Raffaele Marciello had to fight off every advance Antonio Fuoco could throw at him over the final hour in Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The Swiss driver used lapped traffic and every bit of power his #Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 could muster to beat Fuoco by eight tenths of a second after 328 laps.
Marciello had a slim lead of a few seconds over Fuoco after both cars had pitted with just over an hour remaining. Marciello then reset the race’s fastest lap to pull away from the #71 AF Corse-Francorchamps Ferrari 488 GT3 that had dominated the race earlier.
With 18 minutes to go, the gap up front was over three seconds. As the minutes ticked down, the gap narrowed similarly as Marciello led Fuoco by just over 1.4 seconds with ten minutes to go.
But there was a problem. The Pro-Am class lead battle was shortly ahead of the battle for the overall race lead, and those combatants were fighting just as hard as the Pro class racers.
Dominik Baumann made his final pit stop in the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing by Akkodis ASP Mercedes with 42 minutes to go. Bill Auberlen grabbed the Pro-Am class lead in the #94 Bimmerworld BMW M4 GT3. However, Baumann gobbled up the gap to the California native and was on Auberlen’s tail with 35 minutes to go.
Auberlen was running in sixth place overall on tires that had 15 more laps on them. Baumann just had to get by, surely the Mercedes would find a way around one of the winningest drivers in American sports car racing.
But Auberlen would not budge. He couldn’t, especially with the chance to score his and BimmerWorld’s third class win in a row at the Indianapolis 8 Hour – after GT4 class victories in 2020 and 2021. Trouble was brewing in the rear view mirror.
The Pro class and overall lead battle was catching the Pro-Am scrap between Auberlen and Baumann quickly. With just under four minutes to go, Marciello went for broke and passed Baumann in Turn 13.
The Austrian then cut across Fuoco’s nose just as the Ferrari was approaching to pass. Fuoco violently flashed his lights at the Pro-Am Mercedes before getting by in the first turn just 20 seconds after being impeded.
Fuoco closed the gap to a half-second as the duo started the last lap of the race. Fuoco tried a lunge on the outside going to Turn 12 but could not keep the Ferrari alongside the Mercedes, having to concede the race.
It’s the second straight Intercontinental GT Challenge victory for Marciello and Daniel Juncadella, who combined to win the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in July. For Canadian Daniel Morad, it is his first IGTC overall victory. Mercedes-AMG clinched the IGTC Manufacturers’ Championship with their third win in three races this season (four in a row in 2022, including the rescheduled Kyalami 9 Hour in February).
For the trio of Fuoco, Daniel Serra, and Ulysse De Pauw, it was a bitter pill to swallow after a drive-through penalty halfway through the race put them on the back foot.
Robby Foley finished third in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (with Michael Dinan and John Edwards), ahead of the #33 Winward Racing Mercedes of Jules Gounon (with Russell Ward and Philip Ellis), and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Miguel Molina (with Pierre Ragues and Davide Rigon) rounding out the top five.
Auberlen, Chandler Hull, and Richard Heistand finished sixth overall to win Pro-Am for BimmerWorld, one lap ahead of Baumann, Kenny Habul, and Martin Konrad in seventh.
Habul and Konrad together clinched the IGTC Pro-Am Drivers’ Championship, while the battle for the IGTC Overall Drivers’ Championship will be determined at the conclusion of the upcoming Gulf 12 Hours.
Alessandro Balzan brought the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari (with Cedric Sbirrazzuoli and Daniel Mancinelli) home eighth, the car having lost use of the ABS system in the second hour of the race. Mario Farnbacher finished ninth overall in the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 and rounded out the Pro-Am class podium.
And, with Farnbacher and Ashton Harrison receiving second-place points for full-time GT World Challenge America competitors in Pro-Am, they clinched the championship – making Harrison the first woman in the 36-year lineage of the premier “World Challenge” GT series to win a series championship, in any category, emulating the two IMSA GTD championships won by third driver Christina Nielsen.
Nick Wittmer was tenth in the #38 BMW for ST Racing, he, Harry Gottsacker, and team namesake Samantha Tan won the Silver Cup class by default as the only participant in that class.
The Am class honors went to the #88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Jason Harward, Seth Lucas and Jason Daskalos. Their other Am class competitor had some mechanical trouble early in the race, causing the #08 DXDT Racing Mercedes to finish 13 laps down to their class combatants.
Images © Chris Owens, Chris Jones / Penske Entertainment Group
