McLaren Trophy America arrived in 2025 with a clean sheet. New car, new calendar, ten races across five classic circuits: Sonoma, Circuit of the Americas, VIR, Road America, and Indianapolis. The grid was a field of identical Artura Trophy Evo machines, so there were no excuses, only execution.
RWE Motorsport rolled in with two cars and four drivers. Car 74, the Artura Trophy Evo we nicknamed the Lightning McLaren for its electric livery, with James Li and Casey Dennis in the Pro ranks. Car 10, the Pro Am entry for John Dempsey paired with veteran Andrew Davis. What followed was a season that turned a new series into a statement year.
Sonoma To VIR: Lightning Strikes Early
Sonoma Raceway set the tone. In the series’ first official running, Dennis put the 74 at the top of practice, a clear sign that the car and crew had found the Artura Trophy Evo’s sweet spot quickly. When the weekend counted, both RWE entries converted pace into results, with Car 74 bringing home 1st in class and Car 10 locking down 2nd in class for Race 1. Sudden, heavy downpours forced Race 2 to be postponed until the next event.
Next up was Circuit of the Americas, proving to be one of the more difficult events of the season. Sonoma's Race 2 make up came first and brought the poor weather with it, leaving the back half of the circuit extremely slick near the race's midpoint. Teams scrambled over tire calls as some gambled on wets and parts of the field, including Car 10, fell off the pace when the weather shifted and the track began to dry.
In the midst of the weather and chaos of pit lane, Dennis and John Capestro-Dubets were still out fighting a fierce battle for 1st. With both drivers choosing to stay on slicks in spite of the extremely wet conditions, a hair raising moment saw both cars hydroplaning off track through the esses, resulting in Capestro-Dubets emerging in the lead after they recovered. With the lead lost and the weather clearing, Li hopped in the driver seat and put down blistering, consistent laps, reclaiming 1st and finishing the race with a 2 second lead.
COTA’s official Race 1 and Race 2 came with their own set of troubles. Race 1 saw Li and Dennis weaving through the pack to secure 3rd in class after serving a drive through penalty for a race start infringement. Dempsey and Davis fought hard to bring home the gold but an electrical gremlin at pit exit forced Davis to shut the car down and restart it, costing precious seconds and ultimately the lead as they finished 2nd in class.
Race 2 brought some of the roughest circumstances of the season for RWE. At the start, Car 74 suffered an alternator belt failure and had to pit for repairs at the end of the opening lap, dropping to the back of the pack. On Lap 2, Davis in Car 10 took a huge shunt from Car 17, sending him into a spin and pushing him to the back once the yellow flag cleared. He fought hard over the remainder of his stint to make up six positions and handed the car to Dempsey in a healthy spot to chase the rest.
Luck stayed against the team. With 20 minutes left on the clock, Dempsey suffered a major mechanical failure and could not finish. Shortly after, Car 74 had another belt failure, leaving Li to limp the car around the track as long as possible before ultimately retiring just before the checkered.
VIRginia International Raceway is where the story went from rough to decisive.
Race 1 at VIR belonged to Car 10. Dempsey and Davis started the weekend already on the front foot, then turned that speed into a statement drive. They did not just win Pro Am, they won the race outright. In a field of identical cars and mixed class strategies, the Pro Am pairing put together a clean, fast run that carried them to 1st overall and 1st in class. With James Li close behind, Car 74 added 1st in Pro and 2nd overall, firmly planting Team RWE at the top of the timing screen.
Race 2 swung the spotlight to the Lightning McLaren.
Li handled the opening stint in Car 74, kept it clear of trouble, and handed Dennis a car in position to attack. A restart compressed the field, gave everyone one more chance to rewrite the order, and Casey took full advantage. He checked out, pulling a gap that made the last laps look almost calm from the outside. At the flag, the 74 took the overall win and Pro class win, while the 10 car backed it up with another Pro Am victory.
Across the weekend, Dempsey and Davis swept both Pro Am victories. Overall win in Race 1, Pro Am win again in Race 2. Li and Dennis delivered both Pro wins and the overall in Race 2. VIR ended as a clean RWE takeover of the narrative and a huge points haul for both cars.
The 74 left with a serious grip on the Pro standings. The 10 left as a legitimate threat in Pro Am.
Road America: Two Titles On The Table
Road America brought a reset. Both cars struggled to find pace in practice and Q1, leaving Dennis to start Race 1 in P3 and Dempsey back in P10. With chassis setups leaning toward cornering and exit speed over straight line punch, it was clear something had to change.
