INDIANAPOLIS — Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was less than half the length of its previous six-hour distance, but the final minutes of the new two-hour, 40-minute race distance delivered in spades.
There was drama across all four classes.
Sheldon van der Linde made the winning pass in the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 on Earl Bamber into Turn 12 with just five and a half minutes to go. The South African darted his No. 24 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) car to the inside of both Bamber’s No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R and the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3, with Bamber opting to stay outside and maintain track position to aid Jack Aitken’s championship charge.
Van der Linde shared the winning No. 24 BMW with Dries Vanthoor. The BMW M Hybrid V8 won at Indianapolis two years ago with the then-BMW M Team RLL and drivers Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn at the six-hour length. But this marks the first IMSA win for the new WRT operation, which took over the BMW IMSA GTP program for 2026.
The No. 31 Cadillac of Bamber and Aitken was second, 2.926 seconds behind, with the revised lineup of Laurin Heinrich and Kevin Estre third in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 returning that team to the podium for the first time since Long Beach in April. Aitken unofficially holds a 147-point lead over Heinrich.
Era Motorsport debuted a new-look lineup with 2024 IMSA Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) champion Nick Boulle and one of its past Rolex 24 At Daytona class winning drivers, INDYCAR Series race winner Christian Rasmussen, and won in LMP2 with its No. 18 ORECA LMP2 07.
A heavy fuel save strategy netted the No. 18 car the top spot while three championship contending entries from Inter Europol Competition, CrowdStrike Racing by APR and AO Racing all had challenging days. Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen’s No. 52 car and United Autosports USA’s No. 22 car completed the podium. Unofficially, Inter Europol’s pair leads CrowdStrike by APR’s pair by a fraction of points.
The Ford and Chevrolet battle waged late in GTD PRO, with Dennis Olsen emerging ahead of Nicky Catsburg to return the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 to victory lane for the first time since this race last year. Then called Ford Multimatic Motorsports, Mike Rockenfeller and Seb Priaulx shared the winning entry last year while today Olsen and Ben Barker scored the win ahead of Catsburg and Tommy Milner in their No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
As Olsen and Catsburg fought for the lead on the final lap, there was a review of their battle but no action taken following incidental contact. Pfaff Motorsports’ No. 9 Lamborghini Temerario GT3 finished third. Catsburg and Milner unofficially now lead the GTD PRO standings.
In Grand Touring Daytona (GTD), Turner Motorsport held on for its first win in more than two years with Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley sharing the No. 96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO. They were meant to start second behind Winward Racing’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of points leaders Philip Ellis and Russell Ward, but a penalty assessed for a pre-race infraction dropped them to the rear of the field. They nearly completed a last-to-first charge but ended second, just 0.501 of a second in arrears. The 13 Autosport No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R (Matt Bell, Orey Fidani) completed the podium in third.
