INDIANAPOLIS — As the 2026 TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks slated to be a 2-hour and 40-minute race, Sunday was the last time the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship runs a six-hour race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the foreseeable future.
It went out with a “bang.”
Sure, there were “bangs” aplenty among the 53 starters during the course of the event. But the biggest bang of all came from the fierce competition that came down to the final two or three minutes of the 360-minute event.
Even before a (very) late full course caution, the outcomes of all four of the WeatherTech Championship’s categories were in doubt before the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series R, the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07, the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 and the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 took the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) victories.
Kudos All ‘Round
The race featured a cornucopia of impressive performances, none more than Jack Aitken coaxing the No. 31 Cadillac to the win on fumes, despite pressure from Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac who, if anything, was even lower on energy after rolling the proverbial dice on what turned out to be the race’s next to last restart. Rather than conserve, Taylor the WTR squad went for broke in the hopes of gaining ground while banking on another full course caution.
“We were last at the restart,” Taylor said. “May as well try something. So, they gave me an energy target, but track position was the most important thing. So that was kind of fun to be able to try and move forward.
“Then once we got to P4 it was looking like the energy we’d saved, with a short yellow at the end would be enough to make it. So why not try and go for the win on full push? So, it was fun.”
Meanwhile, the trio of Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea hit a Brickyard triple in LMP2 win in their No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA.
“IMSA has raced here in LMP2 three times, so to win all three and get to kiss the bricks three straight times, that’s special for anybody in racing,” Thomas said.
Despite – or perhaps because – they’d won in 2023 and 24, TDS didn’t take anything for granted.
“We really got after it in our two days testing here, just like we never won here before,” Thomas continued. “We tried to approach it like yes, we’re already at this level on this track, but we need to get better. Honestly, we got better at the testing and when we showed up here in P1 (Practice 1) we were better than we’ve ever been.”
Arguably the day’s most unexpected win came in GTD, where Ollie Milroy, Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff brought the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 from 15th on the grid to victory lane. The win came on the anniversary of Inception’s new alliance with Ferrari, having switched from McLaren at this race last year.
“It’s a very different philosophy to the McLaren,” said Milroy. “You know we kind of went into it thinking, ‘Oh it should be quite similar. You know the engine’s in roughly the same place, it looks kind of similar . . . you’re not going from a mid-engine to a front engine car or anything like that.’
“But actually it’s a very different philosophy . . . It’s still a relatively new car anyway, especially to us, but obviously it’s only in its second season. So, there’s some teething problems which we’re figuring out. It’s been a massive task for the team and they’ve done a really good job.”
Like the Inception crew, the GTD PRO winners had their work cut out for them after an imperfect qualifying set-up left Mike Rockenfeller and Seb Priaulx seventh on the grid. Worse, after working their way to the front, the No. 64 Mustang was penalized for a pit road infraction and Rockenfeller and Priaulx had to do it all over again.
“We got a penalty and had to fight our way back,” Rockenfeller said. “We had to work our way through this race many times, actually, but I think our strength was in the long runs. I handed the car over in P2, I think I was P7 when I started my stint. So that was cool. And then Sebby fell back to P3 from the pit stop, but did an amazing job like always. It’s our first year driving together, and I think from the beginning it worked super well. A great combo.”
Clean Sweep Still Possible
With the No. 31 Cadillac’s win in the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks just a day after the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Cupra Leon VZ TCR scored the Spanish auto maker’s first IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge win, 17 of 18 manufacturers competing in IMSA’s various sanctioned championships have notched at least one victory with one event remaining on the 2025 calendar.
Here’s the rundown of the first 10 of 11 winners in the WeatherTech Championship, with their first win of the 2025 season in GTP, GTD PRO and/or GTD:
- Acura (GTP/Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic)
- Aston Martin (GTD/Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen)
- Cadillac (GTP/TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks)
- Chevrolet (GTD/Rolex 24 At Daytona)
- Ferrari (GTD PRO/Chevrolet Grand Prix at CTMP)
- Ford (GTD PRO/Rolex 24 At Daytona)
- Lamborghini (GTD/Chevrolet GP)
- Mercedes-AMG (GTD/Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring)
- Porsche (GTP/Rolex 24)
Next comes the Michelin Pilot Challenge with its Grand Sport (GS) and Touring Car (TCR) classes:
- Audi (TCR/Virginia is for Lovers Grand Prix at VIRginia International Raceway)
- BMW (GS/Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring International Raceway)
- Cupra (TCR, IMS 120)
- Honda (TCR/LP Building Solutions 120 at The Glen, Watkins Glen)
- Hyundai (TCR/BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona)
- McLaren (GS, Daytona)
Not to be outdone, Toyota’s GR Supra GT4 Evo2 is batting 1.000 in the GSX Class of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge through 10 races.
Last but not least, you’ll be shocked to learn that Mazda has won each and every event in the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup (likewise Ferrari in Ferrari Challenge, Ford in Mustang Challenge, Lamborghini in Super Trofeo North America and Porsche in Porsche Carrera Cup North America).
Heading to Motul Petit Le Mans, Lexus is the only manufacturer still looking for a win in IMSA competition this season. Not to worry, given the fact that Vasser Sullivan Racing fields Lexus RC F GT3s in both GTD and GTD Pro, the marque still has two chances to notch a W at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta (and give IMSA’s 18 manufacturers a clean sweep in 2025) the weekend of October 8-11.
Road Course Love
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile, 14-turn infield road course is, by its nature, artificial. The gut-churning elevation changes of WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the pastoral beauty of Road America and VIRginia International Raceway or the flowing, high commitment sequences of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Watkins Glen International are nowhere to be found.
The more WeatherTech Championship events I attend at IMS, the more I warm to its road course. Watching from either side of the road course’s first turn – be it the spectator banks on the drivers’ right or the grandstands on the opposite side of the track – is every bit as entertaining as Road America’s Turn 5. Either side of the road affords a virtually unobstructed view of the long pit straightaway and a braking zone where a lap seldom passes without an overtaking maneuver or three; not to mention the uniquely dramatic view back along the straightaway lined by the speedway’s majestic grandstands and Tower Terrace.
The rapid fire sequence of turns 1-2-3-4, leading to the high speed Turn 5/6 chicane is as technical as any section of race track on the WeatherTech Championship calendar; similarly the Turn 7-8-9-10 complex requires precision to extract a quick qualifying lap, to say nothing of enabling (indeed encouraging) side-by-side competition in the race itself – this immediately following another prime overtaking spot where the cars slow at the end of the Hulman Boulevard all of which is, again, in plain view from the ample spectator banks.
Then there’s one final twisty bit featuring the oval’s Turn 2 and another technical section leading the blast along half mile of straightaway to start another lap.
All this plus the opportunity to wander around Gasoline Alley, the Garage Area and, time permitting, pay a visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, makes the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks a must for sports car racing fans and a signature event on the WeatherTech Championship calendar be it as a six-hour endurance race (as it has been the past couple of years) or as the sprint race it will be in 2026 and, as announced Sunday morning, into the future.
