BMW M Team WRT Wins Its First IMSA GTP Race

BMW M Team WRT secured its first victory since taking over BMW's GTP program in 2026. Sheldon van der Linde passed Earl Bamber with five and a half minutes remaining in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks for IMSA at Indianapolis, and the No. 24 BMW, which he shares with Dries Vanthoor, won in GTP.

Photo By IMSA

Lightning near the circuit forced the prototype qualifying session to be delayed and the GTD Pro and GTD sessions to be canceled entirely, so the grids for those two classes were set based on each team's points. In GTP, Tom Blomqvist took pole in the No. 60 Acura, his seventh career IMSA pole, by three tenths over Jack Aitken, while Laurin Heinrich qualified eighth in the No. 6 Porsche. Since IMSA awards points for starting position, that eighth place left Heinrich 127 points behind Aitken in the championship.

The two previous editions of the Battle on the Bricks lasted six hours, and this one was reduced to two hours and 40 minutes, the only race on the calendar with that duration and with all four classes on track. IMSA expected only two or three stops, so a crash, a penalty, or a bad starting position left little room to recover, and one of those penalties came even before the start. The No. 57 Mercedes of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward, which arrived with three consecutive wins in Canada, Road America, and VIR and had been awarded the top GTD grid spot on points, was sent to the back for starting the engine during the pre-race ceremonies, which violated Article 42.1.

Photo By IMSA

A crash at the first corner

At turn one, Vanthoor tried to dive inside the No. 6 Porsche of Kevin Estre, and the contact sent that car into the No. 7 of Julien Andlauer, which also involved the No. 99 ORECA of AO Racing. The No. 7 suffered heavy damage and finished 22 laps down, while the No. 99 had to come in for repairs and ended up 18 laps down. The hit was especially costly for Porsche, because the No. 6 was the car with which Heinrich, in a modified pairing with Estre, was looking to close in on Aitken in the championship, though he recovered in the second half of the race to finish third.

Aitken passed the polesitting Acura and the Cadillac took the lead

Blomqvist started at the front, but Aitken found an opportunity in the second third of the race to pass the Acura, which lost ground in the first round of pit stops, and from there the No. 31 Cadillac controlled the race. With the driver changes, Bamber was in the Cadillac, Heinrich moved into the No. 6 Porsche, and Van der Linde took over the No. 24 BMW from Vanthoor. Bamber built a gap, but the BMW began to close in the final part, and a caution period along with the final round of pit stops bunched the group back up, with Bamber leading, Van der Linde close behind, and Heinrich third.

Photo By IMSA

The final minutes decided the GTP class

With about 24 minutes remaining, Van der Linde began closing on the Cadillac, using lapped GT cars, and with eight minutes left to the checkered flag he was within six tenths. His first attempt, around the outside of turn 7, did not work, but the second, at turn 12, came when Bamber had traffic ahead and both prototypes were catching the No. 64 Ford of Dennis Olsen, which was fighting for the GTD Pro win. The BMW went inside both of them, and Bamber chose to stay on the outside and hold position rather than risk contact that could cost points for Aitken, his co-driver and the championship leader.

Photo By IMSA

Van der Linde finished just under three seconds ahead of the Cadillac. BMW had already won at Indianapolis in 2024, with BMW M Team RLL running the program and with Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn, in the six-hour version. Heinrich finished just over five seconds behind the BMW, and since Aitken and Bamber closed out second, the gap between the two, which was 127 points before the race, unofficially grew to 147. The No. 60 Acura, which had been quick from practice, fell to fifth with Blomqvist and Colin Braun.

