2023 GTP at Indianapolis Pre Race report

IMSA

Sep 14

The North American sports car racing series is heading to the penultimate race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next Sunday (17 September) for the first Battle On The Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. All three GTP titles are still very open.

Scoring maximum points the goal for Cadillac V-Series.R

Cadillac Racing paces the field in both the GTP regular season and endurance Manufacturer Championship points with #01 Cadillac V-Series.R. and #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R. Both teamed to work through a testing program in late July at IMS that they hope delivers results.

Derani and Sims enter the penultimate race of the season a close second in the GTP Team and Driver Championship standings. They sit atop the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings ahead of the 10-hour season finale at Road Atlanta in October.

Alexander Sims: “I’m looking forward to racing at Indianapolis for the first time. The July test was useful – even under hot conditions. Nevertheless, we collected a lot of useful information to understand how the car performs at the track. The track itself is fairly straightforward, so it’s mainly fine-tuning things from a driving point of view. We have two races left and we’re right in the hunt for the championship. It’s a very tight championship at the moment, so it is crucial for us to have two very strong races. That’s going to come about by us doing the basics right and executing well to maximize our performance. The car is fast; the team is operating well and generally I’d say Pipo and I are in a good place for Indianapolis. We were very competitive at the test. The race at Indy will be a challenge with traffic. There are a lot of corner combinations at Indy where you turn left-right, left-right continuously and it’s difficult to get past cars in those sequences of corners without taking sometimes an unnecessary amount of risk or sometimes it’s just not possible to get past. Sometimes it goes for you and sometimes it goes against you. It’s just part of multi-class endurance racing.”

Bourdais and van der Zande are sixth in the regular-season championship chase, though only 118 points out of the top spot.

“I think we have a solid baseline coming away from the test, so hopefully we can hit the ground running and be strong as we felt we were during the test,” said Bourdais, who recorded the third-quickest lap over the two days of testing. “Conditions could be very different compared to the heat that we had to deal with during the test, but overall looking forward getting there and scoring maximum points. We’re in the (championship) mix and have to stick with it and see what we can do.”

WTR Andretti Acura eager to extend championship lead

With two victories this season – at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona and most recently at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – Acura is currently ranked second in the tight GTP Manufacturers’ Championship, 35 points off the lead.

Taylor, Albuquerque and the WTRAndretti team are eager to place the blue and black machine in victory lane for the first time this season and extend their current 14-point championship lead in front of a home crowd.

“Being back in the championship lead has been extremely motivating to go after these final two races,” said Ricky Taylor. “We have yet to win a race in 2023, but with Indianapolis being the team’s home race, there would be no better race to get back to the winning ways.”

“We’re coming from a streak of two podiums in a row, which is very good, and we are now leading the championship,” said Filipe Albuquerque. “Obviously, we’ve been in this situation before in the past few years leading the championship in the latest races, it’s about now that things get harder. We’re happy that we’ve managed to come back to the lead of the championship, but it’s still far from clinching the title. We need to be focused, doing our best and stay out of problems, because it seems like a crazy championship for everybody.” Source WRT Andretti

Porsche bid for overall victory

Porsche Penske Motorsport heads to the penultimate race well prepared after testing extensively at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with works drivers Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr completed a total of 485 laps end of July – another test outing followed in mid-August.

“The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season is now entering its critical phase,” explains Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President of Porsche Motorsport. “We have a chance to win the championship in both the team and driver standings. We want to earn maximum points in the upcoming race and position ourselves well for the big finale at Road Atlanta.

Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #6): “Since Watkins Glen, we’ve been struggling with our number 6 crew. We’ve lost ground in the championship and we urgently need to reverse this downward trend. Now, we’re racing in Indianapolis for the first time. We’ve done two tests there and the car felt really good. Hopefully, our Porsche 963 will match the pace of the frontrunners. It would be important for Nick and me to notch up another success – for us and the whole team. A win would significantly improve our chances in the title fight and really lift the spirits before the season finale.”

Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): “It’s simply great that IMSA has added a race in Indianapolis to the calendar. For the first time, the fast GTP prototypes can show what they are capable of there – it’ll be spectacular. The track belongs to Roger Penske’s group of companies, so it’s really ‘Captain’s Country’. It would be perfect if we could give him, the team and everyone at Porsche another victory. The last time we won was at Road America. We’d like to repeat such a triumph and preferably finish on the podium with both Porsche 963.

📷 Courtesy of Porsche.

The two customer teams JDC-Miller MotorSports and Proton Competition each tackle the 160-minute race with one Porsche 963. Germany’s Mike Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm from the Netherlands helm the No. 5 car fielded by the US team. Proton Competition’s No. 59 vehicle will be driven by Porsche works driver Gianmaria Bruni from Italy and Englishman Harry Tincknell. Source: Porsche.

BMW M Team RLL looking to return to the podium.

The #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, victorious this season at Watkins Glen and on the podium at Sebring, Long Beach and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, will again be driven by Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly. Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng share duties in the #24 car.

Recently the team participated in a two-day test at the Speedway with drivers De Phillippi, Colton Herta, and Jesse Krohn. The second day of the test ended with the #25 and #24 BMW M Hybrid V8s at the top of the timing sheets. Eng, Farfus, and Yelloly completed ‘Driver In Loop’ tests for Indianapolis to continue the development of the team’s race performance.

BMW Team RLL team members do have history at ‘The Brickyard’. Team Principal Bobby Rahal won the 1986 Indy 500. De Phillippi and Farfus won the 8 Hour Intercontinental GT Challenge race at Indy in 2020, driving a Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 along with Nick Catsburg. Yelloly finished second in the team’s sister BMW, co-driving with David Pittard and Marco Wittmann.

Bobby Rahal, BMW M Team RLL Team Principal: “Indy is an iconic place. We tested there recently and it went very well. As is every IMSA race we go to it will be a tough fight. If we have the pace at Indy as we did at another fast circuits like Watkins Glen I have every reason to believe we’ll have a good weekend.”

Connor De Phillippi (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8): “The Speedway is always a special place to race and I’m aiming to continue the success I’ve been fortunate to have there. Last month, we had a productive test and the BMW M Hybrid V8 has been testing in Europe which has been valuable. I’m excited to be back on track after the summer break to continue chasing race wins.”

Augusto Farfus (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8): “The team showed good pace in the test which gives us hope for a strong weekend. I did race the Indy road course in 2020 with Connor and Nicky Catsburg to a win in the 8 hour Intercontinental GT Challenge win. It will good to be back at Indy.” Source: BMW Group

Live, flag-to-flag coverage from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be available on NBC starting at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday, with live streaming on NBC Peacock.

Fans can listen to audio commentary via IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and XM Radio; and follow the race live via in-car cameras, IMSA Radio and timing & scoring available worldwide on IMSA.com and the IMSA App.