After a rainy start to the six-hour Battle on the Bricks of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, drivers Jesse Krohn and Phillip Eng led the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to victory with their sister car in second, the No. 25 BMW driven by Connor de Phillippi and Nick Yelloly.
The 2024 IMSA Battle on the Bricks, held on Sept. 22, was the second time the Weathertech Sportscar Championship raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) since the championship’s inception in 2014. Still, this year’s race will be remembered for BMW’s first 1-2 finish in the GTP class since their debut in the 2023 season.
The race was held on the IMS Road Course, an alternate 14-turn 2.4-mile layout that utilizes track in the Speedway’s infield.
Eng and Krohn entered the weekend seventh in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) Driver’s Championship, 524 points behind first-place drivers Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche Penske 963. Yelloly and de Phillippi were ninth with 580 points behind the leading Porsche drivers.
In the Manufacturer’s Championship, BMW ran fourth with 367 points behind the leader Porsche, second to last in front of Lamborghini.
On Saturday, BMW qualified fifth and eighth in the GTP class, then, on Sunday, the pair was able to slowly move up the grid after rain and yellow flags in the first two hours. After another yellow flag in the fifth hour when the No. 7 Porsche abruptly stopped on the track due to electronic issues, fast pit stops pushed the BMWs into second and third behind the No. 40 Acura in the lead.
It was a close race in the final hour as the No. 24 and No. 25 took the lead from the Acura of Louis Deletraz. The No. 6 Porsche of Jaminet moved up to third and maintained a close distance to the BMWs, but could not make a move to pass when the GTPs encountered Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) traffic in the final laps, resulting in BMW’s 1-2 finish with Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
Despite issues that resulted in a last place (ninth) finish in its class, the No. 7 Porsche of Nasr and Cameron kept their lead in the championship. However, the No. 6 Porsche reduced their gap to first to 14 points after a third-place finish.
TDS wins in the LMP2 class
The No. 11 Oreca 07 of Jensen, McAlrea and Thomas finished first in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class with a 26-second gap from second-place finishers Nick Boulle, Tom Dillman and Jakub Smiechowski in the No. 51 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. The third-place finishers were Ryan Dalziel, Dwight Merriman and Connor Zilisch in the No. 18 Era Motorsport.
Boulle and Dillman entered the weekend as leaders in the LMP2 Driver’s Championship with 1,564 points, 27 points ahead of Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson in the No. 74 Riley. Boulle and Dillman’s win extended their lead by 355 points. However, a fifth-place finish for Fraga and Robinson shortened the gap to 98 points.
AO Racing wins in the GTD Pro class
The No. 77 “Rexy” Porsche 911 of Laurin Heinrich and Michael Christensen won in the GTD Pro class after starting the race last on the grid.
Heinrich entered the weekend first in the GTD Pro Driver’s Championship with a lead of 2,519 points. Ross Gunn was 17 points behind in second, and Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow were third, being 111 points behind.
Heinrich qualified first place in class with a time of 1:23.150, but the car was moved to the back of the grid after failing technical inspection before the race.
Throughout the race, however, the No. 77 Porsche kept close to the GTD pack on track as yellow flags and safety cars bunched up the grid several times, allowing Heinrich and Christensen to climb through the 26 cars for first. Near the end of the race, several GTD cars came in for a final round of pit stops. A hasty pitstop from the AO racing pit crew launched the No. 77 into first for the race's final stretch, leading to a win for the team.
Heinrich has extended his lead to 2,887 points, 99 points ahead of Gunn and 219 ahead of Sellers and Snow.
The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche remained first in the GTD Pro Team’s Championship after the race, ahead of the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW with point counts of 2,887, 2,788 and 2,668 respectively.
Wright Motorsports wins in GTD
Adam Adelson, Jan Heylen, and Elliot Skeer won in the GTD class with the No. 120 Porsche 911 for Wright Motorsports.
Adelson and Skeer entered the weekend fifteenth in the GTD Driver’s Championship with 1,657 points, 1061 points behind leaders Philip Ellis and Russel Ward in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.
On Saturday, Adelson qualified fifteenth in class with a time of 1:24.796, placing them right in the middle of the entire GT grid for the race.
Much like the No. 77, the No. 120 took advantage of the safety car interruptions with consistent strategy and pace, climbing through the grid for the win.
After the race, Skeer and Elliot jumped to ninth in the championship with 2,024 points.
The Next Race
The Battle on the Bricks on the IMS was the penultimate race of the 2024 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.
The final race will be the Motul Petit Le Mans on Oct. 12 at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, a ten-hour endurance race around the 2.54-mile course.
The race will be available on Peacock, USA, NBC, and NBC Sports Mobile. Full replays of the race will be uploaded on IMSA’s official YouTube channel. The current standings of the Weathertech Sportscar Championship can be found here.
Adan Perez is a freshman studying physics. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Adan likes to watch sportscar racing and read Tom Clancy novels.
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