In LMP2, fuel saving won and title contenders hit trouble

Era Motorsport won with the No. 18 ORECA by saving enough fuel to avoid a final stop, with a new pairing formed by Nick Boulle, the 2024 IMSA LMP2 champion, and Christian Rasmussen, a class winner at the 24 Hours of Daytona and a race winner in IndyCar. The three title contenders in the class had trouble at different points in the race. The No. 43 Inter Europol, with Jeremy Clarke and Tom Dillmann, started from pole, but needed an extra fuel stop late and finished sixth in class; the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR, with George Kurtz and Alex Quinn, also had issues; and the No. 99 AO Racing was damaged from the first corner.

Photo By IMSA

Bryan Herta Autosport finished second in the No. 52, and United Autosports USA took third in the No. 22, which had controlled much of the race with Paul Di Resta and Daniel Goldburg until it received a penalty for passing under caution and lost its shot at the win. With those results, Inter Europol remains ahead of CrowdStrike by a minimal margin in the unofficial standings.

Ford won in GTD Pro and Corvette took over the championship lead

Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker gave the No. 64 Ford its first win since this same race a year earlier, in a final lap in which Nicky Catsburg attacked in the No. 4 Corvette and both cars had an incidental contact that Race Control reviewed without issuing a penalty. The No. 9 Lamborghini of Pfaff Motorsports finished third, and the second-place finish for Catsburg and Tommy Milner was enough for the Corvette to take the lead in both the drivers' and teams' championships, because the No. 1 BMW of Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, which started from pole after the grid was set on points and had led the standings by 23 points over them, finished sixth in class.

Photo By IMSA

Turner won in GTD with the Winward Mercedes sent to the back

Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley gave Turner Motorsport its first win in more than two years in the No. 96 BMW. The No. 57 Mercedes charged from the back of the grid and finished half a second behind, while the No. 13 Corvette of 13 Autosport, with Matt Bell and Orey Fidani, was third. Winward retains the championship lead, but Turner, which had been 36 points back, is now much closer.

Photo By IMSA

Petit Le Mans closes the season with four championships to decide

Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will host the 10 Hours of Petit Le Mans on October 3, the final race of the IMSA season and the one that will decide the championships in all four classes. With 10 hours ahead, a bad start like the one suffered by the No. 6 Porsche can be corrected with more margin, though there is also more time for crashes, cautions, and mechanical failures. In GTP, Heinrich needs to make up 147 points on Aitken in a single race, and Cadillac is also well positioned in the manufacturers' and teams' standings. For Meyer Shank Racing, it is the last chance to win with the Acura program in GTP, which ends at the close of the season, as Blomqvist and Braun are not mathematically in the drivers' title fight and the team has not won in 2026.

Photo By IMSA

In LMP2, Inter Europol and CrowdStrike are separated by a fraction of a point, so whatever happens between them on track will weigh more than any other result. In GTD Pro, Corvette arrives in the lead and the No. 1 BMW will have to recover the top spot it held before Indianapolis. In GTD, Winward retains the lead with Turner close enough that the championship will be decided between them over the 10 hours.

TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks 2026 — Race

Pos	Pos. Class	class	#	driver	team	brand	car	Gap
1	1	GTP	#24	Dries Vanthoor Sheldon van der Linde	BMW M Team WRT	BMW	BMW M Hybrid V8	-
2	2	GTP	#31	Jack Aitken Earl Bamber	Cadillac Whelen	Cadillac	Cadillac V-Series.R	+2.926
3	3	GTP	#6	Laurin Heinrich Kevin Estre	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche	Porsche 963	+5.202
4	4	GTP	#40	Jordan Taylor Louis Deletraz	Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing	Cadillac	Cadillac V-Series.R	+25.396
5	5	GTP	#60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian	Acura	Acura ARX-06	+30.135
6	6	GTP	#10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing	Cadillac	Cadillac V-Series.R	+38.085
7	7	GTP	#93	Renger van der Zande Nick Yelloly	Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian	Acura	Acura ARX-06	+39.043
8	8	GTP	#23	Ross Gunn Roman De Angelis	ASTON MARTIN THOR Team	Aston Martin	Aston Martin Valkyrie	+44.135
9	9	GTP	#5	Tijmen van der Helm Nico Mueller	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Porsche	Porsche 963	+48.243
10	10	GTP	#25	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann	BMW M Team WRT	BMW	BMW M Hybrid V8	1 Lap
11	1	LMP2	#18	Nick Boulle Christian Rasmussen	Era Motorsport	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	3 Laps
12	2	LMP2	#52	Misha Goikhberg Harry Tincknell	Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	3 Laps
13	3	LMP2	#22	Daniel Goldburg Paul Di Resta	United Autosports USA	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	3 Laps
14	4	LMP2	#8	John Farano Tristan Vautier	Tower Motorsports	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	3 Laps
15	5	LMP2	#73	Pietro Fittipaldi Chris Cumming	Pratt Miller Motorsports	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	4 Laps
16	6	LMP2	#43	Jeremy Clarke Tom Dillmann	Inter Europol Competition	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	4 Laps
17	7	LMP2	#11	Tobi Lutke Mathias Beche	TDS Racing	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	4 Laps
18	1	GTDPRO	#64	Ben Barker Dennis Olsen	Ford Racing	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	7 Laps
19	2	GTDPRO	#4	Tommy Milner Nicky Catsburg	Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	7 Laps
20	3	GTDPRO	#9	Andrea Caldarelli Sandy Mitchell	Pfaff Motorsports	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Temerario GT3	7 Laps
21	4	GTDPRO	#3	Antonio Garcia Alexander Sims	Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	7 Laps
22	5	GTDPRO	#14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Lexus	Lexus RC F GT3	7 Laps
23	6	GTDPRO	#1	Neil Verhagen Connor De Phillippi	Paul Miller Racing	BMW	BMW M4 GT3 EVO	7 Laps
24	7	GTDPRO	#65	Christopher Mies Frederic Vervisch	Ford Racing	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	7 Laps
25	8	GTDPRO	#59	Max Esterson Nikita Johnson	RLL Team McLaren	McLaren	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	8 Laps
26	1	GTD	#96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley	Turner Motorsport	BMW	BMW M4 GT3 EVO	8 Laps
27	2	GTD	#57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	Winward Racing	Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	8 Laps
28	9	GTDPRO	#68	Valentin Hasse Clot Marco Sorensen	Car Blanche	Aston Martin	Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo	8 Laps
29	3	GTD	#13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell	13 Autosport	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	8 Laps
30	4	GTD	#81	Giacomo Altoè Casper Stevenson	DragonSpeed	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	8 Laps
31	5	GTD	#27	Dudu Barrichello Tom Gamble	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin	Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo	8 Laps
32	6	GTD	#120	Adam Adelson Callum Ilott	Wright Motorsports	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	8 Laps
33	7	GTD	#66	Jake Walker Corey Lewis	Gradient Racing	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	8 Laps
34	8	GTD	#12	Aaron Telitz Benjamin Pedersen	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Lexus	Lexus RC F GT3	8 Laps
35	10	GTDPRO	#77	Nick Tandy Harry King	AO Racing	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	9 Laps
36	9	GTD	#16	Sheena Monk Felipe Fraga	Myers Riley Motorsports	Ford	Ford Mustang GT3	9 Laps
37	10	GTD	#70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	Inception Racing	Ferrari	Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO	9 Laps
38	11	GTD	#34	Albert Costa Lorenzo Patrese	Conquest Racing	Ferrari	Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO	9 Laps
39	12	GTD	#36	Mason Filippi Robert Wickens	DXDT Racing	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	12 Laps
40	8	LMP2	#99	PJ Hyett Dane Cameron	AO Racing	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	18 Laps
41	11	GTP	#7	Felipe Nasr Julien Andlauer	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche	Porsche 963	22 Laps
42	9	LMP2	#04	George Kurtz Alex Quinn	Crowdstrike Racing by APR	Gibson	ORECA LMP2 07	45 Laps