Indianapolis Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW

***Team WRT scored its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory, and first with the factory BMW M Hybrid program in North America, following Sheldon van der Linde’s late-race pass on Earl Bamber in the TireRack Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It marked BMW’s first GTP win since Road America 2025, with previous operator Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and came in a weekend that saw the Belgian squad also pick up hardware in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS competition.

***Team principal Vincent Vosse said: “That was a really strong weekend for our team. First, the title wins for our Silver crew in the GT World Challenge Europe at Zandvoort, and now our first overall victory in the IMSA Series. A huge thank you goes to everyone in the team who has been involved in this project for almost exactly a year. It was right here in Indianapolis that we had our first discussions about an IMSA GTP program.”

***While Dries Vanthoor was part of the winning lineup in BMW’s last GTP victory, van der Linde claimed his first overall WeatherTech Championship win, and only his second career after nearly a nine year gap. The South African’s first win came as an 18-year-old when part of Land Motorsport’s GTD class triumph in the 2017 Motul Petit Le Mans alongside his older brother Kelvin and Chris Mies in an Audi R8 LMS.

***The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken led 78 of the 112-lap race but settled for second, which was still enough for Aitken to put one hand on the GTP drivers’ championship entering Petit Le Mans. Aitken, Bamber and third driver Fred Vesti will only need to finish ninth or higher, in an expected 11-car field, for the Englishman to be crowned GTP champion.

***Laurin Heinrich mitigated what could have been an even larger points haul for Aitken, with the German driver charging from fifth on the final restart to a third place in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 that he shared with Kevin Estre, marking Porsche Penske’s first podium result since the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in April.

***Heinrich said: “We made the best of our situation. This was my first time sharing a car with Kevin and we immediately ended up on the podium. Given our current capabilities, that’s a dream result. I still have a chance to win the championship. That was the goal for this weekend. We achieved it.”

***The sister No. 7 Porsche Penske entry of Julien Andlauer lost more than 20 laps in the garage after getting collected in a six-car incident at the start of the race that also affected the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly and Tijmen van der Helm’s No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche.

***The right-front toe-link, side pod and floor was replaced on the No. 7 Porsche, while the JDC-Miller Porsche escaped extensive damage and managed to return to action with a replacement nose and rear deck after quick pit work.

***Andlauer said: “We started the race with a lot of confidence, but then everything was lost right after the first corner. Three cars tried to go through the corner side-by-side, which of course didn’t go well. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Our team repaired all the damage within 20 minutes. That was impressive.”

***Two LMP2 title-contending cars were also damaged in the incident, with both the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson of George Kurtz and PJ Hyett’s No. 99 AO Racing entry having spent time in the garage, including two separate visits for Kurtz.

***While losing the points lead, the work done by the Stewart Cox-led Algarve Pro Racing operation got Kurtz and co-driver Alex Quinn back on track to score ninth place class points and now sit only four points behind the Inter Europol Competition duo of Tom Dillmann and Jeremy Clarke, whose Oreca was forced into the pits late in the race after losing out on a fuel gamble.

***The No. 18 Era Motorsport entry of Nick Boulle and Christian Rasmussen ended taking top class honors in the race. Rasmussen’s last start with the Kyle Tilley-owned squad also came in the team’s last class class win, at the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

***Rasmussen said: “That is definitely the most I’ve ever fuel-saved in a race car, period. Hugo [Franch Pitarch] called the perfect strategy. Fuel save races aren’t necessarily the most fun but when you do end up on the top of the podium that makes up for it. They did a great job. I was just out there to drive it around and save it as much as I could.”

***The victory capped a busy weekend for the Indianapolis-based squad, with Era having simultaneously fielded its No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo in the Michelin 24H Barcelona and its historic racing program at the Goodwood Revival.

***Five different cars led the LMP2 race at stages, including the No. 22 United Autosports entry of Paul di Resta, whose chance of a class win was eliminated after receiving a drive-through penalty with 32 minutes to go for a pass under yellow.

