With his IndyCar seat in flux, Ilott keen to make the most of IMSA chances with Wright

It’s gone somewhat under the radar this IMSA off-season, but Callum Ilott’s move to the GTD class with Wright Motorsports is a big move that could be rewarded with great success in 2026.

At the very least, the British driver has a secure full-time ride in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, where he’ll share the No. 120 Porsche 911 GT3 R with owner/driver Adam Adelson. It’s a schedule that he hopes to pair with a second season of driving in the NTT IndyCar Series for PREMA Racing.

“I got a call from Adam at the end of October last year that he was going to make a change, and wanted to know my situation with IndyCar,” Ilott recalled. “And at that point it was – it still is – a little bit up in the air.

“I already was targeting to do the endurance rounds in IMSA, whether it was GTP, LMP2, or GT3. He wanted to do full-season, was happy that there’d be a clash at Long Beach, and I was happy to commit to it.”

The exit of the Rosin family which has run PREMA since its establishment in 1983 has only clouded the waters of the team’s long-term future in racing – let alone Ilott’s future in IndyCar – even further. For now at least, the expectation is that Ilott will be racing at every IMSA GTD and IndyCar race – 27 races in total over 26 weekends. But he’ll stop short of pulling double duty and running in both series at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“It’s going to be tough,” Ilott admitted. “Obviously, the back and forth is one thing. Luckily, IndyCar I know very well, and GTs I have experience with. But they’ve all got their little quirks, that’s for sure. I have to learn a couple of the tracks I haven’t been to before, but it’s going to be cool.”

Ilott is soaking up as much experience as he can at the Roar in Wright's Porsche. Jake Galstad/IMSA

Ironically, Ilott’s last previous outing with Wright came during another period of uncertainty in his IndyCar career, just before he was dropped from Juncos Hollinger Racing after a little over two seasons with the team. “It’s getting frequent now, but I’m used to it,” he said with a wry smile.

In between stints with JHR and PREMA, Ilott found success in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving Hertz Team JOTA – then a Porsche privateer – to its first Hypercar class win with the 963 at Spa. He also landed some relief drives for Arrow McLaren after David Malukas’ wrist injury.

It wasn’t easy leaving sports car racing behind just as he was finding success in WEC, Ilott admitted. “I really enjoyed it, 100 percent. Obviously, I committed to go racing in IndyCar, but it wasn’t easy to leave the LMDh side, GTP side behind for a bit. But the goal was always to come back at some point, absolutely.”

He steps back into a team that won the 2022 Rolex 24 At Daytona, and finished second in this race last year. Though Ilott is effectively replacing 2025 DTM champion Ayhancan Guven at Daytona, he’s also taking Elliott Skeer’s place as Adelson’s full-season co-driver for 2026 – a decision that Adelson didn’t take lightly as he seeks to accelerate his own driver development.

“I’ve known Adam for a few years now – I’ve raced with Wright in the (SRO) Indy 8 Hours a couple of years back," Ilott said. “I know they’re a good team. They had a good result here last year, and some other previous years as well. It’s gonna be an exciting year!”