INDIANAPOLIS — And now for something completely different … again.
It seems we could open every “What to Watch For” with that phrase, given the variety of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar where no two events are truly identical.
This week’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway follows that line again as it marks the first and only standard length, two-hour and 40-minute, sprint race of 2026 with all four WeatherTech Championship classes.
As the race has been at a six-hour length the last two years, it’s going to require a different approach.
Different Mindset
The race length reduction increases the importance of pre-race preparation and, particularly, qualifying. With two to three stops expected throughout the field, teams have fewer opportunities to go off sequence and/or atone for a poor starting position.
“With it being a sprint race you’ve got less time to make up ground if something happens,” says Jordan Taylor, driver of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and a winner in every city on the IMSA calendar – except Indianapolis.
“If you had a penalty or make a mistake or didn’t qualify well, the weekend will be a little more stressful just knowing that we have to qualify well and always be at the front, and to make sure we’re in a good position fight for the race win in the end.”
Inception Racing started 15th out of 18 Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) entries, 50th of 53 cars overall, last year. But with three drivers and an ability to execute differently, Frederik Schandorff, Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy brought their No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 to their first win. Repeating will be a tougher task for Schandorff and Iribe, the team’s full-season pair.
“In a sprint race, there’s not much strategy to do, really,” Schandorff says. “Usually, we attempt to do better in the endurance races, where there’s a bit more opportunities to do a little bit more strategy.”
Ironically, the No. 70 car has been the top finishing Bronze-rated GTD car in all four sprint races this year, despite its previous endurance prowess. But they do have momentum after a third-place finish among all GTD entries last time out at Virginia International Raceway.
Different Strokes
The WeatherTech Championship Manufacturer titles are still in doubt, although the GTP and Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) leaders have healthy margins. Cadillac leads Porsche by 112 points (2,562 to 2,450) in GTP, with Chevrolet leading BMW by 87 points (2,648 to 2,561) with Ford (2,550) and Porsche (2,512) lurking.
Mercedes-AMG leads GTD by just 20 points over Ferrari (2,634 to 2,614), with Aston Martin third and only 54 back (2,580).
The top-scoring car per manufacturer nets the Manufacturer’s Championship points each race, so that aids manufacturers running multiple cars. That’s had an outsized effect on GTD PRO, where Chevrolet and Ford’s two-car efforts have helped them compared to single-car full-season programs from the remaining GTD PRO manufacturers.
Case in point, while defending GTD PRO champions Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims are unlikely to repeat, they can still play a key role in helping their teammates Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner win the driver title and additionally secure the manufacturer crown.
“It’s disappointing that the (drivers) championship is over for us and not something that we are used to,” says Garcia, who like Taylor also hasn’t won at Indianapolis and shares the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Sims. “But there is still the Manufacturer’s Championship for us and to help Tommy and Nicky so the Drivers Championship can stay with the team.”
Ford has momentum on the heels of a double podium at VIR, with the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 of Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen ahead of the No. 65 of Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies. The No. 65 pair remains fully in GTD PRO title contention, fifth and 67 points back, and as Barker noted the goal for the No. 64 pair will be to help where possible depending on the situation and/or weather conditions.
“The Manufacturer’s is very important to us at Ford Racing,” Barker says. “The 64 is not in the fight for the driver’s championship, unfortunately. (But) we have the advantage of having two cars, so we very much help the sister car where we can for their championships. Manufacturer’s is top of the list as far as importance is concerned. So, I think getting either Mustang as high as possible is key.”
In contrast, given that the Paul Miller Racing entry is BMW’s lone representative in GTD PRO, Neil Verhagen and co-driver Connor De Phillippi have a very straightforward mission at Indianapolis: maximize their points haul in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO. They enter up 23 points over Catsburg and Milner in the No. 4 Corvette. Teammates? What teammates?
“Since it’s just been Connor and I for the full season, and we haven’t had any substitutions, I think the goal is very clear,” says Verhagen. “Every race that we can win, every point that we can take helps (in the Driver, Team and Manufacturer Championships). Obviously, not having a second PRO car hurts in some situations, which I think is why we have fallen away a little bit in the Manufacturer Championship. You know, we only need to worry about the Drivers and the Team’s Championships, so that’s where our focus lies.”
The aforementioned Bob Akin Award battle between Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Ferrari and two-time defending winner Orey Fidani in 13 Autosport’s No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R is also intense, with Iribe only 20 points clear of Fidani. It will come down to the wire once again in the pursuit of both the award and IMSA’s invitation to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“Our main goal is the Le Mans entry,” says Schandorff. “We are so tight in points that basically, if (Orey) Fidani finishes ahead of us in Indianapolis, if we finish second (in Bronze), he will be leading the championship going towards the final round. So, of course, we want to make sure that we finish the Indianapolis race, and hopefully in front of him as well. Because it’s gonna be all down to the final race, so for sure, both of us need to make sure we are coming to the checkered flag for both races to have an opportunity to go to Le Mans next year.”
What’s Four?
Combine 44 cars and four categories of competition with a 2.439-mile road course and you’ll likely get a lot of action, with potential paint trading on hand. But that’s the nature of the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, be it a sprint or endurance race.
“It’s a fun track in traffic,” says Mikkel Jensen, co-driver of the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 with Phil Fayer. Jensen is undefeated in three previous LMP2 starts at Indianapolis. “The traffic makes it very demanding through turns 7-8-9, which is super tight. A lot of action there every year, and the multi-class racing at this track, I think, is fantastic.”
The two straightaways end in heavy braking zones (aka passing opportunities) followed by technical (aka twisty) sections in Turns 1 through 6 and, later, Turns 7-8-9.
The heavy braking zones offer the best opportunity for overtaking, all the more so given that a quick car can lose gobs of time stuck behind traffic in the ensuing twisty bits. The combination can be an invitation to aggressive and, at times, overly aggressive driving.
“Indy offers the two long straights but it gets tight between Turn 1, Turn 2, and then into the long Turn 3,” says Verhagen. “Then as well after the back straight having the esses section. (That) obviously provides an advantage for a prototype to get and put a separation between him and another prototype by overtaking. It definitely shifts the focus for them to be a little bit more aggressive on some of those overtakes.”
“I did the race two years ago in a GTD Mustang (and) I think I probably got hit about 10 times by prototypes,” Barker laughs, “so it’s definitely a bit of door bashing going on. The speeds are kind of matched between GT and prototype in quite a lot of places, so although there are two fairly long straights, it can get tight.
“I think patience is a virtue, especially for the prototypes through that middle section.”
Come Sunday we’ll see how many competitors heed Barker’s philosophy of patience.