***Ford Racing claimed back-to-back GTD Pro class wins at The Brickyard, but with the new-for-2026 driver pairing of Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker in the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO. It marked Olsen’s first class win since last year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona while it was Barker’s long-awaited maiden victory as a Ford factory driver, and also his first in IMSA competition.

***Barker said: “We had Resilient Racers, Noah and Piper with us, which they were awesome all weekend. They gave us the motivation. They actually gave us a little speech on the radio in the car before I started and I actually almost teared up. That was pretty special. Their motivation really got us over the line, and also him (Dennis) driving!”

***Olsen’s final-lap battle with the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg was deemed incidental by race control. Catsburg and co-driver Tommy Milner took over the points lead with their runner-up result.

***Catsburg said: “I don’t know why it was so intense. I felt like there were a million moments of contact and so on. It seemed like we were always in battles. I’m sure there will be some people upset. But there were some really nice fights. This is what IMSA is about. I had moments in the stint where I wanted to disappear and go home but in the end it was very nice.”

***BMW nearly became only the second manufacturer in WeatherTech Championship history to win all three classes in a race that it had cars entered in, with the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, which led the first 51 laps, but was caught up in multiple incidents and ultimately finished sixth in class.

***Contact between Catsburg and De Phillippi, which ripped the car’s rear bumper off, ultimately led the race’s second and final full-course caution for debris. “I really don’t know what to say,” said Verhagen. “We actually had a clean race and were in the leading group. Then, in the closing stages, our rivals started using us as a punching bag. One after the other, the other cars crashed into us.”

***Catsburg and Milner now hold a 47-point lead in the GTD Pro standings over De Phillippi and Verhagen, with Pfaff Motorsports’ Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell sitting third, just 53 points behind the Corvette duo with one race to go.

***The No. 65 Ford duo of Mies and Fred Vervisch lost significant championship ground, now 124 points behind, after the Belgian was served with a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact with De Phillippi while battling for third at the time with 20 minutes to go.

***Vervisch and Mies finished seventh in the race, one position ahead of the No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Max Esterson and Nikita Johnson, whose energy gamble came up only one lap short after staying out during the final yellow and led for 36 laps before being forced into the pit lane.

***The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward rebounded from being demoted from class pole to the rear of the starting grid after Ward missed the pit entry on the reconnaissance lap, to finish second in GTD and just fractionally maintain their championship lead. The duo, seeking their third consecutive GTD crown, now only six points ahead of Turner’s Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, who picked up their first series win since Road America 2024.

***Foley said: “With ten minutes to go, I look in my mirror and I’m like, ‘Of course, if there’s any car coming it’s the 57. Those guys… must have done a good job to get there, to P2. But for me, I had some more pace. I just tried to manage the situation as best I could.”

***Orey Fidani took over the lead of the Bob Akin Award standings with 13 Autosport’s first class podium finish of the year, thanks to Matt Bell’s last lap pass on DragonSpeed’s Giacomo Altoe for third in class in their Corvette.

***It came after the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari was handed a drive-through penalty for failure to adhere to powertrain parameters late in the running, when Frederik Schandorff was running ahead of Bell at the time.

***Fidani now holds a 30-point advantage over Brendan Iribe for the LMGT3 auto-invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Only two cars retired in the race, the first being the No. 2 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Fayer, which was also caught up in the opening lap incident, and the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which had a refueling fire during Trent Hindman’s final stop.

***Nobody was injured in the pit lane incident. “I’m happy that Dallas (fueler) and the rest of the crew guys are okay,” said Hindman. “Situations on pit lane can get pretty dicey pretty quick, and what’s most important is that everyone is okay.”

***Ricardo Juncos was spotted in the paddock over the weekend. Sportscar365 understands that Juncos, who is in the process of separating from current NTT IndyCar Series partner Brad Hollinger, is exploring a possible LMP2 effort for next year. The Argentinean did not return a request for comment from this publication.

***All attention for the remainder of this season shifts to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in ten days’ time, when WeatherTech Championship teams unload for the 29th annual Petit Le Mans. The ten-hour enduro is set for a 12:10 p.m. EST start on Sat. Oct. 3, with live coverage on network NBC and Peacock and internationally on IMSA’s YouTube channel.

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