IMSA News: BMW M Team RLL Scores 1-2 Sweep at Indy
BMW M Team RLL executed to perfection Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng led a 1-2 finish in the second running of the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.
Eng finished the victorious drive in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, crossing the speedway’s famous yard of bricks finish line 1.647 seconds ahead of the team’s similar No. 25 entry shared by Nick Yelloly and Connor De Phillippi.
The winners completed 219 laps of the 2.439-mile IMS road course for a total of 534.141 miles of racing over the course of six hours. Roughly an hour was run under caution early in the event due to excessive standing water from a heavy rainstorm.
Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy finished third in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, moving the duo to within 14 points of the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class-leading No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron, who finished ninth in class on Sunday.
It was the second win for BMW in the GTP class, but the first achieved on track. The marque’s prior triumph with the No. 25 car came at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in 2023 after the No. 6 Porsche was put to the rear of the class field due to a technical infraction.
In fact, it was the first podium finish for the No. 24 in the GTP era and the first IMSA victory for Krohn since he shared in a Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) class triumph in the 2020 season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Eng’s last IMSA win came exactly one year prior to that at Daytona.
“This is just unbelievable,” Krohn enthused. “This is my 11th year with BMW, and looking back on the journey I’ve had with them, now I can say I’ve won in every single car they put me in. This has to be one of the biggest wins of my career. First of all, I can’t even believe I’m here to begin with. Now we’re winning with the GTP car, and that’s unbelievable after the day we had today.”
The BMWs started fifth (No. 25) and eighth (No. 24) but quickly began to show their prowess in the race’s third hour following the lengthy safety car period. They ran fourth and sixth, respectively, late in the fifth hour when the caution again flew when the championship-leading No. 7 Porsche briefly stopped on track before continuing at a reduced pace due to power steering issues.
Quick pit stops by BMW M Team RLL lifted De Phillippi in the No. 25 and Eng in the No. 24 to second and third place. Eng then took advantage of traffic to slip past his teammate for second place before executing a daring pass on Louis Deletraz (No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06) into Turn 13 for the lead with 47 minutes remaining.
“I set it up in Turn 7 already and it went all the way down to Turn 12,” Eng explained. “I tried to get a good exit out of Turn 12, and in the earlier laps, I noticed (Deletraz) always tried a round line into the next corner. Once I was as close as I was on that lap, I just took a chance and went for it. It was hard but very fair racing.”
De Phillippi also soon moved past Deletraz, and the two BMWs were rarely separated by more than a second the rest of the way, surviving a tense side-by-side moment with 10 minutes to go. Jaminet was able to stay within range but never close enough mount an attack on De Phillippi.
“This might rank as our greatest victory as a team,” BMW M Team RLL team principal Bobby Rahal said. “It’s just so timely and represents the effort that all of us have put in. I’m so thrilled for everyone with our team and BMW M Motorsport because it has been a tough year in a lot of respects. None of our competitors really had any problems today and we were able to succeed.
“This is huge … this is what you really work for, and I think we have to be very positive going into Petit Le Mans.”
TDS Racing Scores Repeat LMP2 Victory at Indy
Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen repeated their 2023 Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class victory Sunday in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07.
Joined this year by Carmel, Indiana, resident Hunter McElrea, they won by a commanding 26.049 seconds over the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA shared by Nick Boulle, Tom Dillmann and Jakub Smiechowski. The No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA featuring the driver lineup of Dwight Merriman, Ryan Dalziel and rising teen star Connor Zilisch claimed third in class.
The LMP2 field was shuffled a third of the way into the six-hour event when confusion for the class reorder under caution led to seven competitors being assessed drive-through penalties. McElrea, who was in the car at the time, then commenced a tremendous comeback stint that took the No. 11 back to the front.
Jensen took over for the final two hours, and once he got past the No. 22 United Autosports entry on older tires driven by Paul di Resta, he was dominant and pulled away with ease.
“The TDS car is quick here and we know our lineup is strong,” noted Jensen. “That’s why we won last year, and we were straight away fast again this year. It was quite a crazy race, but Hunter did an amazing job bringing it up to first, and that made my life easier.”
Both McElrea and Jensen praised Bronze-rated driver Thomas, who was in the car when it rained early and during the difficult transition from Michelin wet-weather tires to dry-condition slicks.
“The emotion of being able to kiss the bricks again here is one of the highlights of my career,” Thomas said. “It was a lot of fun for me. I love the rain, so it was a great experience today for me, and I think we’re now tied for the class lead in the Michelin Endurance Cup. So, we really have something to shoot for at Petit Le Mans at one of my favorite tracks.”
The final round of the 2024 WeatherTech Championship is the 27th annual Motul Petit Le Mans, set for October 9-12 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Last-to-First Resurrection for Rexy, AO Racing in GTD PRO
At a track known widely for its more than century-long history, a fictional prehistoric creature added a new chapter to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway record books.
