We were super excited to get to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the season finale of the Toyota GR Cup North America series. For one thing, it’s Indy. What an iconic race track! Plus, it was the first time Jack Woodfin has had this year to run the whole event, and we had Will Robusto joining Luke Rumburg again to give RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate a three-car team.
After a very successful run at Barber Motorsports Park, Will returned to drive with RVA Graphics once again, and he delivered an outstanding performance. Rolling off the trailer with a top-five pace, Will qualified fourth and third for the two races.
Race one saw Will run as high as third and low as eighth, crossing the line to finish a very respectable fifth. Race two was a dramatic one. Will settled into third, maintaining the spot for 44 minutes of the 45-minute race. A last-lap battle shuffled Will back to fourth in turn 11, but he retook third just two turns later, seconds before crossing the finish line. Unfortunately, race control handed out a penalty after the race, but Will still came away with a fifth-place finish.
Luke Rumburg showed a lot of pace in opening practice, but the first qualifying session didn’t go well for him, resulting in a starting position of 22nd for race one. Fortunately, the car had tremendous speed, and Luke went from 22nd to sixth in the early laps. A couple of incidents, including getting knocked off the track in turn one, kept Luke from moving farther forward, but he brought it home in 12th—an impressive 10 places ahead of where he started—despite the setbacks.
A better qualifying session for race two meant Luke secured 15th on the grid. More significantly, his qualifying time was only a couple of tenths out of the top 10. Sadly, misfortune struck when some competitors got together in front of Luke, and he got caught up in the contact, ending his race early.
Jack’s goal was to get to the checkered flag, and to have a fun time doing it. He easily accomplished both things in both races. This was Jack’s first complete event of the season, and it’s difficult to race with a group of drivers that are finely tuned after a full season of racing. Finishing 20th and 23rd in a 33-car field was an outstanding performance for Jack. Some close battles with Keanu Reeves and Dude Perfect’s Cody Jones made the race weekend all the more fun for Jack.
It’s important to celebrate the teamwork at RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate, and what better way to celebrate at Indy than with dinner at the iconic St. Elmo’s? Our team dinner there on Friday night was an opportunity to take some time and celebrate a successful season—and to have a lot of fun! Everyone has put in so much effort this season, with great attitudes and the knowledge that this is the beginning of something great!
That teamwork has made a big difference for us: all the forward momentum, steadily improving lap times and race results, and the incredible amount of speed that Speed Syndicate’s Chris Vallee has found in our Toyotas this year is all a result of hard work by a dedicated team of people. Thank you to everyone: you have all made such a difference this season!
Now that Indy—and the 2024 season—is behind us, the focus moves to our 2025 season. We’ll begin testing in the next couple of weeks, and we’re already working on our goals for all that we want to achieve next year.