Race 1 added insult in the form of weather. Dark clouds rolled in on the formation lap and, in what felt like a single tour of the circuit, blue skies flipped to full gloom just in time for the green. Dennis launched the Lightning McLaren to P2 and spent the race trading positions as the order shuffled with the changing conditions. A late yellow froze the field with Car 74 classified P2 in class and overall, and Car 10 P3 in class, while Tommy Pintos and Cooper Broll scored their first overall win and stepped fully into the Pro title picture.
Overnight, the crew went back to work on setup, trading a bit of cornering bias for better straight line speed and stability over a stint. The response showed up immediately in qualifying. Li put Car 74 P1 in class and P2 overall, while Dempsey matched the effort with P1 in class and P4 overall.
Race 2’s start showed how potent the new direction was. Davis fired Car 10 into 1st overall, even jumping Li in Car 74 who held P3. When the pit window opened, Car 10 came in first with more than a three second buffer to P2 and over five seconds to Pro Am rival Jesse Lazare in Car 43. A few laps later, Car 74 peeled off to pit lane from P2 overall and P1 in class. The stop itself was clean, but an engine start issue after the driver swap cost almost a full minute before Dennis could get the car fired and back on track, rejoining in 12th overall with a long climb ahead.
Out front, Dempsey took over Car 10 and the real fight began with Hainer in Car 43. With 20 minutes to go, overall leader Car 53 pitted and rejoined just ahead, compressing the gap. Dempsey caught the car into Turn 1 and cleared it almost immediately, but that single moment of traffic brought Hainer right onto his rear wing as both cars slipped past. From there, it turned into a defensive clinic. Lap after lap, Dempsey hit his marks, protected brake zones, controlled exits and forced Hainer to search for gaps that never opened. In the closing minutes, Pintos in Car 919 arrived to make it a three car fight at the front.
At the flag, Pintos grabbed P1 overall, but Dempsey brought Car 10 home P2 overall and P1 in class over Hainer, stamping himself firmly into the Pro Am title conversation with only seven professional starts on his résumé. Dennis and Car 74 rallied back to P7 overall and P3 in class, gaining five positions and keeping their hands on the Pro championship lead.
The Brickyard Charge: Lightning From The Back
By the time the series reached Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the finale, both championships were still alive. In Pro, Li and Dennis carried a narrow advantage that could disappear with a single bad result. In Pro Am, Dempsey and Davis were close enough to the lead that every lap at Indy had weight.
Then qualifying threw a grenade into the Pro fight.
A mechanical issue in qualifying left the Lightning McLaren buried at the back. For Race 1 at Indy, Car 74 would start at the back. For Race 2, it would start dead last. On a weekend that should have been about protecting a points lead, the car that had been the benchmark all year suddenly had to fight its way out of traffic. Twice.
Race 1 was pure damage control on paper and pure focus inside the cockpit.
Dennis took the start behind a seemingly endless sea of brightly colored McLarens standing between Car 74 and an increasingly fragile Pro class championship lead. His engineer's one instruction: send it forward without sending it off. The opening laps were a blur of passes, tiny gaps, and narrow escapes. The Lightning McLaren carved through the pack, picking off cars in ones and twos, making up positions in places where there was barely room for one car, let alone two side by side.
By the time the pit window opened, Car 74 had gone from the tail end to the tip of the spear. Casey handed the car to James with the door kicked open.
Li did the rest. Clean out lap, hard push to clear traffic, then a relentless rhythm that built a gap instead of just defending one. When the checkered flag dropped, the Lightning McLaren had overcome unimaginable odds, being hailed by the announcers and McLaren themselves as the drive of the season. Third from last to the top step at Indianapolis in a championship decider is the kind of script usually seen in a movie starring Brad Pitt. This time it was very real, and it was very fast.
Not an hour earlier, the anxiety and tension in the team's pit could be cut with a knife. Now, just taking the green in Race 2 would crown Lightning McLaren as the first ever McLaren Trophy America champion.
Race 2 asked a different question. The title was done. Pride was not.
This time Li took the green from dead last. Safety net and cushion entirely in place, the flag waved and the championship was secured. Weight lifted, full racing freedom. Laser focused, he sliced his way forward. Reading traffic, using run offs in corners, and letting the car’s strengths do the work. Entering the pit for the driver swap, the 74 was up to 2nd and fully in the fight.
Things quickly changed over the course of the pit stop, seeing Dennis resuming the race tucking into P7, mid pack. Being the final race of the season, every driver was brining their A-Game. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Car 74 once again began its aggressive ascent. Lightning McLaren once again defying the odds.
Crossing the line in P2, a dead last to 2nd charge felt less like damage control and more like an exclamation point on the year.
Two races. One from third from last to the top step. One from dead last to 2nd. A title weekend that showed both sides of the program, calculation when it mattered and aggression when it counted.
