Van der Linde Delivers First IMSA GTP Win for WRT at Indianapolis

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Sheldon van der Linde gave Team WRT a breakthrough first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory following a late-race pass on Earl Bamber in Sunday’s TireRack Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Van der Linde capitalized on traffic to get around the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R of Bamber with less than six minutes to go in the two-hour and 40-minute contest, after briefly passing the Kiwi on at least two occasions in a hard-fought battle.

The South African then cruised to a 2.926-second win in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 that he shared with Dries Vanthoor.

It marked the first WeatherTech Championship win for the Belgian squad, in its first season of operating BMW’s factory GTP operation. BMW, meanwhile, hadn’t visited victory lane in the top class since Road America last year, a race that was also won by Vanthoor.

Bamber’s runner-up finish was enough for co-driver Jack Aitken to extend his points lead over Laurin Heinrich, who settled for third in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 following a late charge.

Aitken took the lead from pole-sitter Tom Blomqvist at the 40-minute mark following the restart from a Turn 1 pileup at the start of the race.

The No. 31 Cadillac remained in control, despite a short-fill by Heinrich during its first stop that elevated the German to second at the time.

However, Heinrich dropped back to fifth on the final round of pit stops during the second and final yellow, which saw van der Linde move into second and put him in prime position to challenge Bamber and eventually take the win.

Heinrich recovered nearly ten seconds in the final stanza, finishing third alongside co-driver Kevin Estre.

Aitken, however, now holds a 147-point lead over Heinrich heading into next month’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, putting the Action Express driver firmly in control of the title.

The No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan Taylor finished fourth, capitalizing on the final round of stops where he emerged in third.

Colin Braun, in the pole-sitting Acura, came home fifth ahead of the sister No. 10 WTR Cadillac that was taken to the finish by Ricky Taylor.

A late-race off-course excursion from Renger van der Zande in the No. 93 MSR Acura relegated the Dutchman to seventh, while Roman De Angelis recovered from contact by the No. 25 BMW of Marco Wittmann to come home eighth.

Wittmann was served with a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility and finished tenth, behind the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche, which was one of six cars that were involved in the opening lap incident.

It included the No. 7 Penske Porsche of Julien Andlauer, which was forced behind the wall for repairs to the car’s floor, side pod and toe-link.

Era Motorsport, with a one-off driver lineup, picked up LMP2 class honors.

Christian Rasmussen finished 15 seconds clear of the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry of Harry Tincknell, who survived late-race contact with the No. 11 TDS Racing entry of Mathias Beche, which was handed a drive-through.

Rasmussen emerged in the class lead after the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson of Paul di Resta was served with a drive-through of his own with 32 minutes to go for passing under yellow.

It marked Era’s first class win since the 2024 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, with Rasmussen sharing the car with FIA Bronze-rated pilot Nick Boulle.

The opening lap pile-up had significant championship implications as the points-leading No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca of George Kurtz was collected and lost more than 40 laps after two separate trips to the garage for repairs.

The No. 99 AO Racing entry of PJ Hyett appeared to have sustained even more damage but the Gunnar Jeannette-led crew got Hyett back out to finish one position higher in eighth.

Inter Europol Competition appeared set to capitalize on its title rival’s misfortunes but Tom Dillmann was forced to pit for a splash of fuel in the closing minutes, relegating the Frenchman and class pole-sitter Jeremy Clarke to a sixth place class finish.

Dillmann and Clarke, however, take over the championship lead by four points over Kurtz and co-driver Alex Quinn.

Last-Lap Heartbreak for RLL McLaren Leads to Ford vs. Corvette Brawl for GTD Pro Win

GTD Pro also came down to a fuel mileage race, as Nikita Johnson was forced to bail for the pits in his class-leading No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo with 90 seconds left on the clock.

It handed the class lead to Dennis Olsen, who fended off a challenging Nicky Catsburg for class victory in the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 EVO.

The two cars made contact on the final lap while battling for the win, which was ruled incidental by race control.

Olsen shared top class honors with Ben Barker, who picked up his first WeatherTech Championship win.

Catsburg and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports co-driver Tommy Milner were forced to settle for second, 0.993 seconds behind, but took over the points lead as a result.

The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell scored another surprise podium, its third in a row after two consecutive class wins.

It came after the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Connor De Phillippi, which led for much of the race, and the No. 65 Mustang GT3 EVO of Fred Vervisch collided while battling for third at the time.

Vervisch was given a drive-through for incident responsibility with 20 minutes to go.

Turner Motorsport broke through to claim its first GTD class victory of the season with Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher.

Foley held off the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis by just 0.501 seconds at the line.

Ellis’ co-driver Russell Ward, who was due to start on pole, came from the rear of the field due to missing the pit entry on the reconnaissance lap. They retained the points lead but just by six points over Foley and Gallagher.

The 13 Autosport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell completed the class podium in third, followed by DragonSpeed’s Corvette in fourth.

It came after the Bob Akin Award-contending No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff was assessed a drive-through for failure to adhere to powertrain parameters while running fifth in class.

RESULTS: TireRack Battle on the Bricks

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