IMSA Indy Recap: Action, Drama and Breakthrough

Sunday’s penultimate round saw the stars and cars of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship season race on hallowed ground at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Where do we begin? Because this race had everything. With all the action on track, Sunday’s Tire Rack Battle on the Bricks felt more like a sprint than a 6-hour endurance race. Safe to say the Brickyard delivered as we were on the edge of our seat, not knowing who would emerge until the very end.

GTP: Cadillac go 1-2 as Whelen Action Express ends drought

It was an all Cadillac front row after the #60 Meyer Shank Acura pole-winning time was removed for a post-qualifying tech violation. Jack Aitken in the #31 Whelen Cadillac led the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy of Louis Deletraz into turn 1. Aitken led early holding off early challenges from Acura and Porsche. The Whelen Action Express Cadillac dominated throughout the afternoon being at the front all race long.

Contrarily, Wayne Taylor Racing had both Caddys hit trouble before halfway. First, Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 suffered a left front tire puncture right before the halfway mark. Moments later, Louis Deletraz in the sister #40 Cadillac was collected from behind in Turn 1 by Frederic Vervisch in the #65 Multimatic Mustang. The Belgian would be handed a drive-thru penalty from race control as a result. Fortunately, the Swiss driver did not suffer damage and was able to continue on.

While Porsche was a contender in the Top 5 early, the 963s were nowhere to be found by the end. Nick Tandy suffered a random shifting failure mid-way through the race on the front stretch. The incident would send the #7 to last on the field where they would stay for the remainder of the race. The #6 fell off the pace and finished seventh.

Lamborghini was having a great run, running as high as 3rd during the race. With 50 minutes to go, #7 Porsche, with Felipe Nasr at the wheel, sent the SC63 off track at Turn 7. After falling back to sixth, the team made the decision to pit the car and top the fuel tank. Doing so allowed the Lamborghini to get back out in clean air and set them up nicely just in case others ahead ran out.

Speaking of fuel, in a deja vu of Watkins Glen, the narrative of the final hour was energy. Who in GTP had enough to get to the end? This was the last thing on Ricky Taylor’s mind. Given that the #10 had come from a lap down, Taylor charged through the field up to second. However, his pace was not sustainable to reach the end. Thankfully, for Taylor and everyone else, a full course yellow in the final ten minutes removed the energy conservation drama. The quick yellow resulted in a 2-lap sprint to the finish. Jack Aitken got a great restart, putting two carlengths on Taylor. Aitken maintained the gap to cap a dominant day for the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac alongside co-drivers Frederik Vesti and Earl Bamber.

For Action Express, it’s their first win in two and a half years, dating back to the 2023 12 Hours of Sebring. Cadillac finally gets their first win in almost a year going back to last year’s Petit Le Mans finale.

LMP2: TDS (Really) Loves Indianapolis

The LMP2 did not do themselves any favors if they wanted to get rid of the “attrition class” stereotype. The class has highlighted by spins, crashes and very weird incidents. An early casualty of the day was the #18 ERA Motorsports Oreca as the vehicle stopped on track smoking just shy of the two and a half hour mark. The tight quartered racing and off road excursions continued throughout the afternoon. However, we were far from done.

The P2 chaos explicitly kicked into high gear with 30 minutes remaining. A 3-wide battle with the InterEuropol Oreca saw the United Autosports teammates collide at Turn 12. Paul di Resta in the #22 ended up worst, going for a spin. This incident would lead to Daniel Serra in the #34 Conquest Ferrari in GTD going for a spin at Turn 13. The #2 was not free from trouble after the collision. Sebastien Bourdais in the #8 collided with Ben Hanley after losing control on the curbing at Turn 8.

Meanwhile, Crowdstrike Racing by APR team had a day from hell. First, George Kurtz caused the second full course yellow 12 minutes into the race getting stuck in the Turn 4 gravel trap. Then, Malthe Jakobsen ran the car off course during the race’s fifth hour. Jakobsen’s antics upset the team manager to the point he departed the pit lane and did not return. It’s a good thing he stayed in the garage. Finally, Toby Sowery provided the icing on the cake for the #04 car, crashing at Turn 11 with 9 minutes to go. By the way, give a call to the AMR Safety Crew. A lightning-quick clean up saw the damaged P2 machine removed in under 5 minutes to give us a green flag finish.

All this action would take place behind Mikkel Jensen. The #11 TDS Racing Oreca, a top-5 car all day long, gained the lead after the final fuel stops with under 45 minutes to go. Jensen, with teammates Steven Thomas and Hunter McElrea, drove a flawless race to give TDS their third straight class victory at Indianapolis.

