The #77 Mercedes is in the pit lane now, too. Tires and fuel. Jan Heylen won a IMSA GTD championship, the GTWCA championship, and the Pirelli GT4 America championship in 2021. One of the crewmen reaches in there to clean the front grrille area beforethe car exits the lane. Luca Stolz now leads overall coming up behind Jan Heylen who is on his out lap. Stolz is up on the wheel and wants by Jan Heylen in the worst possible way. WRT might very well have this race in hand. The two Mercedes' have been together and Stolz is doing all he can to maximize everything. Stolz still needs to pit. We have had just the one Full Course Yellow for a stranded car, Jeff Burton with the drive line failure. We did of course have the big one with the #31 WRT BMW getting it wrong in turn one and clipping Onofrio Triarsi.
The lights are showing the tire clag offline as our old colleague David Hobbs used to say. Mario Farnbacher will finish the race for Racer's Edge Motorsports. Plans for 2024 to be announced yet. Team boss at Racer's Edge Motorsports, Jon Mirachi, has had a long-standing relationship with Acura, out of Deland, Florida, between Daytona Beach and Orlando. Mirachi is also a fitness trainer for drivers and looking at the driver's complete package. Fitness, skills, judgment and so forth. The #28 RS1 Porsche has pitted. Multi-time Trans Am champion, Chris Dyson, was part of Mirachi's team. Jordan Taylor, Dane Cameron, among others.
Luca Stolz extending the stint, extending his lead, will need one more pit stop. Matteo Cairoli and Valentin Hasse-Clot have set fastest laps for their respective cars. The TV cameras make it look brighter than it truly is. It has gotten dark here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There was supposed to be extended night practice but it got washed out. The teams have not been running in darkness. There was high risk to go out for practice at night in the rain. Only nine of 22 cars ever really went out. Luca Stolz clearing traffic in the lead, leading by 45 seconds over Sheldon van der Linde. Final pit stop for CrowdStrike by Riley with George Kurtz, Colin Braun, and Nolan Siegel.
He won a GTS (GT4) championship, a GT America championship in SRO3. He has won in class at Spa, at Le Mans and was a whisker shy of winning LMP2 at the Rolex 24 and the man who beat him, James Allen, was his co-driver at Le Mans and he won a 2021 class crown at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The #999 GruppeM Mercedes is in the lane and must spend mandatory pit time for refueling and tire changes. The #77 Craft Bamboo Mercedes decided to pit early. Luca Stolz will take this car to the flag on a fresh set of Pirelli P Zeros.
WRT #30 takes the lead, Sheldon van der Linde, the South African driving the BMW M4 GT3. George Kurtz, with 47 minutes remaining, tells us that these are the nerve-racking moments. Keep it clean. They fought through adversity and had handling troubles. They were able to make setup adjustments through the race. They might just be the Pro-Am champions in Fanatec GT World Challenge America, on pins and needles. Anything can happen. In race two at Road America he was leading overall and got collected in a massive wreck that day.
45 minutes to go. The skid blocks sparking away on these GT3 cars as the sun sets over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Riley Motorsports kept their fastest driver out of the car, Colin Braun, until as late as possible. We have still only seen one Full Course Yellow all day. Chandler Hull and Bill Auberlen have been learning the BMW and especiall the M4 GT3. With a good team behind them they have turned it around. Hull observes, Bill Auberlen has been racing longer than Chandler has been alive.
He is being pushed by Bill Auberlen all season and of course they have Robby Foley as the third driver. Foley was Auberlen's sidekick at Turner Motorsports for a number of years. Maybe Chandler Hull should focus on one championship rather than racing all over everywhere. Chandler Hull, started racing competitively in 2018, 32 years old from Dallas, Texas. 40 minutes of racing to go. Hull has also raced Pirelli GT4 America and he did win an Asian Le Mans Series championship and debuted back in June at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Kenton Koch, has had a good day hoping for a podium to be able to race with TR3. He is sore but it has been worth it. Hull will be racing more tomorrow. The day is not over yet. Callum Ilott still driving the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Matt Bell at the wheel of the #27 TR3 Mercedes. Each driver will have a personal transponder to plug into for their stints. Back in the day we had to look for someone's helmet and light the track with candles! No mules involved, though! Hardy har har, like in the days when the speedway here at Indianapolis was being built.
Seth Lucas has grown this year with seven podiums. It has been an incredible year for him at MDK Motorsports. They started out good and had a couple falls but overall, it has been a great time. In 2024, there are a few opportunities for Seth Lucas that we will hear about soon enough. 35 minutes of racing left in this fourth running of the Indianapolis 8 Hours. The last place car is the #21 Conquest Racing Ferrari. It is a 17 lap delta so RS1 should be safe. GT3 racing under the lights at Indianapolis, in the darkness, more accurately.
The pagoda, pit lane, grandstands and yard of bricks. Half an hour to go. Stolz chipping away at the margin to Marciello. For Marciello, it is important for Jules Gounon to maintain the points lead before the finale in Abu Dhabi in December as the #94 BummerWorld BMW pits for fuel, tires, and possibly a driver change. Philipp Eng leads with Sheldon van der Linde. Jules Gounon is co-driving with Raffaele Marciello. Philipp Eng did not race Bathurst but ran second at Kyalami and won Spa and he could still win this one.
