BMW M Motorsport in contention for IGTC titles

SRO

Oct 2

The upcoming Indianapolis 8 Hour (USA) on 5th October (Race start: 18:15 CEST) serves as the season finale for both the Intercontinental GT Challenge and the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS.

The International GT Challenge

The 2024 INTERCONTINENTAL GT CHALLENGE counts 4 rounds
- The Repco Bathurst 12 Hour (February 16-18) saw Matt Campbell, Laurens Vanthoor and Ayhancan Güven winning the 12 Hour Australian race with the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).
- The shortened (due to weather conditions) ADAC RAVENOL 24h (May 30 – June 2) won by the #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Frank Stippler and Christopher Mies saw the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) with Vanthoor and Güven (second of the race with Preining, Estre) clinching their second win in the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC separate classification).
- The CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa (June 27-30) saw Mattia Drudi, Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen in #007 Comtoyou Vantage AMR GT3 Evo ahead of AF Corse #51 Ferrari who lost THE RACE in a dramatic and unbilievable fashion. Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts secured third place with #32 BMW M4 GT3 and clinched the 25 victory points in IGTC.
– Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS (October 4-6) will be the last round.

The International GT Challenge standings

With two victories, Laurens Vanthoor (not participating to the last round) and Ayhancan Güven (in Pro-Am at Indianapolis with GMG Racing) are leading the IGTC Driver Challenge (50 points) and Porsche the IGTC GT3 Manufacturer Challenge (99 points).

Charles Weerts is second of the IGTC Driver Challenge with 43 points and still a contender for the title as BMW is in the IGTC GT3 Manufacturers Challenge with 83 points.

Team WRT for IGTC titles

BMW M Motorsport is in contention for titles in both race series. Team WRT (Indianapolis 8 Hour winner from the previous year) will compete with two BMW M4 GT3s and six BMW M works drivers to secure the driver and manufacturer titles in the Intercontinental GT Challenge. At Monza, Team WRT demonstrated its unmatched expertise in motorsport with an incredible double victory coming through from the back of the field at Monza and marked history as it was the first time that a non-Pro car did win overall in the Fanatec GT Endurance series.

📷 © courtesy of BMW Group at Indianapolis, 4-7 October 2023. Intercontinental GT Challenge, IGTC, BMW M4 GT3, BMW M Team WRT, SIXT, Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Philipp Eng.

Charles Weerts, currently second in the Intercontinental GT Challenge driver standings, will drive the #31 BMW M4 GT3 with the Shell design together with Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor as they did at Bathurst and Spa-Francorchamps. Weerts finished third on the podium at both the 24h Nürburgring (second in IGTC) and the 24h Spa-Francorchamps (winner in IGTC). Source: BMW Group

#72 RMG BMW M4 GT3 driven by Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Charles Weerts end on the podium — 📷 © Luc Warnotte at Nûrburgring. #72 RMG BMW M4 GT3 driven by Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Charles Weerts end thrid the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, clinching the victory points in IGTC.

Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse will race in car #33. Harper and Hesse, currently with 36 points in the IGTC Driver standings need a win and Vanthoor-Güven not ending the race as well as Weerts scoring less than 8 points to win the IGTC Driver Challenge.

Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper, and Max Hesse in #998 BMW M4 GT3 — 📷 © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. **Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse** in #998 BMW M4 GT3 led the race despite a drive-through penalty during the night and fought for the win, however a slow puncture forced the ROWE Racing team to bring forward the last planned pit stop. Since the final driver Hesse would have exceeded the maximum allowed duration of a stint by about a minute, he had to enter the pit lane shortly before the finish, dropping from second to sixth place.

Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport: « We have the best memories of the Indianapolis 8 Hours. Last year, and also in 2020, BMW M Motorsport was able to celebrate victory at the legendary Motorsport Speedway. As the defending champions, Team WRT is once again at the start with a very strong line-up of BMW M works drivers. We have selected the driver pairings in such a way that we have the best possible chance of influencing the title decision for the driver's standings in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, in addition to the manufacturer's standings. » Source: BMW Group

5 BMW M4 GT3 with BMW M works drivers in GT World Challenge America

In GT World Challenge America, which finishes its season with the 8-hour race, five BMW M4 GT3s entered by customer teams will compete: two from ST Racing and one each from Turner Motorsport, Random Vandals Racing, and Flying Lizard Motorsports. Regular participants and BMW M works drivers Neil Verhagen and Robby Foley will be present, competing against each other for the Pro-Am class title in the cars of ST Racing and Turner Motorsport, along with Samantha Tan and Justin Rothberg. Bill Auberlen will be at the wheel of ST Racing’s Pro class car. At Indianapolis, BMW M works drivers Philipp Eng , Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly will join. Eng will reinforce ST Racing, De Phillippi will join Random Vandals Racing, and Yelloly will be with Flying Lizard Motorsports. Source: BMW Group