This weekend, IMSA will hold their penultimate race weekend of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It will count as the fourth round of the Michelin Endurance Cup and feature four of IMSA’s series.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks
Sunday’s six-hour TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks has 53 teams entered. This is up five teams from the last time that all four classes ran at Road America last month, but down three from the 56 teams that raced last year.
The GTP class has 12 teams entered, up one from Road America. The additional team is Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse with Romain Grosjean and Edoardo Mortara. Proton Competition, which contested the previous three endurance events, is not entered with their Porsche 963.
Points-wise, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet have a 75-point lead over teammates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy. It is 181 points to the first non-Porsche duo, that being BMW M Team RLL’s Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor.
In LMP2, there are 12 teams entered, down from 14 at Road America. Teams that are not entered include JDC-Miller MotorSports’ No. 79 and the Team Tonis No. 61 that debuted last time out.
With this being an endurance race, all teams must field three drivers. As a result, a number of new drivers are on the list. The most notable on this list is Logan Sargeant for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. The former Williams Formula 1 racer will be making his IMSA debut.
Phil Fayer is out of the No. 2 for United Autosports after running the last two races. Nick Boulle is back to take his place, while Juan Manuel Correa joins them.
Oliver Jarvis is back with Era Motorsport alongside Tobias Lutke and David Heinemeier Hansson. Jarvis replaces Kakunoshin Ohta.
AO Racing’s Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett are currently leading the standings by 107 points over United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg. Riley Motorsports’ Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson are third.
There are 11 teams entered in the GTD Pro class, up one team from VIR. The extra team on the entry list is 75 Express (formerly SunEnergy1 Racing) in their first appearance since Daytona.
Team owner Kenny Habul will be joined by Mikael Grenier and Repco Supercars Championship points leader Broc Feeney. The team is likely running the race in order to get track time at Indianapolis ahead of the Indianapolis 8 Hour in two weeks.
Of the 11 teams in the class, only two will run three-driver lineups. 75 Express is one. The other is Paul Miller Racing’s No. 1, where Connor de Phillippi will join the squad.
Points-wise, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims have a 53-point lead over DragonSpeed’s Albert Costa. AO Racing’s Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich are third in “Rexy.”
The GTD class has 18 teams entered, up five from the 13 that raced at VIR. Here, there are a few Endurance-only teams entered. Those are the Triarsi Competitizione No. 023, van der Steur Racing’s Aston Martin, AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari, Cetilar Racing’s Ferrari and Lone Star Racing’s Mercedes.
As of this writing, it has not been announced who will be in the No. 021 Ferrari. All three drivers were listed as TBD. Team owner Onofrio Triarsi and Kenton Koch, who drove the No. 021 at VIR, have been moved to the No. 023 for this weekend alongside James Calado.
Forte Racing only has their regular drivers Mario Farnbacher and Misha Goikhberg listed as of now. A third driver is required.
At van der Steur Racing, Rory van der Steur has been ruled out for this weekend due to an injury suffered in a mountain biking crash. He will be replaced by Eduardo Barrichello, son of former Formula 1 racer Rubens Barrichello.
Barrichello will be making his IMSA debut, but he will be in familiar company. His teammates Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh are his full-time teammates in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Racing Spirit of Leman.
At Gradient Racing, Mason Filippi will make his WeatherTech debut in the No. 66 Ford Mustang GT3 in place of Tatiana Calderon. Filippi is a veteran of Michelin Pilot Challenge with Bryan Herta Autosport and will do double-duty this weekend.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks Entry List
The TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks is scheduled to go green at 11:40 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Live coverage will begin at 11:35 a.m. ET on Peacock. NBC will pick up live coverage at 3 p.m. ET and will go through the finish.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120
The penultimate race of the season for IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge has 41 teams entered. This is up one team from VIR and up eight from last year’s race. It is the second-highest entry of the season.
There are 25 teams entered in the Grand Sport class, up one from VIR. The addition to the entry list is Motorsports in Action, a Canadian team that has previously raced full-time in the series, but has not competed in Pilot Challenge this year. They have been focusing on McLaren Trophy America, a series that races as part of SRO America’s race weekends.
Longtime driver Jesse Lazare will be back with the team for this weekend. His teammate is listed as a TBD.
KohR Motorsports has another new driver lineup in their second car this weekend and it’s an interesting one. First, they have Robert Noaker, who recently clinched the Mustang Challenge championship at Circuit of the Americas during the Lone Star Le Mans weekend. He’s joined by Cameron McLeod, an Australian racer that is full-time in the Dunlop Super2 Series who is making his Pilot Challenge.
Finally, Jake Walker is in Turner Motorsport’s No. 96 BMW in place of Vin Barletta. Walker primarily drives in VP Racing SportsCar Challenge for the team in the GTDX class, where he has won seven of the last eight races.
Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen and Luca Mars currently lead the GS points by 240 over CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine racing’s Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal, along with McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman. If Heylen and Mars were to leave Indianapolis with more than a 350-point lead, they would clinch the championship.
In TCR, there are 16 teams entered, the same number as at VIR. The only team that raced at VIR that isn’t entered is RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate, which won the class with Jaden Conwright and Luke Rumburg driving.
In their place, HART returns with their Honda Civic.
Rockwell Autosport Development announced recently that they have switched from the Audi RS3 LMS TCR to the Hyundai Elantra N TCR. They will debut it this weekend with Christina Lam and Eric Rockwell driving.
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The points are very close in TCR. BHA’s Preston Brown and Denis Dupont currently have a 20-point lead over teammate Harry Gottsacker and 30 points over Montreal Motorsport Group’s Louis-Phillippe Montour and Karl Wittmer. It is not a dead heat, but it’s not far from it as 30 points is the difference between winning and finishing second.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 Entry List
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 is scheduled to go green at 12:40 p.m. ET Saturday. Coverage will start at 12:35 p.m. ET on Peacock. Frontstretch will be on-site in Indianapolis to bring you all the action.
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.