A BMW team claimed its first IMSA WeatherTech Championship GTP victory of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, breaking Cadillac’s streak in a race where strategy and collisions determined the result. The win went to WRT’s No. 25 BMW, piloted by Sheldon van der Linde, who took the lead with five minutes left in the sprint. Van der Linde exploited traffic to pass Cadillac’s Earl Bamber, finishing with a 2.926-second advantage over the defending champion.
Bamber, racing for Action Express Racing, settled for second, 2.276 seconds ahead of Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Lauren Heinrich in the No. 6 Porsche 963. That kept co-driver Jack Aitken in the lead of the drivers’ championship headed into the finale at the Petit Le Mans, where one of the three Cadillacs starting the finale will clinch the manufacturers’ championship. “Earl was in much harder position at the end with the BMW flying up to him,” said Aitken, “and he’s as much part of this championship as I am. We’ve had a really good day in the office.”
Heinrich’s third-place finish left her 147 points behind Aitken, with a maximum of 165 points still available at the final race. Van der Linde, a South African driver, expressed relief after years of near-misses. “We’ve always been a bit in the mix, and then we couldn’t really put it together,” said Dries Vanthoor, his co-driver. “We’ve waited so frickin’ long for this (IMSA victory),” Van der Linde added. The Belgian team, WRT, entered its first full IMSA campaign with backing from NASCAR’s Haas, replacing Team RLL, which had secured BMW’s first three IMSA victories with the M Hybrid V8.
BMW’s strategy wins as chaos reshapes race
This marked BMW’s fourth consecutive GTP win in the series, following earlier victories in the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class this year. The team’s strategy hinged on two full-course cautions that disrupted the field. The first occurred after the No. 25 BMW hit the curbing at Turn 1, sparking a chain reaction that damaged multiple Porsches. Philipp Eng’s car struck the No. 6 Porsche, which then collided with the No. 7 Porsche, forcing the latter to retire with extensive damage. Even the No. 5 Porsche from JDC-Miller Motorsports suffered contact in the incident.
A second caution with an hour remaining allowed the leaders to pit under yellow, completing the race without further stops. The No. 6 Porsche fell back after Heinrich’s longer pit stop following a strategic short fill. Bamber briefly led the final round of pit stops but lost ground as tire wear caught up. After contact with the BMW—triggered by a flat-spotted tire under braking—he yielded at Turn 12 a lap later.
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LMP2 class battles wreckage and penalties
The LMP2 class suffered heavy damage from the first-lap crash, eliminating championship contenders PJ Hyett and George Kurtz. Nick Boulle handled Era Motorsports’ LMP2 through the wreckage, while Christian Rasmussen won the fuel efficiency race in the class. Jeremy Clarke, who set pole with a class record time, received a penalty for avoidable contact, dropping his Europol Competition Oreca to sixth. The team finished four points ahead of Crowdstrike’s Kurtz and Alex Quinn, who completed just 42 laps after retiring.
In GTD Pro, Dennis Olsen secured victory for his Mustang GT3 on the final lap, beating off Nicky Catsburg’s Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Catsburg’s late overtaking attempt at Turn 7 failed, but he and teammate Tom Milner extended their championship lead to 47 points over BMW’s Neil Verhagen and Connor de Phillippi. The BMW duo dropped to sixth after de Phillippi’s collision with Fred Vervisch’s Mustang, which incurred a drive-through penalty.
GTD Pro drama ends with late overtakes
The top three GTD Pro finishers, Olsen, Catsburg, and Pfaff Motorsports’ Lamborghini Temerario, all pitted just before the second safety car period, moving them to the front. The RLL team’s McLaren 720S GT3 EVO narrowly avoided disaster after a timed race extension forced Nikita Johnson to pit from the lead. Turner Motorsports’ BMW M4 GT3 EVO, driven by Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, finished seventh, half a second ahead of Windward Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The grid lined up by championship points after GT qualifying was canceled due to lightning. A controversial penalty moved points leader Russell Ward and his Mercedes to the back for missing a reconnaissance lap deadline. Ward missed the pit entrance and failed to arrive in the maximum time allowed. “They’re going to have to crash us, kill us, or kick us out,” he said once he emerged from his car, furious about the IMSA ruling. The Turner team now trails Windward by just six points in the championship.
