Wright Motorsports’ Laurin Heinrich, Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer managed to win the Indianapolis 8 Hour on the road Saturday evening (Oct. 5). However, a protocol penalty on their final pit stop resulted in a five-second post-race penalty.
With the penalty, Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts inherited the overall victory. It is the trio’s second straight Intercontinental GT Challenge victory after they won the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa in July.
“I gave it everything I had. It was an amazing fight,” Vanthoor told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “It was a fuel race to the end and we did it. I’ll need a few days to recover, but I’m very, very happy.”
Team WRT’s margin of victory with the penalty was .260 seconds over Wright Motorsports. GruppeM Racing’s Maro Engel, Jules Gounon and Mikael Grenier were third, followed by Racers Edge Motorsports’ Gabby Chaves, Luca Mars and Zach Veach in their Acura. DXDT Racing’s Tommy Milner, Alexander Sims and Alec Udell were fifth.
In the IGTC Pro class, van der Linde, Vanthoor and Weerts won by 20.886 seconds over Engel, Gounon and Grenier. Third went to Lone Star Racing’s Alex Palou, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz, but they were five laps down due to a series of electrical issues.
Herberth Motorsport’s Patric Niederhauser started from the overall pole in his Pro-Am Porsche. He was able to open up a small gap at the front of the field in the opening minutes. However, he had a big lead over Kenny Habul in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes, the next car in class. In just a half hour, Niederhauser had a 41-second lead in class.
Van der Linde was able to take the lead away from Niederhauser just after the half-hour mark. However, that ended up being just temporary as Niederhauser was able to get him back.
The first safety car period came out 49 minutes into the race when Habul bodyslammed Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Elias Sabo, resulting in Sabo getting stuck in the gravel in turn 4. Sabo was able to continue after the incident, but he lost significant time getting pulled out of the trap.
Much of the field chose to pit here for their first stop of the day. Niederhauser chose to stay out to keep on their original strategy.
Stolz started from the IGTC Pro pole in his Lone Star Racing Mercedes, but his time at the front was very short-lived. Van der Linde was quickly able to take the class lead under braking for turn 1.
Van der Linde’s team, Dan Harper, entered the race after a very tough weekend. The brief strike by the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) this week meant that his car was very late getting to Indianapolis. Then, the team had to change an engine after the Pole Shootout.
As a result of the engine change, Harper was forced to start at the rear of the 23-car field. In the opening minutes, Harper was able to drive up to 12th. By the 40-minute mark, he was eighth and breathing down the neck of Stolz.
During the stops under yellow, Weerts was able to keep the Shell BMW in the class lead. Meanwhile, the Lone Star Racing Mercedes with Schiller driving lost a lap in the pits.
Once Vanthoor got in the car, the No. 31 BMW began to pull away from everyone else. What was once a five-second lead became 10, then 15, then 20 seconds. Meanwhile, Grenier and Harper fought for second.
The lead was 30 seconds for van der Linde over Harper when Random Vandals Racing’s Conor Daly stalled on-track to bring out the second safety car period just before halfway with a fuel pump issue.
A third caution for Andy Lee‘s BMW stopping with oil pressure issues led to a split strategy that resulted in Skeer taking the overall lead. Skeer did his best to open up a gap over the rest of the pack.
With a 10-second lead, Skeer hustled into the pits to beat a safety car for issues with Neil Verhagen‘s BMW. Getting out in front of Weerts meant that Skeer stayed on the lead lap. Udell ended up in the overall lead due to an earlier stop where they simply pitted to reset the stint clock.
Recent changes to the Balance of Performance have left the Corvette down on straight-line speed. That was all Skeer needed to get the run on Udell on Hulman Boulevard to take the lead in the sixth hour.
Van der Linde took a while to run down Skeer, roughly 30 minutes. He then took the overall lead back and drove away…until the Randon Vandals BMW lost the fuel pump for the second time and brought out another yellow. During this round of stops, Heinrich got out first and took the lead.
