Therese Lahlouh

Therese Lahlouh is a Los Angeles-based racer making rapid strides through Porsche’s North American development ladder, progressing from sprint competition to GT3 endurance racing in just three years and earning her spot among the brand’s supported female drivers.

EARLY YEARS

The research file on Therese Lahlouh reads like a mystery novel with half the pages missing. No birthdate. No hometown origin story. No charming anecdote about a dad who raced karts on weekends or a rebellious teenage joyride that sparked everything. What we do know is that she’s based in Los Angeles and that her racing story begins not in childhood, but in adulthood—a detail that makes her trajectory all the more remarkable.

Unlike many racers who grew up with gasoline in their veins and sponsors before they could vote, Lahlouh’s path into motorsports remains largely undocumented. There’s no record of karting championships, no junior formula series, no wealthy family bankrolling dreams from age eight. She simply appears in 2023, fully formed and ready to race, in Porsche’s Sprint Challenge USA West series. It’s the automotive equivalent of showing up to a marathon having never mentioned you run.

This lack of early backstory isn’t necessarily a gap—it might just be the reality of a driver who came to racing later, through less traditional channels, without the PR machine that typically follows prodigies from puberty. Whatever her route, by the time Therese Lahlouh entered the Porsche ecosystem, she was hungry, focused, and about to make up for lost time.

OTHER INTERESTS

If Lahlouh has hobbies outside of racing, she’s keeping them closer to the vest than a poker champion. No public mentions of rock climbing, no Instagram posts about rescue dogs, no side hustles selling artisanal anything. The research turns up absolutely nothing on interests beyond motorsports—no other sports, no creative pursuits, no volunteer work that made the news.

This complete absence of extracurricular color could mean one of two things: either she’s laser-focused on racing to the exclusion of everything else, or she simply hasn’t been in the public eye long enough for lifestyle journalists to care what she does on Tuesdays. Given how quickly she’s climbed the Porsche ladder, the former seems entirely plausible. Sometimes the most interesting thing about a racer is that racing is the only thing that interests them.

EARLY SUCCESS

Lahlouh’s competitive racing story begins in 2023 with the Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West, the regional entry point into Porsche’s tightly structured North American motorsports development program. It was a significant first step—Porsche’s one-make series are notoriously competitive and serve as proving grounds for talent the brand believes might have staying power.

She clearly impressed someone, because by 2024 she’d graduated to the national-level Porsche Sprint Challenge North America, competing in the 992 Pro/Am class. This wasn’t a gentle learning curve—it was a baptism by racing fire. She found herself in fields as large as 40 cars, surrounded by professional coaches and seasoned drivers, all piloting identical Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars where talent, not equipment, determined outcomes.

That season, Lahlouh delivered. Racing with JDX Racing, she landed on the podium in the highly competitive 992 Pro/Am class and showed the kind of racecraft that turns heads. At Circuit of the Americas, she qualified in the top five overall for both races and finished top-six in both 992 Pro/Am contests, including a top-five result in race two. In the first race, she started from the third row, held fourth overall and third in class early on, and when she slipped to fourth after a lap-three pass, she didn’t crumble—she defended her position with determination and extended her gap over fifth place to roughly four seconds by lap nine, clicking off consistent personal-best laps.

Then came the 2024 Porsche Endurance Challenge North America in the GT3 Cup class, also with JDX Racing. She finished eighth overall with 140 points, and in the inaugural race, she ran inside the overall podium position for the majority of the contest. Not bad for someone who’d only started racing the year before.

Lahlouh herself credits the Sprint Challenge environment for her rapid development. “Racing in fields of 40 cars with so many professional coaches and drivers forces you to rise to the level of the people around you,” she said. “The Cup car is an incredible training tool, and Sprint Challenge exposed me to the racecraft and professionalism I needed.”[1] It’s the kind of quote that reveals both humility and self-awareness—she knows she got good fast because she had to.

