Meyer Shank Racing Claims GTP Pole Position for the Battle on the Bricks

The GTP pole for IMSA's TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks went to the No. 60 Acura of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, in a qualifying session at Indianapolis that was disrupted by rain and a thunderstorm, and in which Jack Aitken ended up second in the No. 31 Cadillac.

Blomqvist set the pole lap with less than three minutes remaining, in a session shaped by earlier rain and an interruption due to electrical activity near the circuit. Only he and Aitken managed to dip below 1 minute 15 seconds, with three tenths separating them, and the No. 24 BMW of Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde was the closest, in third place.

Photo By IMSA

For Blomqvist, it is his seventh IMSA pole, and for his team, their twenty-fifth, and the second in a row at Indianapolis, although the 2025 one was later disallowed when inspection found a bodywork tolerance infringement and the Acura was sent to the back of the grid. Aitken then moved up to first and won the race in the No. 31 Cadillac, with the No. 10 less than a second behind and the Acura of Blomqvist and Braun third. Now Blomqvist and Braun can no longer mathematically fight for the drivers' championship and have not won in 2026, so the team is looking to close out its GTP program with a win in the two remaining rounds.

Laurin Heinrich starts eighth and Jack Aitken scores points in GTP

Qualifying also shook up the standings, because IMSA awards points for starting position, and Aitken's second place versus Laurin Heinrich's eighth—who shares the No. 6 Porsche with Kevin Estre—stretched the gap between them to 127 points, nine more than before the session. Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly, third in the championship in the No. 93 Acura, which starts fifth, are 191 points behind Aitken.

Heinrich starts with seven cars ahead, the last of them the No. 10 Cadillac of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, winners at Road America. Kevin Estre, who set the lap that put the No. 6 Porsche eighth, was also the one who made contact with Aitken at the Turn 1 braking zone in that race while fighting for second, an incident that sent the No. 31 Cadillac into the wall.

Photo By IMSA

The Battle on the Bricks was six hours long in previous editions and this year is reduced to two hours and 40 minutes, the only sprint race on the calendar with that duration and all four classes on track. IMSA expects two to three stops for the prototypes, so a mistake, a penalty, or a bad starting position leaves far less room to recover than in a six-hour race, and starting on the front row is worth more than in other editions.

The Indianapolis circuit is about 3.9 kilometers long and has 14 corners, with two main straights that end in heavy braking zones and a section formed by turns 7, 8, and 9 where traffic gets more complicated. With GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro, and GTD sharing the track, overtaking between prototypes and GT cars will be one of the decisive factors.

Jeremy Clarke and Tom Dillmann close in on the LMP2 leader

Clarke and Dillmann will start first in LMP2 in the No. 43 ORECA, the fifth class pole in the last seven races, ahead of Daniel Goldburg in the No. 22 and PJ Hyett in the No. 99. The 35 points for pole brought them within 26 of George Kurtz and Alex Quinn, who lead the championship in the No. 04 ORECA, which starts sixth in class. With only this race and Petit Le Mans remaining, Clarke and Dillmann, winners of the last two LMP2 races at Mosport and Road America, need to finish ahead of the No. 04 to keep closing the gap.

Photo By IMSA

IMSA set the GTD Pro and GTD grid by points due to the storm

The storm forced the session to be stopped before the two GT classes could go out to qualify, and IMSA chose to cancel both and set the grid based on each team's points. In GTD Pro, the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen starts from pole, which according to IMSA data before the weekend led the championship by 23 points over the No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg, second on the grid. In GTD, the No. 57 Mercedes of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward took pole, with the No. 27 Aston Martin of Eduardo Barrichello and Tom Gamble second.

Photo By IMSA

Storm forecast and Battle on the Bricks schedule

The U.S. National Weather Service forecasts for Sunday a high near 29 degrees, partly sunny skies, and a 30 percent chance of rain or thunderstorms starting at 3 p.m., almost at race time, with possible isolated severe storms and damaging gusts during the afternoon. The most likely scenario is a dry race, although there is a real risk of an isolated storm, something that already happened during qualifying.

The Battle on the Bricks, the penultimate round of the championship before Petit Le Mans, begins on Sunday, September 20 at 3:10 p.m. Eastern Time, with 44 cars on track divided into 11 in GTP, 10 in LMP2, 10 in GTD Pro, and 13 in GTD.

TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks 2026 — Qualifying

Pos	Pos. Class	class	#	drivers	team	brand	car	Gap
1	1	GTP	#60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian	Acura	Acura ARX-06	-
2	2	GTP	#31	Jack Aitken Earl Bamber	Cadillac Whelen	Cadillac	Cadillac V-Series.R	+0.301
3	3	GTP	#24	Dries Vanthoor Sheldon van der Linde	BMW M Team WRT	BMW	BMW M Hybrid V8	+0.399
4	4	GTP	#40	Jordan Taylor Louis Deletraz	Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing	Cadillac	Cadillac V-Series.R	+0.542
5	5	GTP	#93	Renger van der Zande Nick Yelloly	Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian	Acura	Acura ARX-06	+0.542
6	6	GTP	#7	Felipe Nasr Julien Andlauer	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche	Porsche 963	+0.561
7	7	GTP	#10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing	Cadillac	Cadillac V-Series.R	+0.679
8	8	GTP	#6	Laurin Heinrich Kevin Estre	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche	Porsche 963	+0.721
9	9	GTP	#25	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann	BMW M Team WRT	BMW	BMW M Hybrid V8	+0.804
10	10	GTP	#23	Ross Gunn Roman De Angelis	ASTON MARTIN THOR Team	Aston Martin	Aston Martin Valkyrie	+0.904
11	11	GTP	#5	Tijmen van der Helm Nico Mueller	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Porsche	Porsche 963	+1.566
12	1	LMP2	#43	Jeremy Clarke Tom Dillmann	Inter Europol Competition	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+2.881
13	2	LMP2	#22	Daniel Goldburg Paul Di Resta	United Autosports USA	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+3.039
14	3	LMP2	#99	PJ Hyett Dane Cameron	AO Racing	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+3.096
15	4	LMP2	#52	Misha Goikhberg Harry Tincknell	Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+3.230
16	5	LMP2	#11	Tobi Lutke Mathias Beche	TDS Racing	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+3.278
17	6	LMP2	#04	George Kurtz Alex Quinn	Crowdstrike Racing by APR	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+3.372
18	7	LMP2	#18	Nick Boulle Christian Rasmussen	Era Motorsport	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+3.451
19	8	LMP2	#2	Phil Fayer Mikkel Jensen	United Autosports USA	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+4.019
20	9	LMP2	#73	Pietro Fittipaldi Chris Cumming	Pratt Miller Motorsports	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+4.867
21	10	LMP2	#8	John Farano Tristan Vautier	Tower Motorsports	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	+5.699
22	1	GTDPRO	#1	Neil Verhagen Connor De Phillippi	Paul Miller Racing	BMW	BMW M4 GT3 EVO	--
23	2	GTDPRO	#3	Antonio Garcia Alexander Sims	Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	--
24	3	GTDPRO	#4	Tommy Milner Nicky Catsburg	Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	--
25	4	GTDPRO	#9	Andrea Caldarelli Sandy Mitchell	Pfaff Motorsports	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Temerario GT3	--
26	1	GTD	#12	Aaron Telitz Benjamin Pedersen	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Lexus	Lexus RC F GT3	--
27	2	GTD	#13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell	13 Autosport	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	--
28	5	GTDPRO	#14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Lexus	Lexus RC F GT3	--
29	3	GTD	#16	Sheena Monk Felipe Fraga	Myers Riley Motorsports	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	--
30	4	GTD	#27	Dudu Barrichello Tom Gamble	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin	Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo	--
31	5	GTD	#34	Albert Costa Lorenzo Patrese	Conquest Racing	Ferrari	Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO	--
32	6	GTD	#36	Mason Filippi Robert Wickens	DXDT Racing	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	--
33	7	GTD	#45	Danny Formal Trent Hindman	Wayne Taylor Racing	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	--
34	8	GTD	#57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	Winward Racing	Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	--
35	6	GTDPRO	#59	Max Esterson Nikita Johnson	RLL Team McLaren	McLaren	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	--
36	7	GTDPRO	#64	Ben Barker Dennis Olsen	Ford Racing	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	--
37	8	GTDPRO	#65	Christopher Mies Frederic Vervisch	Ford Racing	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	--
38	9	GTD	#66	Jake Walker Corey Lewis	Gradient Racing	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	--
39	9	GTDPRO	#68	Valentin Hasse Clot Marco Sorensen	Car Blanche	Aston Martin	Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo	--
40	10	GTD	#70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	Inception Racing	Ferrari	Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO	--
41	10	GTDPRO	#77	Nick Tandy Harry King	AO Racing	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	--
42	11	GTD	#81	Giacomo Altoè Casper Stevenson	DragonSpeed	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	--
43	12	GTD	#96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley	Turner Motorsport	BMW	BMW M4 GT3 EVO	--
44	13	GTD	#120	Adam Adelson Callum Ilott	Wright Motorsports	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	--