Motorsport Week has chosen which competitors ‘won and lost’ from the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s Battle on the Bricks in Indianapolis.
For what was certainly the most action-packed race of the year, the six-hour event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course delivered a memorable spectacle.
With 56 entries across all four IMSA classes, the 10th and penultimate round of the 2024 season attracted several talking points.
Besides the heavy rainfall during the opening half of the race, there were other moments of thrilling wheel-to-wheel fights, heartbreak and drama, and unexpected winners.
In the end, notable winners or losers found their own way to triumph or fall in a thoroughly demanding event at the Brickyard.
Loser – #22 United Autosports USA (LMP2): Bijoy Garg, Paul Di Resta and Daniel Goldburg
GTP was the centre of attention for the whole six hours, but LMP2 boasted a competitive race for their 11 Oreca 07 entrants.
The Floridian has three front row starts to his name and so produced a fair qualifying performance with fifth in-class, in comparison to the #2 sibling Oreca of Ben Keating which started ahead of him in third.
As his Texan teammate took the lead at the race start, Goldburg unfortunately spun his #22 Oreca once, then again during his attempt to continue to the tarmac circuit though from the slippery grass. He spun for a third time after the first caution ended.
As the threat of rain took shape at the Battle on the Bricks, many LMP2 rivals spun at least once due to their slick tyres.
As the only LMP2 team with two cars, United Autosports USA was in a unique position to utilise their presence to ward off competitors.
Goldburg’s mistakes were nothing more than spins and no aerodynamic damage was caused, though that fate was for later on.
The #22 made the most of the caution periods to climb back up and remain at the sharp end of their category – as the #2 Oreca encountered adverse issues.
Di Resta moved from seventh to third position on the final restart – with 55 minutes remaining.
The #11 TDS Racing driver – and fellow Peugeot teammate – Mikkel Jensen overtook the Scotsman into Turn 1 before right-side contact from Connor Zilisch’s Era Motorsport Oreca ended their hopes.
It was an unintentional moment from one of the youngest Daytona 24 Hours winners but it forced Di Resta into a spin, inflicting left-front wheel arch caught on the tyre, forcing him to pit after a mechanical black flag.
Winner – #77 AO Racing (GTD Pro): Michael Christensen and Laurin Heinrich
Within our winners and losers column pieces thus far – the #77 Porsche 911 GT3.R – led to us breaking the rule over putting one of the class race winners as one of our selected ‘winners’.
This was because the beloved fan-favourite green dinosaur, Rexy, won after starting from the back row of the grid and increased their championship lead.
A last-to-first challenge is a phenomenon best experienced in racing games and was executed with patience, strategy and flamboyance.
Admittedly, the six cautions throughout the Battle on the Bricks made this an unlikely possibility, though a possibility nonetheless.
The combined GTD and GTD Pro order of 26 cars took the green flag in a frantic manner. For Heinrich however, his out-of-position Porsche already begun the climb.
IMSA performs class splits during caution periods, and so the first of these during the heavily wet conditions enabled the #77 Porsche to nest within reach of their GTD Pro rivals.
Christensen took fourth position when #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 driver Alex Riberas made a mistake into T1, but Heinrich’s flamboyant pit exit was the talk of the moment.
The #77 already fought for the GTD Pro lead by the halfway point, when the track surface started to dry out.
During a tight and tense pit stop sequence with other GT cars Heinrich powerslided out of his pit box and into the front of the queue.
Heinrich retained his lead on the final restart on #64 Ford Multimatic driver Mike Rockenfeller as Hawksworth defended P4 to the end on the #77 Porsche’s nearest championship rival – the #23 Aston Martin – and AO Racing increased their points lead albeit narrowly from 17 to 99.
Loser – #40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (GTP): Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor
Deletraz was denied pole position by Sebastien Bourdais‘ lap time at over 0.225 seconds clear of the #40, yet still the highest-qualified Acura ARX-06 over the #10 sibling GTP car in P6.
As the lights went out, Deletraz held his place behind Bourdais but could not hold off a charging Felipe Nasr in the championship-leading #7 Porsche 963.
Nasr took second from the Swiss driver on the outside at T7, as Deletraz caught up in an incident at the penultimate corner when he made contact with Rasmus Lindh (GTD #56 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296).
This sent him into a spin and out of third place, except this was not the end of the #40’s podium aspirations – yet.
Fast forward to the third hour, most of the standing water was swept by circuit officials as the rain stopped.
The #40 and the #10 Acuras were amongst the first to switch to slick tyres.
