INDIANAPOLIS – Cadillac’s three-car Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) attack showed strongly in qualifying for the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
But it looked even better in the race.
On Sunday, Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, and Frederik Vesti combined to lead 210 of 243 laps in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R at IMS to dominate the penultimate round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. They won the six-hour contest that also counts toward the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup by 0.988 of a second over Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Cadillac fielded by Wayne Taylor Racing, with Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun rallying to earn third place in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06.
Blomqvist appeared to have claimed the Motul Pole Award on Saturday, only for the No. 60 Acura to be sent to the back of the GTP field for a technical infraction found in post-qualifying inspection. That opened the door for the No. 31 Cadillac, which Aitken qualified second fastest just 0.041 of a second off the disallowed pole time.
Aitken led from the start, but when the second caution flew just 12 minutes into the race, the Cadillac Whelen team called him into the pits, triggering a energy management strategy battle between the dozen GTP class competitors. The constant throughout the remainder of the race was the speed and consistency of the No. 31 car, which was one of just two entries utilizing a three-driver lineup for the six-hour endurance race.
After thinking his driving was done, Aitken unexpectedly found himself called upon to finish the race. While attempting to conserve energy during the last hour, he held off a charging Blomqvist until Taylor moved the No. 10 Cadillac into second place with 16 minutes left on the clock.
Taylor and Albuquerque were forced into an alternate pit stop sequence when Albuquerque suffered a punctured tire at the halfway point of the race, putting them a lap down. They short-filled several times as they threw out all the stops to regain and remain on the lead lap.
A crash involving Toby Sowery in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 with less than 10 minutes remaining brought out the seventh and final caution of the race and ensured Taylor had enough energy to make the finish. He and Albuquerque matched their best finish of the season with second place as Cadillacs led all but seven laps on the day.
It was the second IMSA win for the Cadillac Whelen team at Indianapolis (from a total of 30) and its first since the 2023 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. It’s also the team’s first podium since finishing second at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in May 2024. Bamber now owns nine victories in IMSA competition; Aitken has triumphed twice, while this was the first time Vesti reached IMSA’s victory lane.
“It’s a bit of a relief to get the first win of the year under the belt,” said Aitken. “We were a little bit fortunate to get the pole after the No. 60 Acura had trouble, but I think the number of laps we led today shows how well we were working as a team.
“It was a really fun race at the end,” he continued. “Really tough, but a lot of fun trying to hit the (energy) number and hold the track position at the same time.”
The No. 10 Cadillac duo were pleased to come away with a podium finish after a tenacious comeback drive.
“We were last at the restart (with an hour left in the race), so figured we may as well try something,” Taylor said. “That was kind of fun, to try and move forward, and then that yellow at the end gave us the fuel we needed to make the finish. We gave ourselves our best shot.”
“That was frustrating because the pace was good,” added Albuquerque. “We were lucky that a yellow came at the right time, because we were able to secure second place.”
None of the Cadillac teams are in contention for the GTP championship, so Sunday’s victory was the brightest moment of the year to date for the American marque.
“We had really high hopes at the start of the season,” Bamber said. “We’ve had a lot of good cars, but things really haven’t gone our way. We’ve been working day in and day out to get this win, so it’s really nice to be back on the top step of the podium. We feel like we’ve got really good momentum and are laying a great foundation now.”
It was a subdued day for the three GTP title protagonists. Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963) posted the fastest lap in the race but finished seventh and will take a 131-point lead over their Porsche Penske Motorsport teammates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy (who finished 12th) into the season finale. Defending Indianapolis winner Philipp Eng and his 2025 teammate Dries Vanthoor (No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V-8) are 145 back.
Ford Continues IMSA “Big Race” Win Run with Brickyard Victory
When you can win at two iconic venues and your hometown city in the same season, you can call it a successful year.
That’s what Ford Multimatic Motorsports can declare on Sunday in Indianapolis, adding a win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to its earlier 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the streets of Detroit not far from its global headquarters in the Motor City.
For Mike Rockenfeller and Seb Priaulx, who shared the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) winning No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3, hopes looked dim after a poor qualifying effort. The No. 64 lined up seventh in the 11-car GTD PRO field and wasn’t necessarily front of mind among the contenders for Sunday’s race.
However, the No. 64 tried playing the track position game early by bypassing a first pit stop to launch up to second, which put them in contention for the rest of the race. The car made it to the lead by Lap 48, early in the second hour, and remained among the top runners for the rest of the race.
The No. 64 car appeared the backgrounder while others in class – its sister No. 65 car wheeled by Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies, the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler, and the pair of Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVOs featured more prominently up front.
Slowly but surely though, the No. 64 made its move. The No. 1 PMR BMW – which prioritized scoring IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points – fell out of the battle by pitting off-sequence to the contenders.
The race came alive even more after a restart following the sixth full-course caution with one hour remaining with an hour to go.
Heinrich and Priaulx – former teammates at AO for the first half of 2024 – emerged ahead of the No. 48 PMR BMW of Max Hesse, who’d taken over from polesitter Dan Harper. But on Lap 207, in the final hour, the decisive move occurred.
Priaulx muscled his Mustang by Heinrich through Turns 2 and 3, completing the move on the exit of Turn 4. With Heinrich’s momentum stalled, the No. 48 PMR BMW and No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa also made it through as “Rexy’s” grille gathered grass to its teeth.
Priaulx maintained momentum from there and survived the final restart with two laps remaining to bring home the victory by 0.594 of a second. It’s his fourth IMSA win and first in a Michelin Endurance Cup event, while it’s Rockenfeller’s seventh.
“I just want to say thanks to IMSA for making it more cleaner racing,” Priaulx said. “That's made a lot of help for us to actually race cleanly and actually it's more fun I would say. Yeah, it was a nice pass. I felt like I executed a perfect move there, and he went wide, and that was it really. It was the move for the win, I think, really. Easy to get stuck behind there. You need to be assertive, and I was, and just had to get it done. So yeah, happy with that.”
Rockenfeller noted a bit of luck, too, from the “Resilient Racer” the No. 64 Mustang carried on board this weekend. In recognition of Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, the new program connected IMSA and its two proud charity partners, Austin Hatcher Foundation and Camp Boggy Creek. The first name and last initial of a child affected by pediatric cancer or other serious illness was displayed above both doors of the race car and in the spotters guide for the Battle on the Bricks, as a powerful show of encouragement and support.
“Sebby did a great job today but I also don't want to forget we had a third guy on the car which was Jackson Daniels, and I think IMSA did a fantastic thing with Camp Boggy Creek to basically have those kids here and the families,” Rockenfeller said. “He brought luck to us. Yesterday I had a really bad quali. I think the car was really out of balance and we tweaked it for today.
“But you're really disappointed sometimes in racing, but then you meet those people and especially Jackson, how strong he is. It was really inspiring especially as a dad to see that, and it puts it all in a different perspective.”
Continuing their stealth push towards a potential GTD PRO championship, Costa carved his way up to second in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari he shared Sunday with Davide Rigon. That result, coupled with a fourth place for the title rival No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, has unofficially placed Costa only 18 points behind Corvette’s Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims heading to Motul Petit Le Mans for the season finale.
Harper and Hesse were third, ensuring the Paul Miller Racing BMW had a podium result to show for their weekend pace that included Saturday’s Motul Pole Award.
Rockenfeller and Priaulx are now third in the championship, 169 points back, with AO falling to fourth, 245 points back as they try to keep the GTD PRO title for another year.
