+ Anglo-South African beats Charles Clark to fully funded prize drive
The first of 2026’s SRO GT Academy champions was crowned at British GT’s Brands Hatch season finale on Sunday where Jarrod Waberski secured his place on next year’s 24 Hours of Spa grid.
Just two points ultimately separated the Anglo-South African from Charles Clark who began the day 12 adrift. He will now join his fellow winners – all of whom must be FIA Silver-graded and under 30 years old – from the American, Asian and Australian GT World Challenge powered by AWS series in a fully funded Mercedes-AMG entry run by Team Motopark at the world’s biggest GT3 race on June 24-27.
Waberski, who won British GT’s round at Spa earlier this year, was amongst five crews still vying for the national championship’s drivers’ title at Brands Hatch. He ultimately finished fourth in the overall standings alongside Alex Martin with whom he claimed the Silver-Am class title and helped Barwell Motorsport seal an eighth teams’ crown.
In addition, the 21-year-old’s individual performance at Spa was worth the maximum 36 Academy points. Tom Sargent (America), Oscar Target and Valentino Astuti (Australia), plus Yu Kuai and Atsushi Miyake (Asia) are the only other drivers to achieve the same scores in 2026.
This particular prize is arguably the most prestigious of the Academy’s three elements, which collectively aim to identify and promote the next batch of young GT racing talent from Europe and beyond.
The programme judges drivers on factors such as speed and consistency, shifting the focus from results to performance, in an effort to unearth the best all-round talents. It launched last year in Championnat de France FFSA GT, with Gaspard Simon emerging as the star performer. In a clear statement of intent, Simon secured a full-season GT World Challenge Europe seat with leading Aston Martin squad Walkenhorst Motorsport.
It has expanded this year to include the 24 Hours of Spa seat with Team Motopark and Mercedes-AMG, as well as a third element in the GT2 European Series powered by Pirelli where SRO GT Academy candidates are competing for a GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup berth with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport. The team running this car will be announced at a later date.
Jarrod Waberski: “Winning British GT’s SRO GT Academy seat was amongst my priorities at the start of this year so I am absolutely delighted to already have that in my back pocket heading into next season. Charles and I have been very closely matched throughout 2026, which was reflected in the final Academy scores. The nature of GT racing can make it difficult to assess an individual’s performances but, from what I’ve seen, SRO appears really invested in teasing out the sort of details that can go unnoticed. I’ll be following the three GT World Challenge series with even greater interest now my place at Spa is secured.”
Asia’s SRO GT Academy scrap continues on the streets of Beijing this weekend before concluding in Shanghai at the start of November. America’s campaign culminates in two weeks at Indianapolis, while the fourth and final seat will be confirmed when Australia races in downtown Adelaide at the end of November.
