BMW finally did it – with authority.
The BMW M Team RLL earned its first on-track victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP class in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the prototypes prepared by longtime INDYCAR SERIES team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finished 1-2 in the six-hour endurance race that featured mixed conditions and plenty of chaos.
Philipp Eng, who was teamed with Jesse Krohn, drove the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to a 1.647-second victory over the sister No. 25 car shared by Connor DePhillippi and Nick Yelloly. The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 driven by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet finished third in defense of their race win from 2023.
BMW earned its first GTP victory off track in June 2023 with DePhillippi and Yelloly after the six-hour race at Watkins Glen. The duo was elevated to the top spot from second after the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport car was moved to last place in class after a post-race technical inspection discovered a chassis skid plate infraction. Today also marked the first 1-2 finish for BMW in GTP.
“It’s unreal to win here,” Krohn said. “This is the world center of motorsport. Such a legendary place, so much history here. It’s a six-hour race. We had so much going on in the beginning of the race with the weather and everything. The team did just a flawless job.”
Eng took the lead for good with 46 minutes remaining by passing Louis Deletraz in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 amid slower GTD PRO and GTD traffic in Turn 13. De Phillippi quickly passed Deletraz for second and hung within a half-second of Eng over the next 40 minutes, as the two BMWs marched in lockstep through traffic on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
De Phillippi made one attempt to pass his teammate over the closing laps, going side by side with Eng on the back straightaway with about 10 minutes remaining. But he backed off, not risking the team’s 1-2 finish, and Eng kept the lead.
But team contact was the least of BMW’s worries toward the end of the race. The team’s margins on fuel and hybrid energy were razor-thin, and it was unclear whether RLL’s prototypes could make it to the finish without pitting.
The anxiety was unfounded, as Eng and De Phillippi both made it to the finish with no hiccups to make BMW history.
“I knew that we were really close on energy and that we actually needed a full-course yellow to make it to the finish,” Eng said. “But the guys, they just calculated it perfectly. One of my jobs used to be washing cars, so buying fuel was sometimes tough. This paid off today. So happy for the double victory.”
The pole-winning No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R driven by four-time INDYCAR SERIES champion Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande finished eighth, three laps down. The car was one of eight different lap leaders in the 11-car GTP class, but a flat right rear tire with one hour, 25 minutes left ruined its chances for victory.
The No. 11 TDS Racing prototype driven by Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone veteran Hunter McElrea won the LMP2 class by 26.049 seconds over the pole-sitting No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports machine driven by Nick Boulle, Jakub Smiechowski and Tom Dillmann.
In GTD PRO, the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R earned sweet redemption with victory by drivers Laurin Heinrich and Michael Christensen by 12.527 seconds over the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang of Mike Rockenfeller and Harry Tincknell. Heinrich won the pole in the class Saturday, but the car was moved to the rear of the class on the starting grid as a penalty for a post-qualifying technical infraction.
Former INDYCAR SERIES driver Jan Heylen drove the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to a win in the GTD class, sharing the spoils of Brickyard victory with co-drivers Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer. Heylen finished 2.465 seconds ahead of the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 shared by Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Jake Walker.