The sixth and final safety car came out with less than 80 minutes to go when AF Corse’s Riccardo Agostini pulled off with a mechanical issue in his Ferrari. Most of the leaders pitted here, but it was outside the maximum stint length. As a result, Heinrich chose to stay out and keep the lead. He ultimately stopped a couple of laps after the restart.
However, there was a protocol issue on Heinrich’s final pit stop that resulted in a post-race five-second penalty. That meant that the last 45 minutes of the race saw Heinrich attempting to open up enough of a lead on Vanthoor to beat out the penalty.
For a while, Heinrich was able to do so. Vanthoor was able to close back up to under five seconds behind in the final 10 minutes. Both Vanthoor and Heinrich were running as hard as they could in the closing laps.
Ultimately, Heinrich was able to win on the road, but he could not maintain a big enough lead to overcome the penalty. It was a slim margin at the finish, but Vanthoor did just enough to win.
Adelson started from pole in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro class in third overall. Adelson was able to keep himself at the top for the first couple of laps before the remainder of the IGTC Pro cars swept by.
Adelson ended up losing the lead early on to ST Racing’s Philipp Eng. Mars gave chase in the Acura as Adelson dropped down the order.
During the first round of stops, Veach in the Racers Edge Motorsports Acura was able to jump over the ST Racing No. 28 to take the class lead. But, there was a reason that he did. His pit stop was too short. As a result, Veach had to serve a drive-through penalty that gave the lead to DXDT Racing’s Alec Udell.
Much of the race ended up being a battle between DXDT Racing’s No. 63 Corvette and the Wright Motorsports Porsche. The Corvette led until the yellow for Daly’s fuel pump issues.
After the restart, Skeer got a run on Milner entering turn 1. There was some contact made, but Skeer was eventually able to take the class lead.
The lack of pace for the Corvette meant that Skeer was able to pull away into a comfortable lead. The superior pace of Heinrich put the team in contention to win overall.
The time penalty ultimately took away the chance to win, but Wright Motorsports was more than good enough to take the class victory in second overall. The class victory also means that Adelson and Skeer are the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro class champions.
Adelson, Heinrich and Skeer won the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro class by 52.889 seconds over Chaves, Mars and Veach. Milner, Sims and Udell were third, while Rennsport One’s Trent Hindman, Jake Pedersen and Kay van Berlo were fourth. ST Racing’s Eng, Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey were fifth.
Niederhauser led in Pro-Am until he pitted from the overall lead just inside of the 65-minute stint maximum. That gave the lead to Jayden Ojeda in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes.
Early in the second hour, ST Racing’s Samantha Tan slowed to a stop on-track. Her BMW M4 GT3 was determined to have a broken fuel pump and had to go behind the wall for repairs. Tan would return to the race 29 laps down.
The failure was a huge break for Turner Motorsport in the Pro-Am championship as Tan and Verhagen entered the race with the championship lead. Justin Rothberg was able to keep the Turner BMW right up in the hunt.
Meanwhile, the combination of Habul and Ojeda pulled away to a huge lead in class. The second safety car brought the Turner BMW with Patrick Gallagher at the wheel back into the hunt.
The SunEnergy1 Mercedes led until 100 minutes to go when Lucas Auer suddenly slowed due to a suspension issue stemming from contact early in the race. That gave the lead back to Niederhauser.
From there, Niederhauser was able to pull away to score the class victory in seventh overall with teammates Antares Au and Loek Hartog. The margin of victory was a lap over Gallagher, Rothberg and Robby Foley.
Regulator Racing’s Jeff Burton, Philip Ellis and Elias Seppanen were third in their Mercedes. AF Corse’s Oswaldo Negri Jr., Dan Schreibman and Toni Vilander were fourth, while Car Collection Motorsports’ Alex Fontana, Yannick Mettler and Ashish Patel were fifth.
Since the Herberth Motorsport squad is not part of Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, the second-place finish is considered to be the equivalent of a class victory for Turner Motorsport. As a result, Foley and Rothberg are the Pro-Am champions for 2024.
Intercontinental GT Challenge/Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Indianapolis 8 Hour Unofficial Results
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.