On a cool, picture-perfect autumn day at Indianapolis, 23 cars took the green flag for the fifth annual Indianapolis 8 Hour Race.
Polesitter Patrick Niederhauser has led most of the opening hour in the #10 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, ahead of the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Sheldon van der Linde.
Van der Linde briefly seized the lead from Niederhauser, but Niederhauser fought back, using a lapped Porsche as a pick to make a three-wide pass around the BMW and retake the lead into turn one.
They ran a second apart from one another until an incident involving Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Elias Sabo brought out the first Safety Car intervention of the race.
Sabo in the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW made contact with the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Kenny Habul at turn four, and Sabo, on the outside, slid off into the gravel and was beached.
All but five cars came in for pit stops and driver changes once pit lane opened, not including Niederhauser – who was the only Pro driver to start the race in his Pro-Am car. He’ll be due in the pits soon though.
Charles Weerts took over the #31 WRT BMW and led the pack of cars coming out of the pits, and he now runs in second place with the race, ready to make his move for the overall lead.
The #130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 is third, having been handed over from Maro Engel to Jules Gounon.
Kenton Koch made a lightning start in the #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW, going from ninth to fourth in the opening lap – he’s since handed the green BMW to Connor de Phillippi.
The #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 runs fifth overall at the restart and leads the Fanatec GT America Pro class, following some inspired driving from Luca Mars.
From 23rd on the grid after an engine change, Dan Harper drove the #33 WRT BMW up through the field and it now runs sixth with Augusto Farfus driving.
The #28 ST Racing BMW is seventh, followed by the #63 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in eighth, the #85 RS1 Porsche in ninth, and the #38 ST Racing BMW in tenth.
The #4 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG had a long pit stop to resolve an issue with its Lumirank display, and dropped off the lead lap.
Meanwhile, the #32 GMG Racing Porsche also had to make an early, unscheduled green flag pit stop – not good news for the current IGTC Championship leader Ayhancan Güven who’s yet to board the car.
Feature image © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America, Joe Skibinski / Penske Entertainment
