Adelson Adjusting to Dual Roles at Wright Motorsports
Jake Galstad/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
By Dennis Krause
Back in December 2024, longtime Porsche driver Adam Adelson completed the purchase of Wright Motorsports from founder John Wright.
To hear Adelson tell it as he prepares for Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, it’s been quite the process ever since.
“I would just say that the past year has just been a massive learning experience for me,” said Adelson, the driver of the No. 120 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). “You know, I'm a mechanical engineer by education and by trade, so I'm not a businessman. I know that was one of John Wright's favorite lines. He always said, Hey, I'm not a businessman, I'm not an entrepreneur, I'm a mechanic. And that's the way that he ran the business.
“I think something that both of us, from our trades, learned is just how to solve problems, and ultimately, that's 99% of running a business, and it's just learning what problems there are to solve. What are your assumptions, what are your boundary conditions, what are your variables and just being able to rely on the massive amount of experience I have with my employees, the people who have been at Wright for longer than I've been racing.
“We've developed a really great mutual respect for each other within the organization. I think they saw how passionate I was and they saw my vision for the team, and how much I wanted not only to succeed with my own racing program, but for the team to be super successful itself. It just created a really great symbiotic relationship and I'm just trying to be like a sponge, soak in everything I can.”
A mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Southern California, Adelson knew he wanted to get into the automotive industry. Adelson got into racing in 2020 to learn more about vehicle dynamics and to test himself personally. Now, the 29-year-old is testing himself with a different sort of dynamics.
Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
“Something that is was a little bit odd for me, were all the intra team relations working, communicating with other team owners, series officials, not from the perspective of a driver, but from the perspective of a team owner. When I go to the race track, I try to kind of not completely isolate, but just remain as singularly focused as I can. How do I drive the best I possibly can, and I don't want anything else to bother me or be on my mind, so now there's a dichotomy of needing to be a leader and a figurehead for the team, but also focusing on that.
“So I would say just finding the balance between the two, when to put my team owner hat on and when to take that off and put my driver hat back on. But I feel like I've gotten in a really good rhythm, and my team are super supportive. And in cultivating the environment, I need to do that.”
Adelson has one win in the WeatherTech series, taking the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class win in September, 2024, at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It was a tough start to the 2026 season as Adelson was collected in someone else’s wreck early in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. But Adelson and co-driver Callum Ilott head into Long Beach with momentum following a third place finish at the recent Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, thereby improving their position in the GTD standings to seventh.
“It's a really important race for me and for the team specifically,” Adelson pointed out. It's the first of the sprint rounds of the year, and it's been a tumultuous start to the season. I think circumstances really played into our hand at Sebring. We’re really on the back foot from Daytona and having a DNF there, but Long Beach has also been extremely tumultuous for us. We had a good car and good speed last year, but we had a mistake in the pit stop that cost us several positions. The year before, which was my first Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, we got collected in a crash. You know, entirely not our fault either.
“I think it's just important for us to try and carry the momentum from Sebring and continue to try and get good results. I think the track in Long Beach favors a car like the Porsche, a lot of low speed corners, hard acceleration zones. So I think it's just about flawless execution and trying to finish as high as we possibly can.”
Photo courtesy of Wright Motorsports
According to Adelson, that third place finish at Sebring was everything for the team.
“Oh, it was, absolutely everything. I mean, look again, I think every team and driver combination always wants to make this year their championship winning year, but this will be my third full season with WeatherTech, with the exception of Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsports Park) in 2024.
“I know it's often said that in wildly competitive series in racing where you know you'll have different winners and different podium finishers on several other races that fifth place finishes on average will get you a championship, unless, obviously, there's just some clearly dominant teams and cars. To be able to finish third and just score all those points is absolutely massive. But, we're going to be fighting from the back foot maybe for the whole season, unless we just have a magic Long Beach and [WeatherTech Raceway] Laguna [Seca].
“But, again, it's just about execution and I think maybe us fighting from the back foot means we have to maybe take a little more risk, the drivers may have to go for it a little little harder, go for more passes rather than the protecting the car mindset. And from strategy, just take those gambles and do what we can to, to be bold and end up at the front.”
Photo courtesy of Wright Motorsports
On the business side, it’s been a smoother start to the year as Wright Motorsports has expanded under Adelson’s leadership, with the team racing in championships it had previously stopped competing in.
“I'm absolutely thrilled. You know, I think historically, Wright Motorsports has been considered one of the highest caliber GTD teams in IMSA and GT3 teams in North American racing. At Wright Motorsports, we have championships in every series that a Porsche can race in. And it was my prerogative to bring Wright Motorsports back up to the level of involvement in motorsport that it had several years ago before John Wright decided to downsize and focus a little more on his home and family life.
“To see all of the employees and contractors who wanted to jump at the opportunity to come back and work for us now that we have programs for them, to see the enthusiasm of potential customers, and eventually, the customers that are now part of our team, how happy and excited they are to be able to race with us. To get two out of four possible podiums over at our first SRO [America] race weekend [at Sonoma Raceway], fielding three GT3 cars [in GT World Challenge America and GT America], I really couldn't be more proud.
“And you know, the goal is to always just keep pushing to improve in every aspect of how we operate, and I think I'm really hopeful to have a lot more success with our customer programs later this year.”
When asked if Wright Motorsports could expand into IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge and GT4, Adelson didn’t rule it out.
“We’re looking at all avenues, right? What makes most sense for us?
“I think the reason why we went with purely GT3 customers is just to play to our most recent experience and successes. We've been largely focused on GT3 cars, but it's important for us to have [Porsche Carrera] Cup [North America] car programs, and potentially as well GT4 programs. So it's just a matter of finding the right customers to put deals together, and doing what's best for the growth and expansion of the business.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.