BMW M Team RLL made history on Sunday in the “Battle on the Bricks” at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a one-two finish for the #24 and #25 M Hybrid V8s in the top GTP prototype class. It was the first one-two finish for BMW M Team RLL in the GTP class and their first win on track. The podium finishes were also their first of the year. Turner Motorsport also had a strong day, finishing second in the GTD class.
It’s been a tough year for BMW M Team RLL. Coming into Indy, a six-hour race that was also round four of the Michelin Endurance Cup, they hadn’t been on the podium yet this season and had only two top five finishes between the two cars all season, as they’ve experienced some bad luck but have also made some mistakes that cost them better results. The team’s last win was at Watkins Glen in June 2023, when the Porsche that initially won failed post-race tech inspection.
In qualifying at Indy, Connor De Phillippi was the fastest of the BMWs in fifth in the #25 car, only around four-tenths off the pole time of Sebastian Bourdais in a Cadillac. Philipp Eng qualified eighth in the #24 car, with a lap time only around a tenth slower than De Phillippi. The top seven GTP cars were within a half-second of each other over the 2.439-mile Indy circuit.
There wasn’t much racing that went on in the first two hours of the six-hour race. The race started with a dry track and all the cars out on slick tires, but rain started falling soon after the green flag flew, going from mist and sprinkles to heavy rain, which led to a nearly hour-long caution due to excessive standing water on the track. Through the rain and caution periods, the pair of BMWs stayed within reach of the leaders and kept out of trouble, with attrition affecting other cars in the race.
Consistent, smart driving, great pit work by the RLL crew and sound strategy all came together to put the pair of M Hybrid V8s in contention for the win with less than an hour to go in the race, as the team made the right calls on when to put on slick tires in place of rain tires and calculated how long they could go without having to pit. Philipp Eng passed the #40 Acura to take the lead with around 46 minutes left, with Connor De Phillippi moving into second behind him.
The last 30 minutes of the race were certainly a nail-biter for BMW M Team RLL team members and BMW racing fans. The knowledgeable commentators weren’t sure if the BMWs could make it to the end on the energy levels they had with the M Hybrid V8s (in the hybrid electric system of the cars) and there was also some close and hard racing between Eng and De Phillippi, with the two of them going side-by-side at times. Eng took the win less than two seconds ahead of De Phillippi, with the #6 Porshe rounding out the podium in third.
Sometimes all it takes is a win to change the momentum of a team, which is often seen in ball sports as well as racing. Hopefully, the win at Indy will be a turning point for the RLL program. “Last year, we had a number of podiums, and I don’t know, maybe we thought it’s a little easier than it is, and this year, it’s been more difficult,” said Team Principal Bobby Rahal. “And to do it today, none of our competitors really had any problems and yet we were able to succeed. This is huge. This is what you really work for. I have to say, I think going into Petit Le Mans, we have to think very positively about that. That’s a long race, as this one was. But today, as I said, this may be, outside of my Indy 500 win, this may be the most important win we’ve had, and because it’s just so timely and it just represents all the effort that all of us have put in, these guys, RLL and of course BMW Motorsport. Great day for us.”
BMW also had success in the GTD class, with Turner Motorsport finishing a strong second behind the winning #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Patrick Gallagher qualified the car in third and worked his way into the lead when the team made an early call for rain tires. Co-drivers Jake Walker and Robby Foley both put in strong stints to keep the car in a podium position. “We had an amazing car today,” said Robby Foley. “Our # 96 M4 GT3 was really fast. We got shuffled back in the middle of the race with the weather, but Don (Salama), as always, was very clever to get us the lap back. We restarted in eleventh, and I knew the car was fast, so I just tried to pick each car off one by one and manage the traffic well. We got to third and eventually passed for second in some really tight racing. We made some points on the championship leaders, and we’ll try to take it into Petit and keep the momentum going.”
In GTD Pro, the Paul Miller Racing #1 M4 GT3 also qualified well with Neil Verhagen at the wheel and was leading the race at the halfway mark but had an issue that forced them to pit during a caution period when the pits were only open for the GTP class cars. That errant pit stop cost them a drive-through penalty and dropped them back to finish eighth in class, but they are still in the class lead in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings. The GTD Pro class was won by the championship-leading #77 AO Racing Porsche.
Paul Miller Racing maintains their Michelin Endurance Cup points lead going into the finale.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale will take place at Road Atlanta on October 9th-12th with the ten-hour Petit Le Mans race. —David Haueter
https://www.imsa.com/weathertech/
[Photos courtesy LAT Images, Paul Miller Racing]