CarBahn Motorsports Wins IMS 120 on Fuel Mileage

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Jeff Westphal took the lead with 28 minutes to go when other teams pitted.

From there, Westphal was able to conserve enough fuel to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 with teammate Sean McAlister. It is the duo’s first win of the year.

McAlister and Westphal’s margin of victory was 3.654 seconds over Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Bryce Ward. Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern and Robert Megennis were third, followed by TeamTGM’s Paul Holton and Matt Plumb. Lone Star Racing’s Scott Andrews and Dan Knox were fifth.

Rennsport One’s Trent Hindman started from pole after another weekend in which the No. 28 Porsche topped every on-track session. Hindman was able to lead early while Nate Cicero, making his series debut for McCumbee-McAleer Racing, took second at turn 1 from Holton.

Unfortunately, Racers Edge Motorsports’ Daniel Wu stalled his Honda Civic Type-R TCR in turn 2 on the opening lap. That triggered a full course caution.

Behind Hindman, there was hard battling for fourth between Motorsports In Action’s Michael de Quesada and Kellymoss with Riley’s Michael McCarthy. That ended in tears when the two drivers collided in turn 13. De Quesada was blamed for the contact and given a drive-through penalty.

Hindman was able to keep Holton at bay until the third caution came out 41 minutes into the race. That brought everyone in as the minimum drive-time had been satisfied.

For Rennsport One, their pit stop to put Stevan McAleer in the car was a disaster. The jack was dropped before the right rear tire was tight. Then, the air jack decided not to work. In the process, the right side mirror was adjusted inward. That resulted in McAleer going from the lead to outside of the top 10.

TeamTGM’s No. 46 with points leader Matt Plumb at the wheel won the race off pit road and ran a steady race at the front. From this point on, pit strategy reigned supreme.

Plumb pitted with 40 minutes to go for tires and fuel. Most of the other leaders followed suit. CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Jeff Westphal chose to stay out and try to stretch his fuel.

Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis gave chase over the final 30 minutes as the fuel continued to burn. However, Westphal’s BMW never burbled in the final laps, allowing him to hold for the win.

Hindman and McAleer ended up finishing 10th overall. With Plumb in fourth, that means that Plumb will take a 120-point lead to the season finale in Georgia next month.

In TCR, Montreal Motorsport Group’s Daijiro Yoshihara started from his second pole of the year. However, trouble struck early for a number of teams.

First, Eduardo Gou collided with the slower Grand Sport Aston Martin of Ted Giovanis, resulting in Giovanis heading to the grass and Gou to the pits. JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Chris Miller was given a drive-through penalty for jumping the start.

Shortly afterwards, Yoshihara slowed suddenly from the lead on the frontstretch, giving the advantage to Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Morgan Burkhard. The MMG crew eventually went under the hood and made a fix. However, he lost three laps in the process.

In turn 1, Road Shagger Racing’s Gavin Ernstone went too hot into turn 1 and collided with Bryan Herta Autosport’s Preston Brown, heavily damaging both cars and causing the second full course caution to fly.

Despite all this chaos, the drivers on the move early on were the three BHA drivers who failed to set competitive times during qualifying. Taylor Hagler suffered an engine failure during qualifying, creating a situation where her teammates Harry Gottsacker and Mark Wilkins failed to set times before the session was curtailed.

Once the race started, the trio of BHA Hyundais quickly moved up the order, aided by the chaos. When the second caution came up, Wilkins was already up to second, followed by Gottsacker and Hagler.

Burkhard’s time at the front came to an end just after the 40-minute mark. Rebel Rock Racing’s Frank DePew ran up behind him and made a dive to the inside entering turn 1. DePew seemingly wasn’t going to make the corner and went over the inside curb and directly into Burkhard.

Burkhard lost his rear wing due to the contact and spun out. The contact instantly punctured DePew’s radiator, putting him out on the spot and bringing out the caution. Burkhard was able to drive away, but officials mandated that VGRT replace the wing. They ended up losing nine laps doing so.

Wilkins inherited the lead due to the crash, then pitted to hand over to Mason Filippi. Once back under green, Filippi was able to open up a decent gap over the field.

Even for the TCR cars, it was tight to make it to the end from the caution. Filippi and Robert Wickens tried to do so, along with Larry Pegram.

Pegram ended up running dry and pitting with five minutes to go. The BHA crew was on the radio to Filippi to back down his pace constantly in the final laps. The gap did drop from 10 seconds in the last few minutes, but Filippi held on for the win.

Filippi and Wilkins’ margin of victory was 4.427 seconds over teammates Gottsacker and Wickens. Miller and Mikey Taylor were a lap down in third, then Hagler and Bryson Morris. KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Tim Lewis Jr. and Dr. William Tally were fifth in their Alfa Romeo.

IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 Unofficial Results

There is only one more race remaining in the Pilot Challenge season. That is the FOX Factory 120 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The race is scheduled to go green at 12:45 p.m. ET on Oct. 11. Coverage will start at 12:40 p.m. ET on Peacock.