For more than two decades, GMG Racing has been a fixture in North American motorsports—building race cars, running customer programs, and developing drivers at some of the continent’s most iconic circuits.
But for team founder and owner James Sofronas, it all started with a childhood love of speed.
That spark was lit in the unlikeliest of places: riding shotgun on the autobahn outside Vienna, Austria with his Dad in a BMW 2002tii.
“Back in the seventies, you were not wearing seatbelts like you do today,” Sofronas recalls. “I pulled myself up on the dash—maybe doing 110—and I thought this was the coolest feeling. So automatically, I loved speed.”
Years later, after college, he entered a time trial in his daily-driven Volkswagen GTI and won his class. “There were maybe three guys,” he laughs, “but I thought, wow, this is pretty cool.” That win kicked off what would become a 35-year journey in the sport.
Sofronas’ first wheel-to-wheel race car was a Nissan NX2000—also his work car.
With no air conditioning and a full roll cage, it wasn’t the most glamorous way to make sales calls around Boston in the summer heat, but it was the only way to keep racing. He eventually transitioned into medical sales to get a company car, freeing up funds to buy a dedicated race machine.
After moving to Southern California in the late 1990s, Sofronas noticed something surprising: Newport Beach was packed with high-performance cars, but there were hardly any local tuning or race shops.
That gap in the market, combined with his ongoing racing ambitions, led to the launch of GMG Racing in 2001. The first facility was a modest 1,800-square-foot garage in Santa Ana, where Sofronas sold brakes, wheels, and suspension components—mostly from companies that sponsored him with product, not cash.
It was a side hustle at first. He worked nights and weekends while holding down a full-time sales job in the medical industry. Later that year, a breakthrough came in the form of a financial sponsorship from SSF, a California-based wholesale parts distributor.
That allowed Sofronas to step up into a proper GT race car: a BMW M3. Not long after, he took a second mortgage on his house and purchased his first Porsche Cup car—$150,000 at the time, a third of the value of his home, and needless to say, a big risk!
But in 2005, Sofronas out-qualified and beat Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler and landed on the podium alongside the factory Cadillac team at Lime Rock. The result caught the attention of Porsche Motorsport North America. “Alwin Springer finally took my calls,” he laughs. “That was probably the launching pad for my career with Porsche.”
A year later, GMG moved into a facility across the street from Porsche Motorsport North America in Santa Ana. The proximity gave the team access to engineers, test parts, and deeper collaboration.
But the defining moment came in 2008, when Sofronas’ wife—a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist—encouraged him to quit his day job and focus on GMG full-time. “She knew I wanted to race full-time and build my business, and she said go for it.”
From there, GMG’s customer racing programs accelerated. Early clients like Dino Crescentini and Sean Allen helped shape a blueprint: combine Sofronas’ experience and data with hands-on support and coaching to create winning packages. That philosophy still guides GMG today.
Now based trackside at The Thermal Club in Southern California, GMG’s footprint has expanded to a 30,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility just 20 seconds from pit lane. The move to Thermal, finalized in 2024, allows GMG to test five days a week, offer driver development programs, and serve both members and visiting clients in a turnkey racing environment.
The current GMG lineup includes drivers like Patrick Mulcahy and Kyle Washington, who compete across a range of platforms including Porsche Carrera Cup North America, Porsche Sprint Challenge, and the GT World Challenge America and GT America championships.
Washington’s SRO campaigns have included a first class win in GT World Challenge America at VIR last year alongside Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver Tom Sargent as well as solo wins in GT America.
GMG has guided the career progression for California racer Patrick Mulcahy, who has climbed the Porsche Carrera Cup North America Pro-Am podium after starting his Porsche journey at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles.
While Porsche remains the core of the team’s racing DNA, GMG supports multiple brands, offering everything from engineering to coaching.
Mulcahy, in particular, represents the next generation of talent emerging from GMG’s ecosystem. “Patrick has started to out-qualified me,” Sofronas says of their race weekend in Montreal. “That’s something I am very pleased to see, I’m not gonna pass him unless he makes a mistake or gets held up—as I am here to help push him up the Porsche ladder program and build upon his success.”
While Sofronas has a been a regular class winner in Carrera Cup, his focus remains on his customers. “People know that my racing comes secondary to my clients,” Sofronas says. “I fill in where I think it’s important to represent GMG and the program, but our clients always come first.”
Now in his mid-fifties, Sofronas is still as competitive as ever—both on and off track. But perhaps the most meaningful part of his story is what’s next: his 14-year-old son is starting to take interest in racing.
“It’s no secret that it’s a lot easier to drive a race car than to watch your son race,” he says. “He already has more talent than me. He just needs the experience.”
While GMG celebrates nearly 25 years in business, Sofronas is preparing for the future—building a pipeline of talent that includes his clients, his crew, and potentially his own family.
From a small garage in Santa Ana to a full-service motorsport headquarters at one of America’s premier private tracks, GMG Racing’s journey is a testament to risk, resilience, and relentless pursuit—on track and in business.