AO Racing brought back its green “Rexy” dinosaur livery on its No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) for the six-hour TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, supplanting its pink sister “Roxy” which adorned the car the last two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races at Road America and VIRginia International Raceway.
And after unexpected adversity, the pair of Laurin Heinrich and Michael Christensen authored a comeback for the ages with a last-to-first, title-push bolstering third victory of the season for the team in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO).
For both drivers it is their third career WeatherTech Championship win, albeit in different ways. Heinrich has won all three this year (WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Streets of Detroit). Christensen won the 2014 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in GT Le Mans (GTLM) and 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona in GT Daytona (GTD), so this is his third win in as many different classes and in as many different IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races.
Heinrich qualified the No. 77 Porsche fastest of the 35 cars entered in the two GT classes at the 2.439-mile, 14-turn IMS road course. However, the car was sent to the rear of the field for not meeting the minimum ground clearance, so it rolled off 56th and last overall and 13th and last in GTD PRO.
What appeared a setback transitioned into a challenge, one which Heinrich accepted with open arms, especially as cloudy skies shifted to consistent to persistent rain for most of the first three hours.
After the first hour, Heinrich had gained 33 spots overall, and rose to 23rd overall and fourth in GTD PRO. Heinrich pitted under a lengthy early full-course yellow, just under 90 minutes into the race, and handed off to Christensen where the team could deploy its intended strategy.
The pivotal moment of the race occurred on the final pit stop sequence with just over one hour remaining. Entering the pits third, the AO Racing crew propelled the No. 77 Porsche to the lead ahead of the leading No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 and No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Heinrich extended the gap from the restart and ultimately secured the class victory by 12.527 seconds over Mike Rockenfeller, who shared the No. 64 Ford with Harry Tincknell to deliver that pair its second straight runner-up finish.
“I think starting from the very back, with many cars in front of me, I had a lot of other drivers I was racing where I could have got over-ambitious,” Heinrich explained. “So I thought, ‘Don’t rush too much.’ I wanted to get them one-by-one and it worked well.
“The start was a bit difficult, because the race started and I was only in Turn 12! That was a bit weird. But I think it was better and more stretched out, a bit calmer. Soon I realized we had good pace, could fuel save when I could, and took them one-by-one. It was good to prove to myself I could do that if I had to.”
Antonio Garcia claimed the final podium place for the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R, in the car he shared with Alexander Sims. Garcia captured the spot after a daring inside move of Jack Hawksworth, in the No. 14 Lexus, at Turn 13 three laps from the finish.
Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat were fourth with Heinrich’s closest championship rival, Ross Gunn, ending fifth in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo he shared with Alex Riberas.
Heinrich entered the weekend just 17 points ahead of Gunn (2,519 to 2,502). Despite the qualifying setback, with the win for AO and Gunn’s fifth place finish, that gap is now extended to 99 points (2,887 to 2,788) heading to the season finale at Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Wright Porsche of Skeer, Adelson and Heylen Secures Emotional Victory in GTD
Similar to AO Racing with its Porsche in GTD PRO, Wright Motorsports with its Porsche started deep in its class – GT Daytona – and emerged victorious after six hours of racing in Indianapolis.
When the skies opened with consistent and increasingly heavy rain, the strategy and pace propelled the trio of Elliott Skeer, Adam Adelson and Jan Heylen and their No. 120 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) forward early from 14th in a 22-car GTD class. Solid stints from all three kept them in the lead.
Adelson started and delivered a strong opening stint, scything through cars and avoiding the many pitfalls that caught out others. He made it into the top five and once he’d handed over to Heylen, the No. 120 Wright Porsche took the lead for the first time on Lap 54. The car added two other stints up front between Skeer and Heylen and all told led a class-high 140 of 207 laps, including the last 84.
The win is the first for Skeer and Adelson in WeatherTech Championship competition, while 2021 Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class champion Heylen added his fourth career WeatherTech Championship win, all with Wright Motorsports and all in GTD. His most recent came at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in May 2022.
For longtime friends and co-drivers Skeer and Adelson, the emotion was especially evident post-race. The pair have two other podium finishes this year, third at both the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and also at WeatherTech Raceway.
“We never expected to come here and take the victory! It’s especially special,” Adelson said. “The beginning stints usually don’t matter, but here I feel I made a good contribution. There is no better car than Porsche in the wet.”
Skeer added, “It means everything. It’s the best day of my life by far. To win in a Porsche, to do it with my best friend, to do it with the Wright guys and to do it at Indy, this is a very, very special day.”
Turner Motorsport kept its championship hopes alive with a runner-up finish, achieved by the trio of Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Jake Walker in the No. 96 BMW M4 GT3.
They’re now 222 points (3,006 to 2,784) behind championship leaders Russell Ward and Philip Ellis, who with third driver Indy Dontje finished fifth in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Mercedes-AMG completed the podium in GTD with the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports entry, driven by Mikael Grenier, Kenton Koch and Mike Skeen.