Derek DeBoer says that he has had an amazing entry into GT3 fighting for the championship. There's a little less than half an hour on the board. There are a few cars with dropped scores. If you show up in the last couple rounds of the year you are not eliigible to score points. Luca Stolz closing in on Raffaele Marciello as these cars are rubbing on their skid blocks and maybe one car is dragging the splitter. It is Marciello, dealng with left front damage to the splitter. Uh oh. Eatch there, and there are sparks.
Jules Gounon could lose seven points to Eng and another few in this battle between Gounon and Marciello. No threat to Marciello or to Stolz before the finale. Stolz leads Marciello by four in the championship heading for the final at Abu Dhabi. All the lineups change, doing every race but in different cars. You wonder where the splitter damage came from. Stolz chops off another few seconds. So, the #999 is catching #77 hand over fist.
Marciello the hero of the 2022 Indianapolis 8 Hours is playing offense and not defense as we have BMW leading with 23 minutes left. Stolz is slightly faster. Craft Bamboo has a splitter problem, and they are preparing a new nose if needed. It will affect the braking and downforce with no constant pressure. It works like an airplane wing in reverse, and you will get a headache with the car porpoising all over the place. The gap is 2.9 seconds. Marciello has to figure out how to race the car for the final 20 minutes and not make a mistake. It is fully dark here at Indianapolis.
Stolz has only taken out a tenth of a second. He went on a tear early and then plateaued. The #08 DXDT Mercedes of Tom Sargent might be off the pace. Every car that started but one is still in the race. We are within ten laps of the distance record of this event which may very well be the distance record for a race here at Indianapolis. They are on pace if it stays green to break a distance record. Indianapolis Motor Speedway race results on Wikipedia, there are tons of contests including a student built car run for 24-48 hours.
We may see a record distance covered here at the speedway. Decades ago manufacturers used to do tests for 24 hours of road cars here at The Brickyard. 328 laps covered last year. 2.439 miles coming out to a fraction under 800 miles. They didn't quite get to 800 miles, but we could break that tonight. We can safely assume that a championship will be won by RS1. Adam Adelson tells us that he and his team came into the season looking at it as a learning year with no aspirations except to learn how to drive a GT3 car.
Very quickly it was learned that the training paid off in a massive way. They found themselves battling for the championship. 15 minutes to go. Adelson is incredibly proud of his personal growth, Elliott Skeer, Wright Motorsports and team boss John Wright ad PMNA (Porsche Motorsports North America). There's still 15 minutes remaining in the season. Race Control anticipates two more laps than we ran last year where we'd break the 800 mile threshold and reset a new distance record for an event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Marciello digging deep with a wounded race car as Stolz continues probing and pouring on the steam. 2.3 seconds the gap between #77 and #999. Stolz has eight laps fresher tires than Marciello does. Brake rotors glowing. A win and a runner-up it may well be in back to back Indianapolis 8 Hours efforts for Craft Bamboo Racing. Marciello might hang on over Stolz, but 51 seconds down on Sheldon van der Linde as we see a stop for an unschduled right front tire change for the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche, a comfortable margin to second spot, the #28 RS1 Porsche the champions' elect.
'Luca Stolz ate a chunk out of Marciello and Marciello is still one of the best GT drivers on the planet. There was a puncture for Wright Motorsports. Aha. The sister #120 with their refueling issues have dropped back and will promote the #27 Mercedes to the final step on the Pro-Am podium. Traffic being contended with, Colin Braun, the Pro-Am class leader. Colin Braun makes way. This is going to be a squeaker as the clock continues running out.
Matt Bell up to third after starting last on the grid. Our focus is on Luca Stolz and Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM chasing Mercedes-AMG Team Craft Bamboo Racing. No change in the gap through the first two sectors. The gap updates, another tenth coming Stolz's way. He is running out of time but is only incrementally quicker. It will be a tall drink of water but he'll keep digging and not just sit there like a good boy who will get his dessert. BMW will not clinch. Both BMW and Mercedes will score 33 points and stay nine points apart with one round to go, we hear from Press Officer Tom Hornsby for the IGTC.
Abu Dhabi in December will be a nailbiter. Stats from John Dagys and Dan Lloyd at Sportscar365, if they hold on, this would be their first ever win on American soil. Thanks, guys for sending that. Sainteloc Audi won the second running of this event which was in 2021. Luca Stolz is pushing and can see Marciello right in front of him. We have under five minutes of racing to go. We've matched last year's distance record and it will be surpassed next time by, surpassing 800 miles. The #28 RS1 Porsche sits between Heylen and Braun. Two cars between Marciello and Stolz. Stolz is still stymied behind McAleer in the RS1 car.
