Farfus Leads at Halfway After No. 30 WRT BMW Penalty

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

The No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Augusto Farfus led the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS at the halfway mark, following a costly penalty for the sister No. 30 BMW of Dries Vanthoor.

Farfus held a 30-second advantage over the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon and the Dani Juncadella-driven No. 999 GruppeM Racing Merc at the four-hour mark of the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli and Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS enduro.

The pair of WRT BMWs, which ran 1-2 in the opening hour, swapped positions several times, including a race control-enforced re-order following contact between Vanthoor and Maxime Martin.

Charles Weerts then picked up the lead in the fourth hour when Vanthoor was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for his No. 30 BMW exceeding the 65-minute maximum stint length by 11 seconds.

It dropped the BMW, now in the hands of Sheldon van der Linde, to fourth, ahead of the Fanatec GT Pro class-leading No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen, who led the No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW of Bill Auberlen.

There was also drama for the No. 31 BMW, which pitted early in the fourth hour due to a slow puncture.

Pro-Am was led by the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes of Nolan Siegel, following Colin Braun’s hard-fought battle with championship rival Elliott Skeer in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche, which ran second in class now in the hands of Callum Ilott.

The two cars have been in a neck-and-neck fight for the Fanatec GT class title.

The race saw a full-course caution in the second hour for the No. 91 DXDT Mercedes of Jeff Burton, who was in the Pro-Am mix until stopping on track.

A drive-through penalty for the No. 27 TR3 Racing Mercedes of Kenton Koch, due to a pit stop violation while the team was forced to perform a transponder change, dropped another Pro-Am-contending car out of contention, meanwhile.

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