Overall Indy Win Not on Minds of Fanatec GT Title Contenders

The overall Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS win is not on the minds of candidates for the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS title this weekend.

Fanatec GT teams have their own Pro class at Indianapolis due to the requirement for a Silver-rated driver in each car, but the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by AWS teams no longer need to observe this rule and have brought all-factory lineups.

However, two of the Fanatec GT title challengers told Sportscar365 that they intend to pick their battles as they focus on trying to overcome the points deficit to series leaders Stevan McAleer and Eric Filgueiras, rather than trying to upset the IGTC runners.

“It could be quite even, but I’m not really focused on this right now,” said Mario Farnbacher, who shares the Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 with Kyle Marcelli and Ashton Harrison.

“For us, the only competitors are in GT World Challenge America and I’m not really focusing on the IGTC cars so much.

“We are driving for the championship now, and our focus is to win this championship and not do high-risk moves or get run over by somebody else. Our focus in general is to keep an eye on the class win and the championship.

“You need to be smart. It would be a nice outcome if we won overall, but for us it’s better to minimize the risk and go for the win in our class.”

BimmerWorld driver Bill Auberlen had similar sentiments when asked if his team is looking to challenge for the outright win.

Auberlen is sharing the No. 94 BMW M4 GT3 with his Silver-rated Fanatec GT co-driver Chandler Hull and Indianapolis addition Robby Foley.

“The lineups are great: we’ve got Robby or myself for the end of the race,” Auberlen told Sportscar365.

“If we get the setup right, we’ll be in the hunt. And yes, it would be great to win overall, but that is not my priority at all. The priority is to win this championship.

“If it gets too crazy heavy overall but we’re leading our class, I will let it go.”

However, Auberlen acknowledged that he won’t back down if there’s a chance to win the race overall in the closing stages.

“On day one we were P1 overall in the morning [test] session, so it’s not like we’re out of it,” he said.

“I’ve driven against, and with, all these [IGTC] guys. They’re the best in the world. But if we get this car working pretty well, and Robby and I know this car pretty well, we could give them a fight.

“We won’t get weird with them, and I hope they don’t with us. But if it comes down to a few laps from the end, we’re racing to the end at that point.”

Not every Fanatec GT team is involved in the title chase and one of them, Wright Motorsports, is targeting the overall victory rather than just a regional Pro class win.

“The idea of being not just competitive against GT World Challenge America teams at this race, but being competitive overall, that was the intention,” said Wright driver Trent Hindman, who shares the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 R with Jan Heylen and Madison Snow.

“I think that’s why you bring a guy like Madison in to make that happen.

“We’ve got, in my opinion, one of, if not the highest, level of organizations in the paddock, especially with the individual personnel that we have here and the amount of experience they’ve got.

“It’s IGTC’s only round in the U.S. so you want to do well and represent what this nation has to offer in terms of sports car racing prowess.”

Although they have a lineup advantage over the Fanatec GT Pro teams, the IGTC Pro drivers are not discounting the potential for an upset.

“Potentially [there could be one] with the way the safety cars fall,” said Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing driver Maro Engel.

“Anything is possible, I guess. On paper it should be somewhere between us four cars – our two Pro cars and the two BMW Pro cars – but nothing is guaranteed.

“There could be something left field that suddenly has a chance to take the spoils. There are quite a few other cars with some strong drivers on them. So we’ll keep an eye on them.”

Silver Mandate in Pro to Continue Next Year

Fanatec GT’s American series expects to continue its Silver driver requirement in each Pro lineup next season according to SRO America President and CEO Greg Gill.

The rule was introduced after the first round of the 2022 season to give a wider spread of teams the chance to compete for overall wins.

“We continue to like the classification we have in Fanatec GT World Challenge America,” Gill told Sportscar365.

“It works for us.  As we see the growth in GTD and GTD Pro, it’s going to create more opportunity and we’ll see what happens. But for 2024, the classes will stay the same.”

Gill also explained that the re-admission of unrestricted driver lineups at the Indy 8H came after SRO America adapted to requests from the IGTC competitors.

“After last year people felt that because of our Silver requirement, they were disappointed and they wanted to be able to run their Platinums and bring them in,” he said.

“It was an easy decision to do that and make it for the IGTC teams. They make a decision about where to run and continue in the championship.

“If they had to change their driver make-up…  It was easier for us to move and make that fit the global series rather than ask the global series to fit us.”

John Dagys contributed to this report