Finalized Indy 8H Entry List Released

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

The finalized entry list for this weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS has been released, confirming driver lineups for each of the 25 cars entered for the Intercontinental GT Challenge and GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season finale.

Confirmed late last week, the entry for the GT3 enduro at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is down by two cars from the originally published provisional entry list last month.

Both the No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and No. 2 Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo are no longer taking part in the race, although Racers Edge will be present on the GT America powered by AWS grid with Jason Bell.

In addition to 75 Express’ switch from Pro-Am to Pro, featuring two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Will Power and Australian Supercars star Chaz Mostert joining Kenny Habul, the No. 61 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R will also contest the top class after initially having no category designation.

Bronze-rated Adrian D’Silva will be joined by Porsche-contracted drivers Sven Mueller and Ricardo Feller.

It boosts the Pro class, which is unified between IGTC and GTWC America competitors through a minimum single Silver-driver mandate, to 11 entries.

Fellow Porsche driver Alessio Picariello will join the full season GTWC America RS1 pairing of Alex Sedgwick and Jan Heylen in the team’s No. 16 Porsche, while Wright Motorsports will also have a Pro class Porsche, retaining last year’s GTWC America Pro class-winning lineup of Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer and Porsche-contracted driver Laurin Heinrich.

In addition to 75 Express, there will be three other Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos in the top class, with GTWC America title contender JMF Motorsports drafting in factory ace Lucas Auer to join fellow works driver Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens in the No. 34 entry.

Lone Star Racing will have Silver-rated Lin Hodenius alongside factory aces Jules Gounon and Maxime Martin, while GruppeM will utilize Silver-rated Tom Kalender with factory stars Maro Engel and Luca Stolz.

BMW, which holds a 17-point lead over Porsche in the IGTC manufacturers’ championship, will have four M4 GT3 EVOs in the top class, led by defending overall winners Team WRT and featuring Valentino Rossi in the No. 46 entry with IGTC points leader Kelvin van der Linde and reigning series champion Charles Weerts.

The Belgian squad’s No. 777 entry will have Silver-rated Al Faisal Al Zubair with Augusto Farfus and Raffaele Marciello, who trails van der Linde by five points. They are the only two drivers in the running for the globe-trotting GT3 series drivers’ crown.

GTWC America Pro points leaders Random Vandals Racing will have Conor Daly (No. 99) and BMW factory driver Philipp Eng (No. 51) reinforce its two lineups, with the No. 99 car of Kenton Koch and Connor De Philippi currently holding an 15-point lead over JMF’s Stephens and Grenier heading into the double points-paying round.

The 12-car Pro-Am class sees an influx of IGTC competitors, including a two-car Porsche entry from Herberth Motorsport, featuring Independent Cup co-points leader Ralf Bohn in the No. 7 entry with Rolf Ineichen and Robert Renauer.

Herberth’s second No. 21 entry will see American Bronze-rated driver Dustin Blattner make his Porsche return alongside season-long GTWC Europe co-driver Dennis Marschall and Alfred Renauer.

After winning the Suzuka 1000km in Bronze class, Antares Au, who is tied with Bohn for the IGTC Independent Cup points lead, has aligned with Wright for his entry alongside Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver Loek Hartog and Porsche-contracted driver Patric Niederhauser.

GTWC America Porsche squad GMG Racing will have Porsche star Klaus Bachler join Kyle Washington and PMNA Selected Driver Tom Sargent in the No. 32 entry.

Turner Motorsport, which leads the GTWC America Pro-Am standings with Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg, will have Patrick Gallagher as its third driver in the No. 29 BMW.

Foley and Rothberg have a 19-point lead over DXDT Racing’s Matt Bell and Blake McDonald, who will be joined by team regular Alec Udell in the No. 36 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Corvette factory star Nicky Catsburg, meanwhile, joins the Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Corvette pairing of Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo, also in Pro-Am.

CrowdStrike by Riley will return to GTWC America competition for the first time since the season opener at Sonoma Raceway, with Colin Braun, George Kurtz and Toby Sowery in its No. 04 Mercedes-AMG, with Dutchman Daan Arrow joining full season drivers Philip Ellis and Jeff Burton in the No. 91 Regulator Racing entry.

Other Pro-Am entries include GTWC America regulars Archangel Motorsports (McLaren 720S GT3 Evo) with third driver Thomas Merrill, Heart of Racing Team (Aston Martin) with Zach Robichon and the No. 16 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Marcelo and Christian Hahn plus Allam Khodair.

AF Corse’s Am class Ferrari, which trails Scott Dollahite by just 3.5 points in GTWC America competition, will see Conrad Grunewald join the season-long pairing of Ozz Negri and Jay Schreibman.

Dollahite Racing’s No. 6 Ford Mustang GT3, meanwhile, will be reinforced by Proton Competition FIA World Endurance Championship driver Stefano Gattuso alongside Dollahite and Eric Powell.

Track action kicks off on Wednesday with a 90-minute test session.

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