INDIANAPOLIS — At a track known widely for its more than century-long history, a fictional prehistoric creature added a new chapter to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway record books.
AO Racing brought back its green “Rexy” dinosaur livery on its No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) for the six-hour TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, supplanting its pink sister “Roxy” which adorned the car the last two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races at Road America and VIRginia International Raceway.
And after unexpected adversity, the pair of Laurin Heinrich and Michael Christensen authored a comeback for the ages with a last-to-first, title-push bolstering third victory of the season for the team in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO).
For both drivers, it is their third career WeatherTech Championship win, albeit in different ways. Heinrich has won all three this year (WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Streets of Detroit). Christensen won the 2014 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in GT Le Mans (GTLM) and 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona in GT Daytona (GTD), so this is his third win in as many different classes and in as many different IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races.
Heinrich qualified the No. 77 Porsche fastest of the 35 cars entered in the two GT classes at the 2.439-mile, 14-turn IMS road course. However, the car was sent to the rear of the field for not meeting the minimum ground clearance, so it rolled off 56th and last overall and 13th and last in GTD PRO.
What appeared a setback transitioned into a challenge, one which Heinrich accepted with open arms, especially as cloudy skies shifted to consistent to persistent rain for most of the first three hours.
After the first hour, Heinrich had gained 33 spots overall and rose to 23rd overall and fourth in GTD PRO. Heinrich pitted under a lengthy early full-course yellow, just under 90 minutes into the race, and handed off to Christensen where the team could deploy its intended strategy.
The pivotal moment of the race occurred on the final pit stop sequence with just over one hour remaining. Entering the pits third, the AO Racing crew propelled the No. 77 Porsche to the lead ahead of the leading No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 and No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Heinrich extended the gap from the restart and ultimately secured the class victory by 12.527 seconds over Mike Rockenfeller, who shared the No. 64 Ford with Harry Tincknell to deliver that pair its second straight runner-up finish.
“I think starting from the very back, with many cars in front of me, I had a lot of other drivers I was racing where I could have got over-ambitious,” Heinrich explained. “So I thought, ‘Don’t rush too much.’ I wanted to get them one-by-one and it worked well.
“The start was a bit difficult, because the race started and I was only in Turn 12! That was a bit weird. But I think it was better and more stretched out, a bit calmer. Soon I realized we had good pace, could fuel save when I could, and took them one by one. It was good to prove to myself I could do that if I had to.”
Antonio Garcia claimed the final podium place for the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R, in the car he shared with Alexander Sims. Garcia captured the spot after a daring inside move of Jack Hawksworth, in the No. 14 Lexus, at Turn 13 three laps from the finish.
Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat were fourth with Heinrich’s closest championship rival, Ross Gunn, ending fifth in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo he shared with Alex Riberas.
Heinrich entered the weekend just 17 points ahead of Gunn (2,519 to 2,502). Despite the qualifying setback, with the win for AO and Gunn’s fifth-place finish, that gap is now extended to 99 points (2,887 to 2,788) heading to the season finale at Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.