As the final caution period came out during the fifth racing hour, Deletraz was a lap ahead of the field thus prompting an opportunistic full-service pit stop with fuel/energy and new tyres.
Deletraz conducted a superb restart ahead of #25 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 driver De Phillippi who kept himself ahead of Philipp Eng’s #24 BMW.
A back-and-forth jostle between Deletraz and Eng was simply one of many instances of robust fighting at the Battle on the Bricks.
Eng took the lead with cunning move alongside then to the inside at the penultimate T13, as Deletraz gave appropriate space.
Deletraz’s chase on the #25 BMW of De Philippi ended when he tapped Chaz Mostert (#75 Mercedes-AMG) into a spin, thus prompting a drive-through for Deletraz and finished in P6*.
Winner – #25 BMW M Team RLL (GTP): Nick Yelloly and Connor De Phillippi
Whilst the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 took the glory of winning the Battle on the Bricks, the #25 BMW finalised their maiden 1-2 formation to the end.
As far as team results were in GTP, only the WTRAndretti Acuras finished together and so BMW RLL performed the strongest as a team.
It was not until the fourth racing hour when the #24 BMW went into the lead fight, but the #25 BMW had their own battle when Yelloly fended off Nick Tandy’s #6 Porsche, who retreated to the T1 escape road and lost some ground on Yelloly ahead.
During the fifth hour, Yelloly asserted a cunning move on Renger van der Zande’s #01 Cadillac V-Series.R into Turn 7, before the #01 pitted and then suffered a puncture on Bourdais’ outlap.
BMW RLL took 1-2 with 43-minutes remaining after #24 Eng’s great pass on Deletraz, before #25 De Phillipi passed #40 soon after.
Both BMWs kept within close proximity but did not act drastically as so to compromise their form.
Traffic management became one of the challenges for the GTPs, but the #24 and #25 conducted their efforts without great risk or error, something which caught out Deletraz in the #40 Acura.
It was a day to remember for BMW RLL as the last time BMW-powered machinery finished 1-2 overall was in 2013, at Indianapolis, in Grand-Am – with the BMW Riley DP with Starworks Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing.
Loser – #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport (GTP): Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron
For the #7 Porsche 963, it was not a total loss as they still lead the championship standings but Indianapolis was undeniably a missed opportunity to extend their gap given their stunning form at the race start.
With Porsche Penske 1-2 in the standings ahead of the Battle on the Bricks, their objective was to keep their formation especially with the #01 Cadillac in third at just 85 points behind the #6 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy.
Nasr qualified seventh after setting a fastest lap time of 1:15.083 which was 0.491 seconds away from Bourdais’ #01 Cadillac pole position.
It would not be fair-minded to suggest the #7 suffered in qualifying due to the close lap time margins.
The Road Course itself is a short and quick circuit at 2.439 miles (3.925 km).
The better-qualified #6 Porsche of Jaminet could not turn competitive pace meanwhile Nasr asserted sensational form to climb from seventh and into the lead by over 4.5 seconds.
It was one of the best race starts of anyone this year.
At the first post-caution restart, Nasr was confronted with fending off a quick Bourdais before the #01 driver regained P1.
During the third hour, a mistake by Nasr resulted in him going slightly off the circuit and voided his hard work.
A heart-in-the-mouth moment took shape when Nasr stopped on start-finish due to a power steering issue resolved by a power restart, and Deletraz narrowly avoided the stranded #7.
The #7 did not recover their ground and slowed down near the end possibly to fuel save, and finished behind the LMP2 class.
Winner – #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports (GTD Pro): Mike Rockenfeller and Harry Tincknell
A second consecutive podium for the new Ford Mustang was noteworthy after their recent gradual upward climb in race form and results.
Speaking to media before the Battle on the Bricks, the German suggested that his team suited Indianapolis after their VIRginia podium breakthrough.
Fortunately for them, his prediction followed through after a hectic race narrative and the first Brickyard appearance for the GTD Pro category.
After starting second in-class, the #64 finished in the same position at the checkered flag.
Needless to say, it was not that straightforward as the race threw rainfall amidst the many factors.
Indianapolis was a test of their pace across six hours, and for the drivers in the strenuous wet conditions.
It was only into the final hour when the #64 Ford held its place at the front again, owing to a culmination of successes such as long-term race pace, tyre management and a lack of mistakes – something with the #65 Ford fell victim to at the race start, before later tapping Rui Andrade’s #80 Mercedes-AMG into the gravel trap.
Next up will be an even tougher test – the 10-hour Petit Le Mans season finale at Road Atlanta.
