh drove in the first session and again set a new personal best time for the event. Lapping Road Atlanta in 1:23.050, Lahlouh almost gained another full second from the final practice session. This time saw her set the 18th fastest time overall, 12th among the Pro-Am entries.
For the second qualifying period, Merrill got behind the wheel in what was an extremely competitive fifteen-minute session. The Wright Motorsports driver also improved upon his best lap from the earlier session as he set a fastest time of a 1:20.375. This lap placed him in 16th position overall, 12th in the Pro-Am class with the pair’s combined time of a 1:21.712 seeing them qualify in 17th position overall, 13th in Pro-Am.
The showpiece three-hour race was held on Sunday afternoon and the drivers faced a difficult decision prior to the green flag. A heavy rain shower prior to start led to a damp track and therefore the majority of the drivers fitted the wet weather tyres. Lahlouh started on the grooved rubber and after originally being slated to line up from 13th position in the Pro-Am class, she was promoted to 12th after Derek Deboer pitted on the formation lap to change onto slicks.
As the lights went out, Lahlouh made a superb start as she passed a number of cars around the outside of turn one. Showing good confidence in tricky conditions, Lahlouh briefly moved up to eighth in class before completing lap one in ninth position with Kellymoss racer Michael Clark re-passing the Wright Motorsport driver.
After defending from Frank Depew in the early stages, Lahlouh was back up to eighth on lap three after Brayton Williams had a spin at turn seven. As the track continued to dry, the slick tyres were beginning to gain an advantage and on lap six, Deboer overtook Lahlouh as he continued to set some of the fastest laps within the Pro-Am class.
As the drivers behind continued to battle for position, Lahlouh was protecting her ninth position with John Gilliland now searching for a way through. On lap nine, the majority of the teams elected to pit to switch onto the slick tyres with Lahlouh bringing her car to the attention of the crew on lap 10.
The Wright Motorsports team switched onto the slick tyres with Lahlouh emerging from the pits in 11th position within the Pro-Am class. Despite extremely limited experience in racing on a damp track with slick tyres, particularly in GT3 machinery, Lahlouh was holding her own and this ensured both Depew and Todd Parriott remained behind.
After successfully resisting the challenge of her rivals while building up her speed consistently, Parriott shaped for a move into turn 10 on lap 15. Contact was made between the cars as the Kellymoss driver braked on a damp patch of the track which sent Lahlouh through the gravel trap. This incident lost Lahlouh around ten seconds with the Wright Motorsports driver falling to 13th position in class.
Following a quick decision from the stewards, Parriott was issued a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility and this elevated Lahlouh back into 12th position within the Pro-Am class. Determined to recover from this setback, Lahlouh then began setting a series of personal best times which were comparable to those ahead. On lap 22, a new fastest time of a 1:24.068 saw her consistently gain ground on both Gilliland and Depew as she looked to move back inside the top-10.
Showing exceptional speed through the final sector, Lahlouh was now lapping on pace with those in the midfield as set a new benchmark of a 1:23.746 which was only three-quarters of a second away from her qualifying effort. After reducing the margin to Depew to less than five seconds, the race entered a full course yellow period after Deboer mis-judged his braking point into turn 10 which caused the Random Vandals Racing machine to make contact with JP Martinez’s RS1 prepared car. Both drivers were out of the race with significant damage, while this incident promoted Lahlouh to tenth position in class.
During the neutralisation period, Lahlouh took the pass around and this put her back onto the lead lap, while she overtook both Gilliland and Depew. The race now entered the second hour and with a number of teams choosing to pit under the safety car, Lahlouh ran as high as fifth position with only eight Pro-Am class machines remaining on the lead lap.
The restart took place on lap 45 and after a good battle with Depew, Lahlouh and the Wright Motorsports team were handed a Stop + 2:42 penalty for an pass-around procedure infringement. This was an unfortunate break for Lahlouh who had drove maturely in tricky conditions for the first third of the race.
After pitting to serve the penalty, Lahlouh improved her personal best time again as on the penultimate lap of her stint, she lapped Road Atlanta in a superb time of 1:23.606. Now set to hand the car over to Merrill, the duo were assessed a second penalty, this time a Stop + 65 second decision, for failing to serve the first penalty correctly.
On lap 51, Merrill got behind the wheel and rejoined the race in 11th position within the Pro-Am class once the second penalty was served. Now three laps in arrears to the class leaders, the second half of the race was challenging for the Wright Motorsports team who were now looking to bank valuable knowledge.
After displaying strong pace early in his stint, Merrill’s progress was halted on lap 72 after the race entered a second full course yellow period. With the Turner Motorsport machine of Robby Foley coming to halt with a technical issue, the safety car was deployed to retrieve his stricken car. Merrill pitted under the full course yellow with the Wright Motorsports team making their final stop of the day.
The race resumed with just over an hour remaining and Merrill began matching the pace of the class leaders. As they battled for positions ahead, Merrill closed in and caught the train of cars who were disputing the final steps on the Pro-Am class podium. This underlined the team’s pace and highlighted their potential to once again fight at the head of the field.
Despite a number of close calls in the final stages, the final hour was uninterrupted with Merrill taking the chequered flag in 11th position within the Pro-Am class. Despite not scoring the result the team were looking for, Lahlouh showed excellent adaptability in the early stages of the race, while her progression across the course of the event was once again impressive.
GT World Challenge America now heads into a summer break before the drivers tackle the iconic Road America circuit on the weekend of 29th/30th August.