- IGTC Pro’s Team WRT Leads Overall
- FGTWCA Pro Title Fight Between DXDT Racing and Wright Motorsports
- 75 Express With Slight Edge in Tight Pro-Am Field
- Watch the race | Live Timing
The Indy 8 Hour kicked off in spectacular fashion in front of thousands of fans at the Brickyard. The first half of the race was nothing short of action-packed, with drivers across the board fighting for the win. As we reached the halfway mark, the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 leads the overall and in the IGTC Pro class, with the No. 63 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R leading the FGTWCA Pro class, and the No. 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 first in Pro-Am.
Hour 1
Pole sitter Patric Niederhauser led the field to the American flag, waved by Ruthledge Wood, in his Pro-Am No. 10 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 R to kick off the Indianapolis 8 Hour. As per the Intercontinental GT Challenge customs, in lieu of the usual green flag, the hosting country's flag is waved.
The No. 4 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 had a challenging start to the race, as Luca Stolz dropped back several positions. He found himself sitting in eighth overall and fourth in class after originally starting on the front row. The No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Sheldon Van Der Linde was thus promoted to the IGTC Pro class lead, and began to close in on Niederhauser ahead. He launched an attack as the first 30 minutes elapsed, briefly moving up into the overall lead, but the Porsche reclaimed the position one lap later.
In the FGTWCA Pro class, Adam Adelson was the frontrunner at first but his No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 992 GT3 R was jostled back a couple of spots, with Philipp Eng taking over in the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3. It wasn’t long before Adelson and DXDT Racing’s Alec Udell were running nose-to-tail, and the No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was eventually able to shuffle past as the one-hour mark loomed closer.
A yellow flag was brought out 49 minutes into the race as the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Elias Sabo was spun off into the gravel. The safety car also welcomed a plethora of pit stops as the majority of the field opted to perform their first round of driver changes.
Hour 2
The race resumed with 7 hours remaining on the clock. Niederhauser and Herberth Motorsport opted for a different strategy than the rest of the field, coming down pit road much later for a driver change. Antares Au took over, but the strategy ultimately did not work out in his favor in the short term as he sat 13th overall as he returned to the field.
The No. 31 WRT BMW moved into the overall lead, with the No. 33 sister car running third, establishing the German manufacturer as strong contenders for the win.
The No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Samantha Tan faced a huge setback as the car grinded to a halt on track. She eventually limped back to her garage following a fuel pump issue, but the problem not only jeopardized their chances of kissing the bricks, but also their championship title hunt.
A transponder issue plagued the No. 4 Lone Star Mercedes-AMG GT3, which had to come through pit lane as race control requested that the issue be addressed. Jules Gounon got acquainted with Jefri Ibrahim as the two Mercedes touched. Although there was no apparent damage from the incident, Gounon lost valuable time to the leader.
As the second hour was coming to an end, the ST Racing Pro-Am machine was able to resume their efforts as they tried to salvage their championship title. Up front, Charles Weerts was comfortably in the lead, with Jules Gounon 3 seconds behind, and Augusto Farfus rounding off the top 3. In the closing minutes of the second hour, several teams came down pit lane, including Weerts, who handed over the wheel of his machine to Dries Vanthoor, retaining the lead going out of pit lane.
Hour 3
With a new mix of drivers on track, the action continued to ramp up. Notably, Kenny Habul took over the Pro-Am class lead in the No. 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3, while Justin Rothberg hopped in the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 as he replaced teammate Patrick Gallagher. However, it wasn’t long before he came under threat by Elias Seppänen in the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
There was some drama in the Pro-Am class as the No. 64 DXDT Racing Corvette of Patrick Liddy was side-swiped by the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 992 GT3 R of Ayhancan Guven heading into the last corners of the road course. Guven received a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, but DXDT had to bring the car behind the wall for repairs as it suffered a broken left toe link. Although they went several laps down, the Chevrolet team was able to address the damage to the suspension and get back on track to continue onwards.
Hour 4
After trying to hunt down the No. 130 Mercedes of Mikaël Grenier for nearly an hour, Augusto Farfus had finally managed to muscle his way past, but pitted shortly after. With Grenier choosing to stay out longer, the battle was reignited as Daniel Harper began the pursuit all over again. Harper was eventually able to pass the Canadian driver and claim third place overall.
As the halfway mark approached, Tommy Milner was leading in the FGTWCA Pro class on board the No. 63 DXDT Corvette, but Wright Motorsports’ Lauren Heinrich was desperately hunting him down, knowing fully well that the title fight was at stake.
He continued to cut into Milner’s advantage, drastically reducing the gap between the two. Just as it looked as though Heinrich was within striking distance, a full course caution was called in order to address the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Conor Daly that had pulled to the side of the track, stricken by a fuel pump issue. The safety car prompted the majority of the field, including the frontrunners across all classes, to perform another round of pit stops with four hours to go.
Follow Along
If you can’t make it to IMS, be sure to tune-in to SRO’s free live streams all weekend long on YouTube (GTWorld) and Twitch (SROMotorsports) and follow all the action through our social media channels and the event hashtag #Indy8H.