By late 2025, she was ready for the next leap: GT3 competition. Her first foray came at Sebring International Raceway, where she joined co-drivers Thomas Merrill and Reinhold Krahn for an endurance race. They finished second. Not a bad GT3 debut. Not bad at all.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2023: Made racing debut in Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West[1].
• 2024: Earned podium finish in highly competitive Porsche Sprint Challenge North America 992 Pro/Am class[5].
• 2024: Qualified top-five overall for both races at Circuit of the Americas; finished top-six in both 992 Pro/Am races, including top-five in race two[2].
• 2024: Finished 8th overall in Porsche Endurance Challenge North America GT3 Cup class with 140 points, running inside overall podium position for majority of inaugural race[2][3].
• 2025: Finished 2nd in GT3 debut at Sebring International Raceway endurance race with co-drivers Thomas Merrill and Reinhold Krahn[1][4].
• Selected as member of Porsche Mobil 1 Female Driver Program, launched in 2023 to support female talent in Porsche Carrera Cup North America and Porsche Sprint Challenge North America[1][4][5].

INSPIRATIONS

When asked about her influences, Lahlouh doesn’t cite Ayrton Senna or Dale Earnhardt or any of the usual suspects. Instead, she looks to the women who carved the path she’s now walking: Sabré Cook and Ashley Freiberg, both successful female racers who’ve navigated the challenges of competing in a male-dominated sport.

“Women like Sabré Cook and Ashley Freiberg gave me the roadmap,” Lahlouh said. “They lead by example, and I hope to inspire others like they inspire me.”[1] It’s a refreshingly direct acknowledgment that representation matters, that seeing someone who looks like you succeed makes your own ambitions feel less like fantasy and more like possibility. Cook and Freiberg didn’t just race—they proved it could be done, and in doing so, they gave Lahlouh permission to believe she could do it too.

There’s something quietly powerful about this kind of inspiration chain, where one generation of female racers explicitly credits the previous one, creating a lineage of determination and achievement. Lahlouh isn’t pretending she did it alone or that gender doesn’t matter. She’s saying the opposite: it matters, and she’s grateful for those who went first.

REPUTATION

In the tight world of Porsche motorsports development, Lahlouh is building a reputation as someone who rises fast and delivers when it counts. Official series announcements describe her as “rapidly rising through Porsche’s North American development system,”[1] and her transition from regional sprint racing to national competition to GT3 endurance in just three years backs up that characterization.

She’s earned positive coverage from both official Porsche channels and independent motorsports media, highlighting not just her progression but her membership in the Porsche Mobil 1 Female Driver Program—a distinction she shares with other female drivers who’ve achieved wins and podiums in the brand’s developmental ladder.[5] The program itself is relatively new, launched in 2023, and Lahlouh is among the cohort proving its value.

What’s notable about her reputation is its momentum. She’s not known as a veteran with decades of experience or a prodigy who dominated from childhood. She’s known as someone who showed up, worked hard, learned fast, and kept moving up. In a sport where so many careers plateau or fade, that forward trajectory is its own credential. The fact that major teams like Wright Motorsports are betting on her for top-level GT3 competition suggests the paddock sees what the results show: Therese Lahlouh is the real deal.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

For 2026, Lahlouh is stepping up to GT World Challenge America powered by AWS with Wright Motorsports, piloting a new Porsche 911 GT3 R. It’s a significant career milestone—GT World Challenge America is the top tier of North American GT racing, featuring the fastest GT3 cars on the continent and drawing factory-backed teams and professional drivers from around the world.

The move continues her progression through Porsche’s development pathway and marks her transition from one-make Cup car competition to multi-manufacturer GT3 racing. She’ll be competing against a wider variety of machinery—Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, Lamborghini, Audi—and the level of competition will be fierce.

Lahlouh is particularly excited about the endurance aspect of the series. “I feel so fortunate and so excited about 2026,” she said. “When I first started this motorsport journey, I never imagined I’d have the chance to run a GT3 R at night at Sebring. As much as I love sprint racing, I’m really an endurance racer at heart. I love the consistency and the collaboration it takes.”[1] There’s something revealing about that preference—endurance racing rewards strategic thinking, teamwork, and mental stamina over raw aggression. It’s a different skill set, and one she clearly believes plays to her strengths.

She remains a member of the Porsche Mobil 1 Female Driver Program, which will continue supporting her development into 2026 and beyond. Where she goes from here—whether that’s international GT competition, a manufacturer backing deal, or a professional endurance racing career—remains to be seen. But if her first three years are any indication, betting against Therese Lahlouh would be unwise. She’s proven she knows how to climb a ladder, and she’s nowhere near the top yet.

References:

GT World Challenge America Official News – 2026 Driver Announcement
Racers Behind the Helmet – COTA 2024 Race Report
DriverDB – Therese Lahlouh Career Overview
DailySportsCar – December 16, 2025 Article
Porsche Newsroom – 2025 Driver Programs Recap