GTD PRO: Multimatic Ponies Up with Big Day

GTD PRO, like GTP, was quietly competitive. Max Hesse in the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW led early along with the #77 AO Racing Porsche of Laurin Heinrich. These two teams would lead the majority of the first five hours of the race. On the other hand, one car that was not having a great day was #9 Lamborghini Huracan for Pfaff Motorsports. The car suffered from rear body work damage early in the 3rd hour, relegating them to another tough day in their difficult season.

The Multimatic Racing Mustangs were lurking in the shadows all race long. After the aforementioned incident with the GTP Cadillac at the halfway mark, #65 Mustang, second in class at the time, was not much of a factor in the second half. Conversely, the sister #64 was a different story. After the restart with an hour to go, Sebastian Praiulx bided his team before attacking with 45 minutes to go. He almost threw the race away. In a battle for second at Turn 12 with 45 minutes to go, the #60 Acura intervened sending Priaulx flying over the curb.

While Priaulx collected himself, Heinrich passed Hesse for the GTD PRO lead into Turn 1 with 41 minutes to go. The lead did not last long. Priaulx powered his way to the lead in Turn 4 with 35 minutes to go. This caused a ricochet sending the AO Racing Porsche into the grass. With the unexpected additional green to Rexy, the #77 fell back to 7th in class at the end, effectively ending their hopes of a title defense.

As for Priaulx, after grabbing the lead, he held off the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari of Albert Costa. Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller earned their second win of the season while Costa’s second place finish brings him within 18 points of Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia heading to the Petit Le Mans finale.

GTD: No Hood? No Problem for Inception, grabs maiden IMSA Win

GTD was an equally eventful occasion, right from the start. The race went green for all of two minutes and thirty seconds. The #19 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin lost his left side mirror on the front straight causing the first yellow of the race. The mirror came loose after Turn 1, Lap 1 contact with the #47 Cetilar Ferrari. A quick yellow saw the race return to green. The yellow would not be as quick for the #36 DXDT Corvette. Salih Yoluc slapped the concrete exiting T14, causing suspension damage. The car crawled to Turn 1 and went no further.

In GTD, it seemed the kiss of death was leading the race or being near the front. First, the #21 AF Corse Ferrari was top 3 in the opening stages of the race before mechanical failures forced them out of the race. At the one hour fifty minute mark, #80 Lone Star Mercedes lost their left rear wheel. This incident became the undoing of their day as the one-time race leader eventually retired.

Casper Stevenson, who was running as high as 2nd, was sent into a spin by the #18 Era Oreca at the exit of Turn 7. The damage from the incident was two fold. First, the incident would take the Heart of Racing Aston out of contention for the day. Concurrently, but more importantly, the incident essentially ended Casper Stevenson’s championship hopes. The #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini started at the back and worked their way up to third. While running third under yellow, Trent Hindman stopped at pit-in with electrical issues. A great run and potential podium goes away an hour short of the finish.

Even the championship leaders were not exempt. The start of the final hour saw a drive-thru penalty for the #57 Winward Mercedes due to speeding on pit road. Phillip Ellis surrendered the lead and clinching the GTD championship. In spite of the penalty, the Winward Mercedes somehow managed to salvage a fifth place finish.

So, who ended up breaking the curse? The #70 Inception Ferrari. With an hour twenty remaining in the race, Frederik Schandorff was running fifth when the hood flew off on the front straight. The full course yellow the hood caused played perfectly as everyone needed to stop one last time. With a new hood secured, the team took the restart in second. Once the Winward Mercedes yielded the lead, Schandorff was on a Sunday drive. The Silver-rated Dane built a ten second lead before the final yellow of the day. But not even a late race yellow could deny Schandorff, Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy a well-earned first win for Inception Racing.

Unofficial Point Standings

GTP

1. Matt Campbell/Matt Jaminet (Porsche Penske Motorsport) – 2582
2. Felipe NAsr/Nick Tandy (Porsche Penske Motorsport) – 2451
3. Dries Vanthoor/Phillip Eng (BMW Team RLL) – 2438

LMP2

1. Dane Cameron/PJ Hyett (AO Racing) – 1972
2. Daniel Goldburg (United Autosports) – 1887
3. Gar Robinson/Felipe Fraga (Riley) – 1791

GTD PRO

1. Alexander Sims/Antonio Garcia (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) – 2942
2. Albert Costa (DragonSpeed) – 2924
3. Sebastian Priaulx/Mike Rockenfeller (Multimatic Motorsports) – 2773

GTD

1. Russell Ward/Phillip Ellis (Winward Racing) – 2817
2. Casper Stevenson (Heart of Racing) – 2593
3. Kenton Koch (Triarsi Competizione) – 2564

The End of the Road (Atlanta)

Another amazing season of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship will write its final chapter at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. We will formally crown our champions at the 28th running of the 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans on Saturday, October 11.

 

Featured Image: #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac entering Turn 12 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Photo Courtesy: Cadillac Racing/IMSA