On a beautiful autumn Saturday, 25 cars took the green flag for the sixth running of the Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS.
After the first hour at the Brickyard, polesitter Lin Hodenius led most of the opening stint in the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, putting together a clean first stint behind the wheel – that was, until contact with the lapped #61 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche put the Mercedes’ advantage at risk.
The #51 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO would have started on the pole for today’s race were it not for a post-qualifying technical infringement.
But from a new starting position of tenth, Philipp Eng has driven the #51 BMW up to the lead at the end of the first hour, having overtaken Hodenius before the Dutchman could serve his drive-through penalty for avoidable contact with the #61 EBM Porsche of Adrian D’Silva at turn ten.
Random Vandals’ BMWs run first and second now, with the #99 of Kenton Koch trailing Eng by almost seven seconds.
Maro Engel in the #888 Team GMR Mercedes-AMG recently overtook Al Faisal Al Zubair in the #777 Team WRT BMW for fourth place; Al Zubair leads the #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mikaël Grenier, as well as the Pro-Am leading #10 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R in the hands of starting driver Patric Niederhauser.
Valentino Rossi has settled into seventh place in his #46 WRT BMW, while young Brit Alex Sedgwick has been charging through the field, up 15 places(!) from 23rd to eighth in the #18 RS1 Porsche.
Adam Adelson in the #120 Wright Porsche and Blake McDonald in the #11 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R round out the top ten, while Hodenius has dropped to 12th overall after the drive-through.
Leading Am is the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 in the hands of Scott Dollahite. Dollahite was demoted to 22nd on the grid after the #6 car was penalised for running its three drivers in the incorrect order during Qualifying. But he’s already moved up to 17th overall, and crucially in front of the #163 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Jay Schreibman.
Early contact between the #16 AF Corse Ferrari of Marcelo Hahn and the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Corvette of Ross Chouest has put both cars in an early deficit in the Pro-Am class. Hahn spun Chouest around at turn 13, causing a left-rear puncture on the black and silver #50 Corvette that Chouest had to drive with for another lap before he could enter the pits.
The #50 is now three laps down, while after a drive-through penalty and a couple more single-car incidents, the #16 Ferrari of Hahn is five laps in arrears.
Feature image © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
