Action Express Racing dominated the action Sunday (Sept. 21) in Indianapolis, leading 210 of 243 laps. Jack Aitken was able to hold on late to win the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks with teammates Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti. It is the first victory for Action Express since the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring in 2023.
“It was awesome,” Aitken told Frontstretch after the race. “We made some changes from practice to [qualifying] which made a big difference. We were great on [the] pit lane [and] we managed the strategy well from the front. We’ve been waiting for a win for a while and we’re really relieved to get it.”
Action Express’ margin of victory was .988 seconds over Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor. Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun were third, then BMW M Team RLL’s Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor. The second Shank Acura for Kakunoshin Ohta, Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly were fifth.
The race had some trouble getting underway. On the initial start, Forte Racing’s Misha Goikhberg drove over the curb in turn 1 and hit Cetilar Racing’s Nicola Lacorte. That contact resulted in damage to Lacorte’s Ferrari that put him in the pit lane and a caution for debris. Goikhberg was given a drive-through penalty for the contact.
Shortly after the restart, CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz had contact with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Naveen Rao and spun into the gravel to bring out another yellow. Here, most of the field pitted for a splash of fuel. Taylor took the lead by staying out.
The crackdown on driving standards continued Sunday. Nasr was given a drive-through shortly after the restart after being judged to have forced Sheldon van der Zande into the grass exiting turn 10.
Taylor led until Aitken was able to run him back down. Once there, it did not take long for the pass to be made in turn 1.
The first round of green-flag stops was interrupted by the third full-course caution of the race. This came when DXDT Racing’s Salih Yoluc hit the wall exiting turn 14 and broke his left rear suspension, then stalled while trying to get to a place to pull off.
Action Express Racing dominated much of the middle sections of the race. Aitken. Bamber and Vesti were able to maintain the advantage over the Acuras.
Things changed when the caution came out with 75 minutes to go when Inception Racing’s Frederic Schandorff lost the hood on his Ferrari.
Everyone pitted and hoped that their fuel could hold out. Louis Deletraz chose to pit for a splash before the yellow ended. Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse’s Romain Grosjean stopped with 50 minutes to go from sixth for fuel. Everyone else had to conserve.
After the restart, Aitken was able to open up a decent gap on the pack before the need to conserve fuel truly hit. When that happened, Blomqvist was able to close the gap.
Blomqvist was right there before the lead with 20 minutes to go before lapped traffic curtailed his charge. Ultimately, he dropped back, allowing Taylor, who was short on fuel, to move up to second.
With nine minutes to go, CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Toby Sowery spun and backed into the wall after contact with United Autosports’ Ben Hanley. That crash brought out the caution and ended all of the fuel talk.
Aitken was able to hold on during the Green-White-Checker restart to take the win. It is the first victory for Cadillac this year.
In LMP2, United Autosports’ Nick Boulle started from pole and maintained his advantage through the early cautions. However, 36 minutes into the race, he made contact with Yoluc, resulting in a spin. It seemed like Boulle was going to be penalized for the contact, but the call never came.
Boulle’s teammate Dan Goldburg had his own issues in the second hour. He was attempting to lap Tower Motorsports’ John Farano in turn 7 when the two collided and spun. Farano was judged responsible for the incident.
CrowdStrike Racing by APR attempted an alternate strategy late in the race that got Sowery into the lead by more than 30 seconds. However, he could not make it to the finish without another stop.
The teams that could take the victory away seemed to defeat themselves. First, Inter Europol Competition’s Tom Dillmann ended up in a three-wide situation with United Autosports teammates Paul di Resta and Ben Hanley. The three drivers made contact, resulting in di Resta spinning in turn 12.
A couple of laps later, Sebastien Bourdais wiped out in the chicane and clipped Hanley, resulting in both drivers spinning out. This was judged as incidental contact.
Sowery was forced to pit for fuel with a little more than 10 minutes to go. That gave the lead to TDS Racing’s Mikkel Jensen with a big advantage. He was able to hold on after the late caution to win the LMP2 class with Hunter McAlrea and Steven Thomas.
TDS Racing’s margin of victory was .714 seconds over Dillmann, Bijoy Garg and Jeremy Clarke. Riley Motorsports’ Josh Burdon, Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson were third, then di Resta, Goldburg. AO Racing’s Dane Cameron, Jonny Edgar and PJ Hyett were fifth.
GTD Pro had Paul Miller Racing’s Dan Harper on the pole until an early stop. AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich, who started fifth, assumed the advantage.
Rexy was a little off the pace as compared to the leading BMWs and Mustangs from Ford Multimatic Motorsports. As a result, a train of GT cars developed as Klaus Bachler did his best to hold off Frederic Vervisch.
Eventually, Bachler dropped down the order, allowing the BMWs and the No. 64 Mustang to come to the front after Vervisch ran into mechanical woes.
In the final hour, Rexy came to life, allowing Heinrich to run down Paul Miller Racing’s Max Hesse with 45 minutes to go. After a couple of laps of battling, Heinrich dove to Hesse’s instide entering turn 1. A couple of turns later, the deed was down and Heinrich was in the lead. Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Sebastian Priaulx followed past into second.
That lead was short-lived as Heinrich was forced wide in turn 4 by Priaulx. That gave the No. 64 Ford the lead and put Heinrich back to fourth. A lap later, that became seventh when a bump from Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg in turn 12 sent Heinrich into the alternate turn used by motoGP.
That move was frowned upon. As a result, Catsburg had to serve a drive-through penalty.
From there, Priaulx was able to hold off the pack on the final restart to take the win. It is Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller‘s second win of the year.
The margin of victory was .594 seconds over DragonSpeed’s Albert Costa and Davide Rigon. Harper and Hesse were third, then Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette. Vasser Sullivan’s Ben Barnicoat were fifth.
The Heart of Racing’s Casper Stevenson started from the GTD pole and led until an early stop during the second caution. That allowed the advantage to go to series debutant Lin Hodenius for Lone Star Racing. Stevenson slipped to fourth, but quickly moved back forward.
Lone Star Racing continued to run well until the Mercedes lost a wheel and spun in turn 3 in the third hour. Wyatt Brichacek tried to limp back to the pits, but stopped to draw a caution. The team would eventually rejoin the race, but later retired.
Conquest Racing was able to get their Ferrari to the front with Daniel Serra at the wheel right around the time Brichacek had his issues. From there, he was able to open up a decent gap over the rest of the class. At that point, Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Wayne Taylor Racing’s Trent Hindman were giving chase.
The caution for Schandorff’s hood coming off came at a terrible time as everyone was about to pit, but had to ride around under yellow until the pits opened. That caught out a number of teams, forcing them to pit for emergency service (which brings a penalty with it), or outright running out of fuel. Hindman’s car just plain broke, ending his day.
Ellis won the race off pit road, but got busted for speeding. That gave the lead over to Schandorff, who got his hood replaced during the round of stops and lost almost no time.
From there, Schandorff was able to open up a decent gap over Wright Motorsports’ Elliott Skeer. Things were looking good until the final caution came out.
Schandorff was able to hold on during the GWC to take the victory with Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy. It is the team’s first victory in IMSA competition.
The margin of victory was 2.276 seconds over Skeer, Adam Adelson and Tom Sargent. A pass on the final restart moved Serra, Manny Franco and Ben Tuck up to third over Gallagher, Robby Foley and Jake Walker. Ellis, Indy Dontje and Russell Ward ended up fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks Unofficial Results
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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.
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