DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — What’s in a number? When it comes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the magic number has long been 33, as in the number of cars that have started all but three Indianapolis 500s since 1934. This weekend, however, 56 cars are expected to compete in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, the penultimate round of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. To be more precise, that’s 11 Grand Touring Prototypes (GTP), 10 more in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, 13 in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and 22 in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD).
And speaking of numbers, Sunday’s race is slated to run for six hours, making it the fourth of five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events on the calendar. So, with 56 of the world’s fastest sports cars jousting for position on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course, there figures to be plenty of action throughout the weekend.
Racing for Repeats
Porsche Penske Motorsport (GTP), TDS Racing (LMP2) and Winward Racing (GTD) come to the Brickyard ready, willing and able to repeat the winning success they enjoyed there in 2023.
The two-car Penske team not only currently occupies first and second place in the GTP standings, but also will hit the proverbial bricks on a two-race winning streak as the No. 7 Porsche 963 won at Watkins Glen and the sister No. 6 led a Porsche Penske 1-2 at Road America. Although Winward hasn’t won of late, the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was a fixture in victory lane in the first part of the season with four wins in the first five races (including the most recent endurance race at Watkins Glen). The team comes to Indy on the back of a third at VIRginia International Raceway.
TDS has yet to reach the top step of the LMP2 podium in 2024 but has come pretty darned close with a runner-up finish at Sebring. The No. 11 ORECA brings back the same driver lineup of Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea this weekend that took second at Sebring.
Welcome Back, Endurance Teams
As Round 4 of the Michelin Endurance Cup, the Battle on the Bricks affords the chance to welcome back competitors who focused their efforts on the endurance races on the 2024 IMSA calendar. The GTP class sees the return of the strikingly liveried Verde Mantis, the No. 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63. The GTD PRO ranks will be bolstered by the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 and the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2. Two more Ferraris – the No. 21 Af Corse and No. 47 Cetilar – will make their first appearances in GTD since Watkins Glen, while a third, the No. 023 Triarsi Racing Ferrari, will be back in action after a cameo WeatherTech Championship appearance at Road America.
Big Points up for Grabs
With the season and endurance championships running concurrently this weekend, there’s a bevy of critical points available; all the more so given that Michelin Endurance Cup points are awarded not just for the overall finish but for the standings at the three-hour mark.
When it comes to the WeatherTech Championship standings, the No. 7 Penske Porsche enjoys a 100-point lead over the No. 6 Penske Porsche in GTP, while the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 is 27 markers up on the No. 74 Riley ORECA in LMP2. The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 owns a comfortable 284-point advantage over the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 in GTD. Comfortable? The Winward squad can effectively clinch the championship this weekend.
Not so in GTD PRO, where the substantial advantage once enjoyed by the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R over the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo has shrunk to 17 points.
The Michelin Endurance Cup titles are all up for grabs, with the No. 7 Porsche Penske’s five-point lead over the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R the heftiest margin of the lot. The gap between the LMP2-leading Inter Europol ORECA and the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA is but a single point, half of what separates the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 from the Risi Competizione Ferrari in GTD PRO, even as the Winward Racing Mercedes leads the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 by all of three points.
Suffice to say, every point will count in all four classes of Michelin Endurance Cup competition at Indianapolis.