Rockenfeller: No. 64 Mustang “Had Nothing” for AO Porsche

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Mike Rockenfeller believes that Ford Multimatic Motorsports “had nothing” to challenge the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R for GTD Pro victory in Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, despite leading for 50 laps.

Rockenfeller and co-driver Harry Tincknell took their No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 to their second consecutive runner-up class finish in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, arguably marking the car’s strongest outing to date in global GT3 competition.

“We didn’t expect that with the BoP change coming here,” Rockenfeller told Sportscar365. “We thought we’d struggle a bit more and we were in the race. Clearly, we had nothing for the Porsche. It was obvious.

“It was a race without any mistakes and that was crucial. Good strategy.

“We were leading for quite a bit and that looked promising but you could see already that the 77 was closing the gap big time and then we lost a spot in the last pit stop to them and then there was nothing for them.”

Rockenfeller, however, took solace with the car’s recent string of strong runs in the highly competitive GTD Pro category.

“We are proud,” he said. “Obviously, we wanted that win so bad. The first Mustang win with the GT3.

“But it will come and P2 is nothing to be ashamed of in this category. Everyone was pushing to the limit at the end. Luckily behind me, they were all fighting a bit and that gave me a little bit of breathing room.

“I think if we had the chance to stay in front, maybe we maybe had the chance to do it, but the Porsche was just a little faster. I don’t know if he could have passed me through.

“I would have defended like I had a three Mustangs-wide car, but it didn’t come to that unfortunately because we lost it in the pits.

“We need to analyze why and how that happened. I think we were pretty spot on. We almost lost the spot to the Lexus as well.

“Maybe we had a bit more margin and could have pulled the fuel hose a little bit earlier, I don’t know. We have to investigate that.”

Heinrich Describes Drive from Rear of Field

Heinrich, who extended his class championship lead to 99 points with his third class victory of the season, started from the rear of the 56-car field after originally qualifying on class pole.

The German’s time, however, was disallowed due to a ride height infringement found in post-qualifying tech inspection.

“I think starting from the very back and knowing the many cars in front of me were Bronze drivers or slower drivers, it’s easy to get overambitious,” said Heinrich.

“I really told myself that I want to hold a bit back and don’t rush too much because I knew it’s a long race, six hours, and we knew rain was coming. That was a bit my approach.

“I wanted to get them one by one, and I think that’s worked out pretty well.

“The start was a bit difficult because the rain started and I was in Turn 12. So that was a bit weird. I wasn’t really prepared for that. I think it was better. You know, it was a bit more stretched out going through the first corners, a bit calmer.

“Soon I realized I had good pace and fuel saved when I can, when I needed, and when I needed to attack, I took them one by one.

“That worked out well, and I think it’s also good for me to prove it to myself that I can do something like this.

“For sure the strategy changed a bit. We always set the priority to overcut the leaders when possible.

“And I think that worked well because starting from the back, you just need to stay on the lead lap. That’s the main priority.

“That worked well. And I think, also, some [luck] helped us to pack up the field again and be a bit closer to the overall leaders again.”

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

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