A Battle to the End
Car 74 was not the only one that started on the back foot for the final races of the season. Unfortunately for Dempsey, a red flag had dropped during Qualifying 1 forcing all cars to return to pit. As time dwindled down to the final minutes, the session went green just long enough for Car 43 of Hainer and Car 24 of guest entry Tanner Harvey to take Pro-Am gold and silver qualifying positions.
Starting P3 in class but mid pack, P7 overall, Dempsey not only had to worry about the fight ahead but also the fight around him as he passed P6 off the line, heading into turn 1. One quick, decisive move saw him diving hard into the apex, out-braking and passing the championship contender of Hainer in Car 43. With pressure on all sides, Hainer and Dempsey traded places back and forth through the next set of corners.
Separated by millimeters and tensions high going into turn 5, Car 43 and Car 10 suffered contact that sent Hainer into a spin, losing multiple positions and resulting in a drive through penalty for Dempsey. With the penalty served and now at the very back of the field, he kicked the aggression up even higher. Lap after lap he chewed away at the gap between himself and the field, determinately passing car by car making his way back up the ranks.
As the cars ahead ducked into pit lane for mid race driver swaps, the road opened for Car 10, allowing Dempsey to focus on lap time and chip away at Hainer’s advantage. He quickly moved into P3 overall, with Hainer still a ways up the road in P2. When it came time for Pro Am stops, Car 43 headed for pit lane first, giving P2 to Car 10 and buying Dempsey another lap to shave precious tenths off the gap. Next time by, Car 10 dived into pit lane and Dempsey handed the car over to Davis.
More bad news followed for Car 10. A time penalty was added to the stop, and the crew also had to fix damage and free a stuck driver’s door from the earlier incident. Those extra seconds ate into everything Dempsey had just built and left Davis with even more work to do. Re-entering track in P9, Davis switched on.
Churning out lap after lap in a damaged car, he closed a 20 second gap to overtake the car ahead by the end of the race. When Car 10 crossed the line, it did so as P3 in class. It wasn't over yet, there was still one race left. Anything could happen. The team quickly got to work repairing the car, working late into the evening.
Dempsey's qualifying for Race 2 positioned Davis and Car 10 P1 in class, side by side Lazare in Car 43 at race start, holding the inside line advantage going into turn 1. At the drop of the flag it was an all out battle mid pack as cars quickly shuffled. Davis found himself boxed in, almost running 3 wide into turn 1. Paper-thin gaps quickly disappeared as he was squeezed out, narrowly avoiding incident.
Through the next set of corners, cars sorted themselves out as Davis decisively cut his way up to his Pro Am opponents. As the race progressed, Car 10 held P3 in class, but P1 was slowly creating more of a gap. Lazare in Car 43 wasn't taking any chances. Pit lanes opened and once again positions changed. Car 43 entered pit lane after losing some pace, allowing Davis to make up some time and enter pit lane only 3 seconds behind. Smooth driver swaps all around, Hainer and Car 43 were back on track with one car sneaking between her and Dempsey in Car 10.
A penalty was issued. Car 43 shorted their pit stop by just under half a second. Four seconds were to be added post race, shifting the odds to Car 10's favor. Hearing the good news, Dempsey didn't let up. With sights firmly set on P1 in class, he quickly closed the gap, now within half a second. Unfortunately, going into turn 7 both cars made contact, sending Dempsey and Hainer into spins and receiving damages that eventually forced Car 10 to retire early.
The field took the checkered without them, but on points John Dempsey and Andrew Davis still brought home P2 in the Pro Am championship. For Dempsey, a sim racer in his first full season of professional racing, finishing runner up in the standings was less a consolation prize and more a clear statement of where his ceiling really is. For Davis, a seasoned professional with years of experience at the highest levels of sports car racing, it was another year of quietly ruthless execution, mentoring a rookie teammate and turning a brand new pairing into a genuine championship threat.
Four Names, One Season To Immortalize
Strip away the noise and the 2025 McLaren Trophy campaign for RWE Motorsport looks like this:
- James Li and Casey Dennis, in Car 74, shaped the pace early, turned VIR into a launch point, then came from the back in both Indianapolis races, with a third from last to P1 drive in Race 1 that clinched the championship and a dead last to P2 run in Race 2 that closed the show in style.
- John Dempsey and Andrew Davis, in Car 10, went from early learning to an overall win and Pro Am win in Race 1 at VIR, followed by another Pro Am victory in Race 2, and carried that momentum into a full season title charge that ended as runners up.
Two cars, two parallel championship fights, one Pro crown, and a Pro Am battle that went down to the wire.
The Artura Trophy Evo platform will evolve. The series will grow. So will the level of competition. What does not change is what 2025 already put on the board: the Lightning McLaren etched into the inaugural record book with a championship sealing charge from the back at Indy, and a four driver group that turned a brand new series into a season worth remembering.
