Tag: BMW

Battle on the Bricks: Rahal Win a Satisfying End to Difficult Week and Season

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Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing leftt it all behind them Sunday afternoon. The FBI investigation and wo years of zero podiums all vanished in a brilliant final 46 minutes with a 1-2 finish at IMS in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks. The team had a victory awarded them in 2023 after the winning car, ironically the number 6 Penske Porsche, was disqualified.

Philipp Eng, and Jesse Krohn, drove the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to a 1.647-second victory over teammate No. 25 car shared by Connor DePhillippi and Nick Yelloly. Eng drove the final stint. He managed traffic beautifully to stay ahead of the 25, who backed off at the end to preserve the team sweep.

Completing the podium was No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 driven by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet, the winner of last year’s event. A penalty set the te car back and it could not catch the BMWs.

Lined up for the start

LMP2

Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and NTT Indycar Serie and INDY NXT by Firestone veteran Hunter McElrea won the LMP2 class by 26.049 seconds in the No. 11 TDS Racing prototype over the pole-sitting No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports machine driven by Nick Boulle, Jakub Smiechowski and Tom Dillmann.

GTD Pro

“Rexy,” the number. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R came back from its pole disqualification with a win by drivers Laurin Heinrich and Michael Christensen, 12.527 seconds ahead of number.64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang of Mike Rockenfeller and Harry Tincknell. Heinrich drove to the pole position, but a post qualifying penalty moved the Porsche to the back of the class on the grid.

GTD

Jan Heylen drove the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to a win in the GTD class, 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.

The Race

The rain began about an hour into the race and took up most of the second hour and part of the third. By the halfway mark, the rain had stopped and the track dried. The GTP class did not disappoint, as usual.

There was a great battle between the 01 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais and the number 6 Porsche driven by Mathieu Jaminet. The pair exchanged the lead on track twice. Eight of the 11 GTP cars led at some point., with numerous on track passes for the lead.

Romain Grosjean had a great drive early in the Lamborghini entry, charging in to the lead. Its chance for the win ended because of a pit penalty for too many men over the wall. Later in the race the car retired after on track contact broke an axle.

The pole winning 01 Cadillac was clawing its way back into contention when a punctured tire put the car three laps down.

Notes

I thought Sunday’s race was better overall than the 2023 sprint race. There was more strategy and intrigue, and one car did not dominate the entire race.

I found the race compelling. It is rare for me to sit and watch an entire race of this length, but I was focused for the entire event.

I am not sure if attendance was up from last year, but I think this event has a lot of growth potential. I would like to see the start moved back a bit later with a twilight or just after dark finish.

It was nice seeing former Indycar/IndyNXT drivers Sebastien Bourdais, Gabby Chaves, Hunter McElrea, Matt Brabham, and ben Hanley, amnong others, race again.

Personal Bests– I set a new record of 42 hours at sports car races in 2024. I stayed awake for 38 of them.

Sunday concluded the longest racing season I have ever had. Thank you all for following along. I’m going to take a couple days off unless there is some breaking news, which I think is coming soon. I’ll be back with more this drivel before the end of the month.

BMW Finds Speed on Final Day of IMSA Open Test at IMS 

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IMS Photo

The following is from IMS. I will haver my wrap up of the two days up here tomorrow.

 INDIANAPOLIS (Saturday, July 29, 2023) – One day after Porsche led the first two sessions of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Open Test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, it was time for its German rival BMW to show its speed.

Connor De Phillippi led a 1-2 performance by BMW M Team RLL – fielded by NTT INDYCAR SERIES race winners Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing – in the last two sessions of the two-day test on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course. Former Star Mazda (now USF Pro 2000) driver De Phillippi’s best lap was 1 minute, 14.655 seconds in RLL’s No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 that competes in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

De Phillippi, Jesse Krohn and NTT INDYCAR SERIES star Colton Herta shared the team’s No. 24 and No. 25 cars and found speed in both prototype machines. Krohn turned the second-quickest lap overall Saturday, 1:14.758, in the No. 24 car.

Both those laps were quicker than the top time recorded in two sessions Friday, a 1:15.244 by Tijmen van der Helm in the No. 5 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche 963. The RLL BMW team made big improvements Saturday, as its quickest time Friday was 1:15.498 by De Phillippi, more than seven-tenths of a second slower than Saturday.

“It was good today,” De Phillippi said. “We worked on a lot of different areas of the car, made some good steps on the systems side, understanding a few of the areas I feel like we’ve been weak on. So, I feel like we have a better understanding of the direction we need to go.

“I don’t think we have it totally figured out, but at least we have a direction. Really proud of the team. It was a productive two days.

”Four-time INDYCAR SERIES champion Sebastien Bourdais was third quickest overall Saturday at 1:14.809 in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-LMDh fielded by NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship winners Chip Ganassi Racing.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams and drivers tested Friday and Saturday to prepare for the return of the series to IMS for the first time since 2014 at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Sept. 15-17.

In the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP3) class, Mikkel Jensen was quickest at 1:16.532 in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA prototype. Matthew Bell led the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class for the second straight day, stopping the clocks at 1:21.209 in the No. 13 AWA machine, an improvement over his best lap of 1:21.401 on Friday.

The sole GT Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) team that tested Friday, Vasser Sullivan Racing, didn’t turn any laps Saturday. Misha Goikhberg led the GT Daytona (GTD) class at 1:24.192 in the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, the quickest lap over both days for the class.

All five classes will compete simultaneously during the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, with the nearly 10-second gap in lap times between the GTP and GTD cars ensuring plenty of action and drama as quicker prototypes navigate lapped traffic of the production-appearing GTD classes.

In testing for the Michelin Pilot Challenge series, which showcases the latest high-performance production sports cars, coupes, hatchbacks and sedans, Eric Filgueiras was quickest in the Grand Sport (GS) class with a lap of 1:30.680 in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS. That time, set during the first session Saturday, was considerably quicker than the top GS lap Friday of 1:31.865 by Eric Foss in the No. 56 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 of Murillo Racing.

The No. 33 Hyundai Elantra N fielded by Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian remained atop the Touring Car Racing (TCR) class, but this time Harry Gottsacker was the quickest driver. Gottsacker’s time of 1:32.388 during the second session topped the best Friday time in the class of 1:33.315 set by his teammate and co-driver, NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Indianapolis 500 veteran Robert Wickens.

For more information or to buy tickets for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Sept. 15-17, visit IMS.com.

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