The IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC) series held the penultimate race of the season at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, and it turned out to be a good race for the BMWs in what has been a challenging season.
Turner Motorsport won the IMPC championship last season with the M4 GT4, but the results haven’t been there for the BMW teams in 2024. Coming into Indy, an M4 GT4 had not even been on the podium yet in the prior eight races, with the best finishes being a fourth for Turner Motorsport at Daytona and a fourth for CarBahn Motorsports at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
In qualifying at Indy, the M4 GT4s were a bit off the pace as they have been all year, with the fastest time set by Sean McAlister in the #39 CarBahn car only good enough for sixth, and over eight-tenths off the pole time of Trent Hindman in a Porsche. Francis Selldorff qualified the #96 Turner BMW in twelfth, with Dillon Machavern right behind him in thirteenth in the #95 Turner car.
Robert Megennis and Dillon Machavern finished on the podium in third.
The BMWs may not be all that fast in qualifying, but they have consistently had better racing pace this year and this held true at Indy as well. McAlister initially dropped from sixth to eighth in the #39 car but then moved his way back up to sixth before handling off to Jeff Westphal. Both BMW teams made good strategy calls during caution periods, with the #39 car moving into the lead with around an hour left in the two-hour race, and the Turner cars in third and fifth. The BMWs were also helped by attrition of other cars, including the #28 Porsche that started from pole.
With 52 minutes left in the race, the BMWs were running 1-2-3, and both teams elected to only change the left side tires when they pitted for the last time. After all the teams cycled through pit stops, Westphal took the lead once again with 29 minutes left and held it to the end, despite some pressure from Mercedes AMG works driver Philipp Ellis late in the race. Robert Megennis put a last lap pass on Matt Plumb in the championship-leading Aston Martin to finish third with Machavern, and the #96 Turner BMW of Robby Foley and Francis Selldorff ended up sixth.
CarBahn Motorsports team principal Steve Dinan (right) celebrates with Jeff Westphal (center) and Sean McAlister.
The win for the #39 car was the first for the CarBahn Motorsports team led by Steve Dinan in nearly four years, with their last victory on Halloween at Laguna Seca in 2020. It was especially rewarding after the car they raced in the first part of the season was destroyed in an accident at Mid-Ohio in June, forcing them to switch to their spare car. The win was also the team’s first with the BMW and McAlister’s first win in the series. “I’ve been in this series almost three full years now and I haven’t even been on the podium,” McAlister said. “It’s great to finally come out and get to the top of the podium – especially at Indy. It’s amazing!”
With just one race left in the championship, the third-place finish by Robert Megennis and Dillon Machavern moved them into third in the driver’s championship, but they’re 300 points back from leader Matt Plumb of Team TGM (Aston Martin) and 190 points behind RS1 Porsche drivers Trent Hindman and Stevan McAleer. The final race of the season will take place at Road Atlanta over the Petit Le Mans event on October 9th-12th. —David Haueter
https://www.imsa.com/michelinpilotchallenge/
[Photos courtesy LAT Images]