Philipp Eng headed BMW RLL’s first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 1-2 finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After a hectic opening hour with heavy rain, before the track dried out, BMW RLL mastered their way to a maiden IMSA victory and a 1-2 for the team.
With 56 cars, four classes and a six-hour race length, the historic Brickyard hosted a considerably action-packed race in comparison to last year’s already eventful running.
It was the first Endurance Cup race since 23 June’s Six Hours of the Glen.
Tyre management and longer stint lengths make such races a unique challenge for the drivers, especially for the GTP and LMP2 categories who were overtaking the GTD and GTD Pro categories.
With 11 GTPs and 10 LMP2s, each of which ran close championship-title fights, the results at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course could not be more vital for the respective protagonists.
A hectic opening hour in the rain
The championship-leading #7 Porsche Penske 963 GTP crew qualified in seventh place, which set them a task to gain places throughout the six-hours in efforts to retain their place in the standings.
With such a race length ahead, opportunities would certainly crop up for the #7 Porsche.
The arrival of heavy rain characterised the opening hour when it caused areas of standing water upon the Road Course track surface.
Before the rain arrived, Felipe Nasr was quick to climb at the race start from seventh position after he asserted unrivaled race pace, soon taking the lead off Sebastien Bourdais into Turn 1.
Just before that, the #01 Chip Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R had a solid getaway at lights out as he kept Louis Deletraz’s #40 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 at bay.
The #40 Acura shortly made contact with the #56 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 (GTD) of Rasmus Lindh.
Deletraz continued after he was hit into a spin at T13, but lost his P3 as a result.
The first caution was deployed when Luis Perez Companc spun his #88 AF Corse Oreca 07 LMP2 and was briefly stranded before continuing.
Before this, Nasr built a substantial lead up to nearly five seconds on Jack Aitken, who took P2 from Bourdais in the other #31 Whelen-branded Cadillac.
Drying conditions return
A prolonged third caution of the race enabled track officials to sweep away much of the standing water, meanwhile the rainfall eased.
Once conditions improved, the chaos of the disrupted opening hour passed by as the race begun to settle in.
During these drying conditions, the fastest GTP car was the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 of Romain Grosjean.
Owing to his strong pace, the #63 climbed up to third place before catching up to the leaders, #6 of Jaminet ahead of #01 Bourdais.
Grosjean asserted a move into second on Bourdais, who then fell into the hands of Connor De Phillippi’s #25 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 in third.
As the #31 Whelen Cadillac handed over to Pipo Derani, the team faced issues when the engine cut out into T12.
Derani struggled on pace beforehand and returned to the pit lane ahead on electrical power only.
Unfortunately for them, the #31 Cadillac went behind the wall and into retirement, as Tom Blomqvist did not get to race a lap behind the wheel.
Approaching the halfway point
Into the third racing hour, Grosjean continued to eat away at Jaminet’s lead before the duo fought fantastically for the honour.
Jaminet had a brief rear-end snap at T13 as Grosjean made an opportunistic move for the lead, the first time for Lamborghini in IMSA.
Meanwhile in the other #7 Porsche Penske, Nasr made a minor mistake when he went onto the curbs in between T10-11.
His error diminished the championship-leader’s hard work at the beginning of the race.
Teams returned to slick tyres with the fight for the lead still alive and unpredictable.
The #63 Lamborghini team were awarded a drive-through penalty and it was due to having too many pit crew members over the wall during a pit stop when Grosjean got out and Matteo Cairoli took over.
Back to the lead fight, it was between Jesse Krohn in the #24 RLL BMW and Renger van der Zande in the #01 Cadillac.
The #24 took the lead and Jordan Taylor passed van der Zande in his recovering #40 WTRAndretti Acura, before the pair exchange places again.
Cairoli held third behind the pair although a poor pit stop during the race’s fifth caution hindered them once again.
On the restart, Filipe Albuquerque’s #10 retained his lead but the heat was in the battle for third.
