DSC has returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the second time in a few short weeks for the Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS. Last time out, editor-in-chief GG made his first trip to the Speedway; this time, our North American contributing writer RJ is back at the Indy 8 Hour for the second time.
Teams arrived on Tuesday with their cars and took to the track yesterday for testing.
That evening, the town of Speedway held a parade and street fair featuring all of the cars from this year’s race, as well as cars from the four other SRO Motorsports America series which are also wrapping up their seasons at Indy.
IGTC Nominees Selected
As the Indy 8H is the penultimate leg of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, manufacturers BMW, Mercedes-AMG, and Porsche have nominated up to four teams out of their ranks to score points in the IGTC Manufacturers’ Championship, which is currently led by BMW – who can clinch the title before the season-ending Gulf 12 Hours.
BMW is represented by the two Team WRT cars in the IGTC Pro category, plus GT World Challenge America regulars BimmerWorld and ST Racing.
Mercedes-AMG has nominated the two full-works entries from Craft-Bamboo Racing and Gruppe M Racing; also nominated are CrowdStrike by Riley and the #91 DXDT Racing car, both from GT World Challenge America.
And Porsche has selected the #45 Wright Motorsports team and MDK Motorsports from GT World Challenge America, along with Independent Cup contenders Grove Racing and Huber Motorsport.
Jonathan Hui leads the Independent Cup standings in the #535 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, which is the final IGTC nominated entry for the Independent Cup only.
GT4 America and GT America entry lists
It’s not just GT World Challenge that is wrapping up its season here at Indy of course. Every SRO Motorsports America championship will conclude here: GT4 America, the touring car-centric TC America, the multi-class GT America sprint series, the inaugural season of Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Cup North America – plus, Porsche Sprint Challenge North America, which is sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC) like the SRO America series.
We’ll keep our focus on GT4 America and GT America for the time being, both series boasting very healthy entry lists for their final races on Friday and Sunday (before and after the Indy 8H itself).
32 cars are entered for the final GT4 America round: Six in Silver, 14 in Pro-Am, and 12 in Am.
Auto Technic Racing and Zac Anderson lead the Silver class standings over championship rivals Jesse Webb and Michai Stephens from Conquest Racing with JMF Motorsports. A class win in Race 1 from Anderson and John Capestro-Dubets will be enough to win the championship.
Likewise, BimmerWorld’s James Walker Jnr and Tyler McQuarrie can win the Pro-Am title with a class win, they’ve got a sizeable lead over two-time defending champions NOLASPORT, Jason Hart, and 2021 Pro-Am champion Matt Travis.
GT America’s Indy entry list features 24 cars – with three GT2s, including two new models to the SRO America series.
They are the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2 driven by team founder Dan Knox and the #094 KTM X-Bow GT2, entered by Chicago Performance and Tuning Co. for driver Kevin Woods.
The #58 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2 of CJ Moses makes its second appearance, its first since VIR.
Memo Gidley and Jason Daskalos will battle for the SRO3 class championship in their respective Mercedes-AMG GT3s; meanwhile, Jason Bell is the favourite to win the GT4 class title in his Aston Martin Vantage GT4 but defending champion Ross Chouest and Porsche driver Robb Holland are still in contention.
Sebring closure after ST Racing’s appeal denied
ST Racing lost its appeal of its penalty from GT World Challenge America Race 2 at Sebring, which denied Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen the overall victory and also ruled them ineligible for championship points – taking ST Racing out of the Pro-Am championship battle.
The #38 BMW M4 GT3 was found to have exceeded the maximum boost limits outlined in the technical regulations and Balance of Performance regulations during post-race technical inspection. The same infraction resulted in the car losing all of its times from both Qualifying sessions that weekend.
ST Racing appealed to have the penalty overturned, but ultimately the United States Auto Club (USAC) Court of Appeals found that the data the team had submitted could not support its appeal.
The overall win for Wright Motorsports’ #45 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) is now official and so too is the Pro-Am class win for the #120 Wright Porsche 991.2. As for Tan and her team, they’re at Indy looking to move forward.
Test day results
Bill Auberlen set the fastest time in Wednesday Test Session 1, logging a best time of 1:23.941 aboard the #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3.
The ageless Auberlen was 0.035s quicker than the second-fastest #30 Team WRT BMW, followed by the #999 Gruppe M Racing Mercedes, the #31 WRT BMW, and the #20 Huber Motorsport Porsche 992 – all within less than three-tenths of a second.
In Test Session 2, the #20 Huber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alfred Renauer set the fastest time of the day with a 1:23.802, which was three-tenths quicker than the #91 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in second. The #53 MDK Motorsports Porsche was third-fastest followed by the #30 WRT BMW.
Of note, Racers Edge Motorsports with WTRAndretti did not take part in testing yesterday – this was understood to be a voluntary decision from the team which already logged plenty of mileage during the recent IMSA Battle on the Bricks at Indy.
Racers Edge has its IMSA chassis, still in it’s “Chiaki’s Journey” livery, in its garage in case of emergency, but it’s a tight turnaround from here to Petit Le Mans next week!
TEST SESSION 1 RESULTS >> | TEST SESSION 2 RESULTS >>
Thursday snapshots
Sky Tempesta Racing’s Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo has a 1960s-retro-inspired Ferrari livery to promote the new Ferrari motion picture which premieres in cinemas this December. Sky is the UK’s official film distributor.
It’s the same chassis that the team used in GT World Challenge Europe from 2020-21. The car has a Speedway legacy driver in Edward Cheever III, son of 1998 Indy 500 winner Eddie Jnr.
Another retro-inspired design is the new Porsche 992 from the returning GT World Challenge America squad, Rearden Racing. Their #85 car’s livery is inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s iconic Fender Monterey Stratocaster guitar.
Initially listed as an IGTC Pro entry, Rearden Racing will instead compete in Pro-Am with Bulgarian-born Vesko Kozarov receiving dispensation to compete as a Bronze driver.
Both WRT BMWs were present on the track and in the downtown parade.
Sadly, Sixt does not offer a BMW M4 GT3 as a rental car. The rental car company, originally from Germany, is sponsoring the number 30 WRT BMW of Philipp Eng, Sheldon van der Linde, and Dries Vanthoor.
Defending race-winning team Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing has opted not to run a retro-inspired livery after running in Moonspeed (2021) and Theodore Racing (2022) colours.
Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Indy 8H efforts are still run by Lone Star Racing this year, a partnership which bore the fruit of victory in 2022.
The last of the “big four” in this year’s field is Gruppe M Racing’s #999 Mercedes in its familiar yellow and green “Beast” livery.
Grove Racing is here with the newest Porsche 992, having initially been listed to run the older 991.2 generation Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The #120 Wright Motorsports team anchored by Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer has also made the change to the Porsche 992 after racing with the 991.2 for most of this GT World Challenge America season.
The new 992 has had its teething problems in year one across multiple series. But Skeer told DSC that the new car with its improved aerodynamics and new ease-of-use features is better suited for a longer race like the Indy 8H, making the decision to switch easier.
Callum Ilott, a friend of Skeer and Adelson, joins the team this weekend to keep his skills sharp during the long IndyCar offseason.
Rain is forecast for the afternoon. A 30-minute Paid Bronze Test Session is scheduled for 3:25 PM ET, followed by a 90-minute Free Practice session tonight at 6:45 PM ET (all times local).
Live timing for these sessions – and all other on-track action from Indy – is available here: Live Timing & Scoring
Feature image © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
