The second edition of IMSA’s Battle on the Bricks, now a six-hour endurance race on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway compared with the 2h40m sprint in its inaugural year, has attracted 56 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entries as the full complement of Michelin Endurance Cup entries returns.
That includes the first appearance since Watkins Glen of the Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63, as well as Iron Lynx’s GTD PRO entry with the No. 19 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (Maximilian Paul and TBD) and the Iron Dames trio of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy. The GTD PRO entry swells to 12 from the full-season nine with the addition not only of Rolex 24 at Daytona winners Risi Competizione and its No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 for Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon, but also an appearance by Sun Energy 1’s No. 75 Mercedes AMG GT3 for Kenny Habul, Jordan Love and Chaz Mostert.
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The 56 entries include 11 for GTP, 12 for GTD PRO and 23 for GTD; LMP2 is the only class to see a reduction in entries from Watkins Glen. The three missing cars include CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s continued absence, but also Sean Creech Motorsports’ lone Ligier entry. DragonSpeed had been competing in LMP2, but is switching to GTD, entering a Ferrari 296 for Henrik Hedman, Rasmus Lindh and a driver to be determined.
Another surprise entry is the return of the KellyMoss with Riley, running the No. 90 Porsche 911 GT3 R for Porsche Carrera Cup North America champs Kay van Berlo and Riley Dickinson, plus EBOOST Porsche Motorsport North America Junior Program racer Jake Pedersen.
Beyond that, it’s the usual IMEC additions of AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari, Triarsi Competizione’s No. 023 Ferrari, Andretti Motorsports’ No. 43 Porsche, Cetilar Racing’s No. 47 Ferrari and Lone Star Racing’s No. 80 Mercedes AMG.
The pro teams of GTP and GTD PRO have the option of running only two drivers in the six-hour race, and many have elected to do so. The exceptions include Proton Competition (Alession Picariello), Whelen Cadillac Racing (Tom Blomqvist), JDC-Miller MotorSports (Phil Hanson) and Lamborghini Iron Lynx running its usual trio of Matteo Cairoli, Andrea Caldarelli and Romain Grosjean in GTP. IN GTD PRO, Paul Miller Racing adds Neil Verhagen.
Last year’s race ended in a one-two for Porsche Penske Motorsport, which does not bode well for their championship competitors, as the No. 7 and No. 6 Porsche 963 squads are currently one-two in the GTP championship standings. In GTD it was Winward Racing claiming the win, and it’s a real possibility that Winward leaves the penultimate race of the season with the GTD title in hand. LMP2 and GTD PRO, however, are wide open and success at Indy could push a team to the front of the pack.
The six-hour IMSA Battle on the Bricks is scheduled for a green flag at 11:40 a.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 22. The race will be streamed live on Peacock and on IMSA.tv outside the U.S. The latter half of the race will be carried on NBC from 3 to 6 p.m. ET. Select sessions will be carried on IMSA Radio on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com. Qualifying at 3:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 21 will be streamed on Peacock and on IMSA.tv.