Van der Zande defended the #6 of Nick Tandy, who took P4 off Nick Yelloly (#25 BMW), as they all chopped their way through GTD traffic.
Key GTP protagonists run into issues
Reliability is tested most of all at the endurance races of the championship’s 11-round calendar.
So whilst the #01—#6—#24 fight continued amidst a constant flurry of GT traffic, Iron Lynx faced heartbreak with their #63 Lamborghini.
Andrea Caldarelli made contact with Ben Barker’s #55 Proton Ford Mustang (GTD), thus inflicting rear-right suspension damage.
They eventually retired as a damaged drivetrain ended their promising yet fulfilling and useful outing at Indianapolis.
Sebastien Bourdais retook the wheel of the #01 from van der Zande but suffered a puncture on his outlap.
As a result of his car forcing him straight on at T12, he conducted another lap back to the pits for a new rear wing and tyre.
It was a dramatic moment for the #7 of Nasr when he stopped in the middle of the start-finish, after his power steering briefly failed.
Louis Deletraz, who narrowly avoided the stationary #5 Porsche, ended up having a whole lap on the field when a sixth caution came out.
This enabled him the opportunity to perform a full service pit stop.
Tension into the final hour
The tension continued into the final hour of the Battle on the Bricks.
With 55 minutes remaining, #40 Deletraz carried out a superb start on the #25 of Connor De Phillipi.
The #25 BMW driver just about kept himself ahead teammate Philipp Eng in the #24 RLL BMW.
New fastest laps were set and BMW RLL found themselves in 1-2 formation, charging to the finish as a duo.
Philipp Eng and his co-driver Jesse Krohn won their first IMSA GTP race ahead of the #25 BMW, Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly.
Third position was claimed by the #6 Porsche duo of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy.
By comparison to the #7 championship-leaders who finished last in the GTP order and behind the LMP2 class.
The #85 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche team of Phil Hanson, Richard Westbrook and Tijmen van der Helm earned fourth place.
The #40 took fifth after they lost P3 when Deletraz served a drive-through penalty in the final 30 minutes. He tapped Chaz Mostert’s #75 Mercedes-AMG into a spin.
Summarising the LMP2 action
Amidst the madness of the challenging, wet conditions, the Bronze-graded drivers fulfilled their opening stints during the treacherous weather.
At the race start, Ben Keating (#2 United Autosports USA Oreca) made his way into the lead on Nick Boulle (#52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Oreca).
As a result of the cautions, those who did not spin kept themselves within distance of the class protagonists.
It came to a close fight into the final hour of racing.
Tom Dillmann held the lead ahead of the #99 AO Racing ‘Spike the Dragon’ Oreca 07 of Matt Brabham.
In a turn of misfortune, the #88 AF Corse of Nicklas Nielsen spun the #99 after the pair went door-to-door, ending up as a racing incident.
Paul Di Resta rose and fell in his #22 United Autosports USA Oreca, firstly up to P3 from P7.
Mikkel Jensen, a feller Peugeot Hypercar factory driver, overtook the Scotsman for the lead.
Connor Zilisch in the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca caught the #22 but made right-side contact with the #22.
Di Resta was sent into a spin and Zilisch was awarded a drive-though having caused Di Resta’s left-front wheel arch to catch on the tyre, triggering a mechanical black flag for the #22.
After 215 laps, compared to the 219 completed by the #24 BMW GTP, Jensen and his #11 TDS Racing Oreca co-drivers Steven Thomas and Hunter McElrea won in LMP2.
The #52 Oreca trio of Tom Dillmann, Jakub Smiechowski and Nick Boulle finished in second place ahead of the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca.
Zilisch, Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman took the final podium step after they were a lap down towards the race start.
SEE MORE:
The provisional results of the 2024 IMSA Battle on the Bricks
Rexy Porsche GTD Pro last-to-first victor in IMSA’s Battle on the Bricks
Editor’s Note:
After a post-race technical inspection, the #6 Porsche and the #40 Acura have been found with modifications outside of the homologation and have faced penalties.
