BMW M Team RLL took a milestone 1-2 finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; the team’s two BMW M Hybrid V8s raided the top steps of the podium in Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks six-hour endurance race.
Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn took their first GTP class victories in the #24 RLL BMW, 1.6 seconds ahead of the #25 BMW of Connor de Phillippi and Nick Yelloly. It was the second win for the M Hybrid V8 in IMSA – but the first time that the car took the chequered flag first; the car’s only win to date at the 2023 Six Hours of the Glen was inherited after a Porsche Penske Motorsport disqualification.
BMW’s two cars had enough fuel and energy to run the final 56 minutes of the race without stopping, and finished ahead of the #6 Penske Porsche (Mathieu Jaminet/Nick Tandy) in third.
Jaminet and Tandy closed to within 14 points of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche; Nasr struggled to finish ninth in class after an electrical issue forced him to stop on the start/finish line with 75 minutes left – and once that issue was resolved, his car lost power steering, leaving the #7 car to limp for the last hour to the chequered flag.
The #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R (Sebastien Bourdais/Renger van der Zande) had its chances to win in a race that was heavily impacted by rain, but a blown right-rear tyre with 90 minutes left knocked Bourdais and Van der Zande down to eighth in GTP, all but eliminating their chances of winning the GTP title.
Also eliminated from title contention was the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac (Pipo Derani/Jack Aitken/Tom Blomqvist) following a mechanical failure early in the race, and the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 (Jordan Taylor/Louis Deletraz), when Deletraz received a drive-through penalty for pushing a GTD Pro car off track at the backstretch chicane.
IMSA has released a statement confirming these results are provisional until extended post-race technical inspections are completed for select GTP cars – including the winning #24 BMW and the #6 Porsche. These inspections will be conducted through Tuesday.
In LMP2, the #11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07 of Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, and Hunter McElrea) ran the most trouble-free race in the class on the way to winning back-to-back races at the Brickyard. The only blemish came when McElrea spun on cold tyres coming out of the pits when the track conditions were at their worst.
They won by 26 seconds over the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA (Nick Boulle/Tom Dillmann/Kuba Śmiechowski) who gained significant ground in the LMP2 Championship and in Boulle’s pursuit of the Jim Trueman Award.
The #18 Era Motorsport ORECA (Dwight Merriman/Ryan Dalziel/Connor Zilisch) finished third after a late drive-through penalty was assessed to Zilisch for contact with the #22 United Autosports USA car of Paul di Resta. The #74 Riley ORECA (Gar Robinson/Felipe Fraga/Josh Burdon) finished fifth; Robinson and Fraga now trail Boulle and Dillmann by 98 points.
After being disqualified from qualifying due to a technical infringement, Rexy the AO Racing #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R responded by clawing its way to the GTD Pro class win. Laurin Heinrich and Michael Christensen surged back after the first third of the race and went on to take AO Racing’s third GTD Pro win of the year.
Sharing the GTD Pro podium were two American machines, the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 (Mike Rockenfeller/Harry Tincknell) in second, holding off the #3 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R (Antonio Garcia/Alexander Sims) which finished third.
Heinrich and AO Racing’s leads in the GTD Pro Championship grew to 99 points over Ross Gunn and The Heart of Racing Team; Gunn and Alex Riberas finished fifth in the #023 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 after dropping behind the fourth-placed #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Jack Hawksworth/Ben Barnicoat).
Porsche swept both GTD classes as the #120 Wright Motorsports 911 GT3 R of Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer, and Jan Heylen took its first win of the season, ending a two-year winless drought for the team based out of Ohio.
Heylen held off the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley/Jake Walker) by 2.4 seconds for the GTD victory, as the Turner duo of Gallagher and Foley took a few more points from Winward Racing’s Russell Ward and Philip Ellis.
Ward, Ellis, and Indy Dontje drove the #57 Winward Mercedes-AMG to seventh in class at Indy – though Ward and Ellis’ lead is still at a commanding 222 points heading into Petit Le Mans.
Rounding off the GTD podium in third was the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Kenton Koch/Mikaël Grenier), the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 (Misha Goikhberg/Loris Spinelli/Devlin DeFrancesco) was fourth.
The 2024 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship season ends Saturday, 12 October, at the 26th annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
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Images © Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com
