Thomas: TDS Indy Three-Peat “Special for Anybody in Racing”

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Steven Thomas said winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the third consecutive year is “special for anybody in racing” as Thomas, co-driver Mikkel Jensen and TDS Racing scored an unprecedented three-peat in the Battle on the Bricks.

The French squad claimed LMP2 class honors in Sunday’s six-hour enduro, which went the way of Bronze-rated Thomas, Peugeot factory driver Jensen and Australian open-wheel ace Hunter McElrea.

Remarkably, it was TDS Racing’s fifth IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win, with three of them coming at The Brickyard, where it remains undefeated since the series’ return to the track in 2023.

“I think we were fortunate to race at two iconic places in this series, Indy and Daytona,” said Thomas. “Every track is fantastic, but the history at those two places is pretty amazing.

“So to be able to come back here, and IMSA has raced here in LMP2 three times, to win all three and get to kiss the bricks three straight times, that’s special for anybody in racing.”

Jensen added: “We always have a great car coming here. I think it shows after three wins in a row, so we’re very confident here.”

While the No. 2 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson led a race-high 55 laps, it was Jensen who emerged in the class lead in the final 15 minutes after passing the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR entry of Toby Sowery, who eventually crashed and brought out the race’s final full-course caution with nine minutes to go.

“It got a little to be a fuel saving race in P2, which is not really the case normally, which made it difficult,” explained Jensen.

“You didn’t know what the strategy was of the others really after the first stint where you could see how many laps everybody were doing.

“We were afraid that we were over-consuming and not doing enough laps.

“But I think after the first pit stop we saw that everything was under control compared to what the other guys are doing, and from then on we were quite comfortable and just tried to stay out of trouble.

“I had to get the United cars [and had] a late dive on the outside on Paul di Resta, locked up a bit because we had to go for it, got back to third as the other United car came through and had to pass both of them again.

“It was a hard race, and once we got in the lead, we just had the pace to pull away.”

The highlight of the LMP2 race came with 30 minutes to go when the the United Autosports entries of di Resta and Ben Hanley, as well as the No. 43 Inter Europol car of Tom Dillmann all came together while battling for third in class at the time.

Jensen was unsure if the incident, which occurred behind him on track, played to any benefit, although Dillmann managed to rebound to finish second, seven-tenths behind the No. 11 TDS machine at the checkered flag.

“We pulled a great gap of I think 23 seconds before the yellow at the end,” explained Jensen.

“So obviously it made the gap bigger than it would have been, but I think we were comfortable the fastest two days. I don’t think it made any difference.

“At the end we had the yellow anyway, which spiced up everything with two laps to go.”

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