BMW Team WRT Wins Indy 8H; Fanatec GT Champions Crowned

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Team WRT has scored a commanding victory in Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS, despite one of its factory BMW M4 GT3s dropping out of contention for what would have been a likely 1-2 sweep.

Champions in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, meanwhile, were crowned in Pro and Pro-Am in the fourth running of the joint Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli/Fanatec GT enduro at The Brickyard.

Sheldon van der Linde took the Sixt-liveried BMW to a 53.110-second win over the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon, Maxi Goetz and Raffaele Marciello, who nursed a damaged splitter on the car to second.

The South African shared top honors with fellow BMW factory drivers Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor.

Last year’s winning entry took over second position with just over two hours to go when the then-leading No. 31 WRT BMW of Augusto Farfus collided with the No. 33 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Onofrio Triarsi in Turn 1, damaging the BMW’s left-front suspension.

The entry went 12 laps down while repairs were made in the garage. Farfus and co-drivers Maxime Martin and Charles Weerts finished 17th overall, after initially being on an off-sequence pit strategy due to a slow puncture in the fourth hour prior to the Brazilian’s accident.

Saturday’s winning No. 30 BMW, meanwhile, bounced back from a drive-through penalty for a stint time violation in the fourth hour, which dropped it to behind the sister BMW and the two factory-supported Mercedes-AMGs at the time.

A recovery drive from Vanthoor and Eng brought the car up back up to second at the time of Farfus’ incident.

It marked the first victory on U.S. soil for the Belgian squad and BMW’s third IGTC victory of the season, after WRT took top honors in the Kyalami 9 Hour in February and ROWE Racing won the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, also with Eng at the wheel.

The No. 999 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG of Luca Stolz, Maro Engel and Dani Juncadella completed the overall and IGTC Pro class podium in third, ahead of the Fanatec GT Pro class-winning No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen, Madison Snow and Trent Hindman in fourth.

It came despite a late-race stop for a right-front puncture for Heylen in the final ten minutes.

Fanatec GT Champions Crowned in Season Finale

RS1 and CrowdStrike by Riley, meanwhile, sealed the Fanatec GT Pro and Pro-Am class championships in Saturday’s season finale.

Stevan McAleer and Eric Filgueiras were crowned Pro champions with a fifth place overall finish alongside third driver Klaus Bachler in their No. 28 Porsche.

The No. 04 Mercedes-AMG of George Kurtz, Colin Braun and Nolan Siegel, meanwhile, picked up Pro-Am class honors in the race, with Kurtz and Braun also winning the season-long title.

It came after a hard-fought battle with the No. 120 Wright Porsche of Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson, which entered the race with a scant three-point lead over Kurtz and Braun, but suffered a left-front puncture that dropped it down the running order, which was compounded by a refueling issue later in the race.

The CrowdStrike by Riley entry finished the race in sixth overall, ahead of the overall pole-sitting No. 20 Huber Motorsport Porsche, which was the highest-placed Pro-Am entrant from IGTC competition.

The No. 53 MDK Motorsports Porsche came home eighth overall, third in Fanatec GT Pro, while the No. 27 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG completed the Pro-Am podium in third, featuring its race-day driver change to Kenton Koch.

Skeer, Adelson and Callum Ilott, meanwhile, were relegated to an 11th place overall result after making a late-race splash for fuel.

RESULTS: Indianapolis 8 Hour

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John