Marciello extends the gap to two plus seconds. We have a new distance record for the Indianapolis 8 Hours, the Indianapolis 800. Thanks Mike Scott in the TV truck and Brian Hughes in Race Control. A handful of laps to go and WRT will win this race with the white flag coming. One lap to go. The fourth edition of the Indianpolis 8 Hours, the South African, Sheldon van der Linde, overcoming pit lane penalties and no one has touched them. Sheldon van der Linde, Philipp Eng, and Dries Vanthoor will win and Philipp Eng can go to the finale with a chance to win the championship as the firworks explode in the darkness!
Sheldon van der Linde, Philipp Eng, and Dries Vanthoor win for WRT for the first time on North American soil! Second place goes to the wounded car of Raffaele Marciello and company. Wright Motorsports have won the Pro class with Jan Heylen, Trent Hindman, and Madison Snow. Marciello and Stolz cross the line half a second apart. Stevan McAleer is the Pro champion! Colin Braun is the Pro-Am champion!
Eric Filgueiras, his first GT3 season in SRO and win the championship. Congratulations to him and
Overall/IGTC Pro: #30 van der Linde/Eng/Vanthoor Team WRT BMW M4 GT3
Fanatec GT World Challenge America Pro: #45 Heylen/Snow/Hindman
Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
Pro-Am: #04 Braun/Kurtz/Siegel Crowdstrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
With WRT's victory, they will keep the driver's championship alive to the finale at the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi coming up in December. I encourage you, to please join us for the race. Sheldon van der Linde saw the fireworks as he crossed the yard of bricks. Congratulations, gentlemen. Keep fighting. Dries Vanthoor has won a lot of races and Laurens Vanthoor, his brother, has done the same, and of course is now a Porsche Penske Motorsports factory driver in prototypes.
Dries Vanthoor has won many races. Nurburgring, Spa, Le Mans, Indianapolis, I mean, a bunch of them. Our U.S. champions are the RS1 Porsche 911 GT3R of Eric Filgueiras with Stevan McAleer sharing with Klaus Bachler today. This is a team effort for the RS1 folks. Back-to-back championships for McAleer and Filgueiras in GT4 and GT3. 2023 Fanatec GT Pro champions. Madison Snow, Jan Heylen, and Trent Hindman, have won the North American Pro class, maximizing everything for them at Wright Motorsports and executing all the way.
Another feather in the hat for Wright Motorsports as we cue the dance music for the results. WRT win by 53 seconds and then, 53 hundredths of a second between second and third, Craft Bamboo and GruppeM. Pro-Am is an overall combined class this weekend of course we saw the Riley Motorsports Mercedes win and give a call to Laurin Heinrich and Huber Motorsport for showing pace alongside Antares Au and Alfred Renauer. Kudos to them. Filgueiras and McAleer, champions over Harrison and Farnbacher. MDK and BimmerWorld were close for a long time but it was not to be, this year.
Kurtz and Braun are Pro-Am driver champions and Riley Motorsports, team champions. Time for the podium celebrations. There has been a lot of racing here over the years and Indianapolis has a third world class event as we hear the Belgian national anthem for Team WRT. Unlike just about any other sport, one poor decision can end your day in motor racing, especially endurance racing. Trophies and medals, medals for participants in Intercontinental GT Challenge as well as the hat dance. Spray the champagne! Celebrate, boys!
A tradition started by Dan Gurney, ubiquitous in motorsports since. Will we start calling this race the Indianapolis 800? I don't know. Another look at the pagoda, standing sentinel over Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Here's the podium for GT World Challenge America. We'll be back here next year for 2024 also including IGTC at Bathurst, Nurburgring, Spa, and Indianapolis. Wow. Wirght, RS1, and MDK, all Porsche teams, on the podium for Fanatec GT World Challenge America. BRM chronograph watches to the winners.
Spray the champagne! We have seen a memorable season. SRO America CEO, Greg Gill, is very pleased with this event at the Brickyard. Better racing, bigger fields, and more to come for 2024. A bright future ahead for SRO GT World Challenge America. The manufacturers' cup all across the world sees Mercedes extending their lead over Porsche, Audi, BMW, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and McLaren I believe. We still look at the conclusion of GT World Challenge Europe sprint. George Kurtz, Colin Braun, and Nolan Siegel celebrate the Pro-Am victory.
Kenton Koch, called in at the last minute and did yeoman work. Koch and Kurtz will both race tomorrow. We have TC America, GT America, and Pirelli GT4 America coming up tomorrow morning. We are going to be busy again tomorrow morning. So, please do join us again a little after breakfast for more motor racing. You will not want to miss a moment of the action. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a magical place, in the biggest racing arena in the world. Special place, special race. The most distance covered at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We have competed for 800 miles today. We have the podium for Independent Cup, for Grove Racing.
Independent Cup honors and medals go to Huber Racing over Sky - Tempesta Racing. Antares Au, Laurin Heinrich, and Alfred Renauer, over Jonathan Hui, Chris Froggatt, and Eddie Cheever III. 332 laps completed. Thanks to Ryan Myrehn, Calvin Fish, Bob Varsha, Amanda Busick, and D.J. Clark. We still have the Gulf 12 Hours for IGTC coming up. For now, good night from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and more action coming your way, tomorrow morning.
Bye bye.
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