Indianapolis Post-Race Notebook

***BMW and Team WRT became the first manufacturer and team, respectively, to win the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS in consecutive years by successfully defending its 2023 win. Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor, meanwhile, are the first drivers to have won the event more than once after they took victory last year alongside Philipp Eng.

***Additionally, BMW further extended its record as the winningest manufacturer at The Brickyard by climbing to three overall wins. Audi and Mercedes-AMG have both won the event once since the inaugural running in 2020.

***Of note, the victory for Team WRT and BMW marks the second time a Shell-liveried car was victorious at Indianapolis this year. When Josef Newgarden took his second consecutive Indianapolis 500 win with Team Penske in May, he did so in a car similarly liveried to the No. 31 BMW that Vanthoor drove to victory on Saturday evening.

***With 320 laps completed, Van der Linde, Vanthoor and Charles Weerts fell short of the event’s distance record of 332 laps set last year. The lower lap count was thanks in large part to a significant increase of safety cars compared to a year ago, when the race was interrupted just once. This time, the safety car came out six times.

***Weerts became the 11th driver to be crowned Intercontinental GT Challenge drivers’ champion on Saturday. Previously, the title was won by Laurens Vanthoor, Markus Winkelhock, Tristan Vautier, Dennis Olsen, Nicky Catsburg, Augusto Farfus, Come Ledogar, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon. The series has still not crowned a repeat champion since its inaugural season in 2016.

***By grabbing the full 25 available points, Weerts leapfrogged both Laurens Vanthoor and Ayhancan Guven to claim the title. Notably, his co-drivers van der Linde and Vanthoor tied the pair of Porsche drivers on 50 points, resulting in four different drivers finishing second in the standings. Mikael Grenier, meanwhile, finished third on 48 points as a result of a podium for GruppeM Racing.

***In the manufacturers’ standings, Porsche narrowly held off BMW to claim its third title by a difference of just ten points (129 vs. 119). A fourth-placed IGTC finish for the No. 85 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jake Pedersen, Kay van Berlo and Trent Hindman swung the points battle in Porsche’s favor, despite Wright Motorsports losing the battle for overall victory to WRT.

***The second-place finish for Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer and Laurin Heinrich was the best overall result for a Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS entry since they were designated as a separate class last year. Last year, Wright finished fourth with a Porsche piloted by Hindman, Jan Heylen and Madison Snow.

***Antares Au succeeded Jonathan Hui as the Independent Cup champion, having lost out to his compatriot by just four points last year. Au came into the title decider with a healthy lead over Prince Jefri Ibrahim and had his championship sealed when the No. 888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo retired after suffering fuel pump problems.

***Fanatec GT America, meanwhile, had first-time champions crowned in both classes. Adelson and Skeer succeed Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer as champions in the Pro category, while Justin Rothberg and Robby Foley became champions in Pro-Am for the first time.

***For Turner Motorsport, Saturday’s Pro-Am success marked its tenth championship title racing with BMW, dating back to a 2003 World Challenge Touring Car title with Bill Auberlen. Its most recent championship success prior to Saturday’s finale came last year, with joint championships in the IMSA VP SportsCar Challenge and Michelin Pilot Challenge. The achievement comes in a year where the Will Turner-led stable became the team with more BMW starts than anyone in the world back in May.

***By his own admission, Rothberg wasn’t prepared for the possibility of winning the title entering the event with a 33-point deficit to ST Racing and thus did not pack any formalwear for SRO America’s end-of-season banquet on Sunday night. “I’ll see what Indy has to offer, suit wise,” Rothberg told Sportscar365. “Worst case scenario, I think Robby and I will just wear our fire suits.”

***Despite a troubled run that saw the No. 4 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG struggle with electrical issues throughout, Alex Palou described his first GT3 appearance since 2019 as “overall a good experience,” adding: “Big shame, but it’s racing. At least we got a bunch of laps, a bunch of knowledge so looking forward to the next one.”

***When asked by Sportscar365 if he would be open to return to the Indy 8H in 2025, Palou replied: “If time allows, I’ll do it. We’re busy, but I love to be at the racetrack, so it’s better than being at home watching races.”

***WRT team principal Vincent Vosse indicated that further analysis would be required to determine the cause of the diffuser failure that ultimately led to retirement for the No. 33 BMW driven by Augusto Farfus, Max Hesse and Dan Harper.

***Vosse told Sportscar365: “We could see that all the attachments were broken. We could not really repair it properly because it takes much more than just putting a new diffuser on. We will look at all the video, all the onboards, to try to find out when it happened and if it was due to a contact.”

***GruppeM Racing team owner Kenny Chen described third place overall for Grenier, Gounon and Maro Engel as “the very best we could achieve,” criticizing the performance of the Mercedes-AMG compared to other brands.

***Chen said: “Our car was very well prepared, all three drivers did a fantastic job, and we had a smooth race with faultless pit-stops. In my opinion, the BoP was not very fair comparing the performance of other cars to the Mercedes-AMG GT3, especially on the straights, so I’m very happy with the result and to be the best-placed Mercedes-AMG team, we couldn’t have done any better.”

***Despite his dissatisfaction, Chen told Sportscar365 that GruppeM plans to once again contest the full IGTC campaign next year. The team will now focus on the FIA GT World Cup at Macau, with Chen revealing that Maro Engel is set to fulfill driving duties for the squad at the Macau Guia Circuit.

***SunEnergy1 Racing saw a competitive run in Pro-Am come to a premature end when the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG suffered a terminal rear axle failure with under two hours remaining, an issue that came as a result of early-race contact between team owner/driver Kenny Habul and Flying Lizard Motorsports driver driver Elias Sabo.

***Habul told pit lane reporter Amanda Busick on the official Indy 8H broadcast: “The rear axle is melted. It looked pretty hot in there. That’s the wheel that took the hit from that wombat in the BMW. It came back to bite us. It was a little crooked all day and the bearings have overheated.”

***The Australian praised the effort of Mercedes-AMG factory driver Lucas Auer, who kept the car in contention for Pro-Am honors despite racing with bent steering. “Luggi did an amazing job,” said Habul. ‘This guy is one in a million. That car didn’t even drive straight. Everything was bent and he was still pulling amazing times. But that’s the way it goes.”

***With this year’s IGTC season completed, focus now turns to the Bathurst 12 Hour on Feb. 2, which forms the opening round of a calendar that features the return of Suzuka for the first time since 2019.

Christopher DeHarde contributed to this report