Indy 8H, Hours 2-4: Craft-Bamboo Mercedes In Control After WRT BMWs Stumble

Halfway into the Indianapolis 8 Hour, BMW Team WRT’s duopoly over the Indianapolis 8 Hour has been disrupted, and has ceded control to defending race winners Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing.

Jules Gounon has taken over the #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG GT3 from 2022 Indy 8H winner Raffaele Marciello and is now nine seconds ahead of the #999 Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes of Daniel Juncadella.

They took that lead after the #30 WRT BMW M4 GT3, the dominant car through the first three hours, got a drive-through penalty when a miscommunication caused Dries Vanthoor to stay out a lap too long and exceed the maximum single stint time by 11 seconds.

That gave the lead to the #31 WRT BMW for a few minutes, until Charles Weerts had to bring the car in for an unscheduled stop due to a slow puncture.

Augusto Farfus is now aboard the #31 BMW and is scored as the leader after four hours of racing – ahead of Gounon and Juncadella – but that car is now out of sequence from the rest of the IGTC Pro field.

Philipp Eng has gotten back aboard the #30 BMW and is four seconds behind Juncadella, trying to make up the deficit to the two leading Mercedes.

The #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R leads the FGTWCA Pro class and is scored in fifth place overall after Jan Heylen took over after a pit stop. Heylen leads the #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen by ten seconds, but the BimmerWorld Racing crew has been off sequence since a Safety Car intervention in the second hour of the race.

At one hour and 36 minutes elapsed, the Safety Car was deployed for the first time as the #91 DXDT Racing Mercedes came to a stop. Utah’s Jeff Burton was battling with fellow Bronze drivers Antares Au and Jon Branam for the Pro-Am lead, but his fight came to an end when the car stopped coming out of turn two and pulled off into the grass.

A left-side driveline issue was reported as the problem which has made the #91 DXDT Mercedes the first retirement of the race.

The two WRT BMWs were still fighting hard even after the Safety Car came out. Exiting the pits, Maxime Martin in the #31 drove ahead of Dries Vanthoor, who’d just gotten aboard the #30. Martin ran slower than the 50 km/h speed limit to meet the minimum pit time, and Vanthoor bumped him down pit lane to give him the hurry-up.

When the green flag dropped, Martin and Vanthoor got through BimmerWorld’s Chandler Hull to take the lead on track – but at turn seven, Vanthoor put the bumper to Martin’s fender and bumped his way through to the lead! That advantage would be short-lived when race control ordered the #30 to drop back behind the 31. Vanthoor would quickly find his way past his elder compatriot again, this time without controversy.

Klaus Bachler is seventh in the #28 RS1 Porsche, which leaves co-drivers Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer in position to clinch the GT World Challenge America Pro championship as long as they avoid catastrophe in the second hour of the race.

Seth Lucas is seven seconds behind in the #53 MDK Motorsports Porsche but the team is monitoring a potential issue with the differential that recently came into view.

20 minutes before the top of the hour, the Pro-Am class lead changed hands as Daytona 24H champion Colin Braun drove the #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes past the #120 Wright Motorsport Porsche of Elliott Skeer.

The two leading cars in Pro-Am are in a winner-take-all fight for the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am title, and the advantage now rests with Braun and George Kurtz.

After a round of pit stops, it’s now IndyCar prospect Nolan Siegel in the #04 Mercedes, leading current IndyCar driver Callum Ilott in the #120 Porsche, occupying the rest of the top ten.

Young Australian Thomas Sargent is third in Pro-Am, 11th overall, in the sole surviving #08 DXDT Racing Mercedes.

Some other incidents to note: The #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 and #85 Rearden Racing Porsche had another collision at turn 13 during the second hour, but this time the roles were reversed as Ashton Harrison spun Jake Pedersen out, resulting in a drive-through penalty for the #93 Acura.

TR3 Racing had come back from 22nd and last on the grid to seventh overall and the Pro-Am class lead thanks in part to the driving of 59th-minute substitute Kenton Koch. Everything was running smoothly until the transponder on the #27 TR3 Racing Mercedes began to malfunction.

Race control ordered the team to change transponders on its next pit stop. They did, but TR3 Racing picked up a subsequent drive-through penalty for doing the work while refuelling, a pit work violation.

Feature image © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America