Foley Having “Good Fun” With “Stacked” Pro-Am Competition

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

BMW factory driver and reigning GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am champion Robby Foley says he’s having “good fun” racing what he calls a “growing” level of competition in SRO America’s flagship series as he and co-driver Justin Rothberg seek to defend their class title.

The Turner duo enters the third round of the championship this weekend at Sebring International Raceway at the top of the Pro-Am points in their No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, narrowly ahead of Regulator Racing’s Philip Ellis and Jeff Burton, with the CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo third and the DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R just behind.

“This year, the field is as deep as it was last year, with some new, strong additions,” Foley told Sportscar365. “I think the Corvette with Matt [Bell] and Blake McDonald has been strong. The GMG Racing Porsche, Burton and Ellis had some good races with the alternate strategy they do.

“This series is growing with that level of competition. A lot of these drivers I race week in and week out in other series and in IMSA. Philip won the [IMSA] GTD championship last year with Windward [Racing], and we were racing them for the championship there. So I know Philip quite well. Matt, as well.

“All these guys are pros, and they race professionally throughout the world, so it’s definitely good fun. 
It seems like one of the more stacked years there’s been, but it’s been fun.”

Foley expressed that given the level of competition this year, “it’s going to be hard to win” the Pro-Am title this year, but feels that consistency will help their title odds later in the season.

“The guys in the Porsche were really strong at COTA,” he said. “Equally so were Matt and Blake in the Corvette. I think it’s going to change every race. If we get the maximum out of our package, we’ll be in the conversation.

“For us, [it’s] just business as usual, trying to get the maximum amount out of each weekend. You always want to go into Indy with a shot at the championship. Last year was a long shot, but we did exactly what we needed to do. We’d like to make it a little easier on ourselves this year.”

Foley Impressed With Rise in Am Talent, Rothberg’s Progression

Aside from the pro-rated talent level in the class, Foley also spoke to the rise in the field’s amateur drivers, including his co-driver, who is currently in his second year of full-time GT3 racing action and completing a dual GTWC America and GT America powered by AWS effort with Turner this season

“I think there’s a lot of returning drivers that are getting quite a lot better on the Am side of things, which is really cool to see,” said Foley. “It’s a series that promotes developing drivers.

“There’s a group of drivers at the front now of the Pro-Am class that weren’t there years ago. I think for us, we have good continuity coming from last year. Justin’s been doing a great job improving.

“Last year, Justin really came on strong towards the end of the season, having been his first year in GT3. He’d never done pit stops or driver changes or anything like that, so there were a lot of unknowns for him coming in.

“Now it’s more about refining his skill set that’s already strong. I think that’s what’s great about the series is he’s able to run GTA in World Challenge, so he’s getting a ton of racing action, and he’s doing a lot of race starts.

“He gets more battles to compete with others and that’s definitely been beneficial to him to grow as a driver. In his sophomore season, it’s more like a fine detail, where last year was a bit like drinking from a fire hose.”

Aside from what Foley says is an improvement to both Rothberg’s speed and race craft, he says he has also noticed a higher level of “racing maturity” over the last year.

“He doesn’t really make many mistakes,” said Foley of his co-driver. “He’s still learning, and he still has room to grow, which he’s aware of, but he’s a super realistic guy. He knows where he’s at, he knows where he wants to go.

“He has confidence in himself to do a good job, but he doesn’t have false confidence.”

“If we do our best job each and every race, we’ll be somewhere. We’ve scored a lot of points so far this year. We’re going to try to keep that up. If we hover around the podium, we will be in good shape.”