IMSA at Indianapolis: Championships come into focus

INDIANAPOLIS -- While the GTP battle raged on between the Porsches and Cadillacs at the front of the field on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, class championships were being decided in Sunday’s 2-hour, 40-minute Battle on the Bricks for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 started on the GTD class pole position in an attempt to score their third win from pole in a row. While the duo of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers remained in the top five all race, the pair fell 2.841 seconds short of securing their sixth win of the 2023 racing season, finishing third in the class meant for pro/am driver lineups in GT3 machinery.

Snow and Sellers’ seventh podium finish in 10 races was enough to clinch them the GTD class championship before the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October.

Snow started the race before handing the car off to Sellers during the first of two scheduled pit stops. While Snow stayed near the front in class, the Utah native was frustrated about being held up by a car from the LMP3 class (designed for amateur prototype drivers) that will go away for 2024.

“That (car) wouldn’t get out of my way,” Snow said. “I think there's way too many cars on track at the same time around here, and so the majority of your race is out of your hands. It’s just in other people's hands, either you being stuck behind them or trying to get around them.”

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While Phillip Ellis brought home the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 home just ahead of Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, they made contact as they approached Turn 7 in the final 3 1/2 minutes.

Instead of trying to force a pass in a tight spot, Sellers knew what was really important.

“We just didn't quite have enough today to beat those two guys,” Sellers said of the leading duo. “And you know, if you look at the big picture of the whole thing, that wasn't our objective coming in here.”

GTD Pro championship race

Moving up to the GTD Pro class meant for GT3 cars with all professional driver lineups and manufacturer-supported teams, Vasser Sullivan Racing all but clinched the class championship with Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat’s third-place finish in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3.

Since the British duo finished ahead of the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor at Indianapolis, simply starting the 10-hour season finale at Road Atlanta will clinch them the GTD Pro class championship.

Barnicoat wasn’t even focused on the battle for the class lead between the class-winning No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 of Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon and the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3. All that mattered was finishing in front of the Corvette, which crossed the finish line over 20 seconds behind Barnicoat.

“We had one target heading into this race and that was to beat the Corvette,” Barnicoat said. “We knew what that would mean for us and our point situation. Obviously it's not done yet, we do have to start at Petit Le Mans, but you know that should be a pretty easy challenge.”

For Hawksworth, a podium finish at IMS brought everything full circle. The first time the Bradford, West Yorkshire, native ever drove a race car in the U.S. was at the IMS road course during a 2011 test.

Geoff Fickling was not only Hawksworth’s engineer for that test, he also engineered Hawksworth for his now-named Indy Pro 2000 championship run in 2012 and also for his podium finish on Sunday.

“The whole team just executed perfectly all day,” Hawksworth said. “We covered ‘em all and we put together, I thought, a really professional, well executed race. Obviously we know what that means for the championship, but we’ll celebrate it properly when we get to Petit.”

A return to the Indy 500?

When driving into the IMS infield on Sunday morning, Jimmy Vasser and James Sullivan both had the same feeling of respect and desire racing with their sports car team as they did when they co-owned an IndyCar team.

Despite arriving at the track in separate cars, the anxiousness and nervousness crept over both of them as they had a job ahead of them to secure the GTD Pro class championship with their No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3.

When Hawksworth and Barnicoat finished third to all but clinch the crown, it was time to make good on a promise.

“We're better owners now than we ever were in IndyCar,” Sullivan said. “We’re better operators. We're a better organization than we've ever been. But the one thing that Jimmy and I both promised ourselves is once we win a championship for ourselves and for Lexus, we'll turn our attention and our eyes back to coming back to the Indy 500.”

“I think the probability is high that we'll at least be here to attempt to make the race,” Vasser said. “And I think that this place deserves that respect. You can't just say that you're going to come here after what we saw with Rahal this year and I've seen in the past. But this place is so magical and this is where our partnership began.”

The pair were co-owners of Tony Kanaan’s winning car in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 but stepped away from IndyCar racing after the 2021 season to focus on their sports car program with Lexus.

The switch of focus also included building a VS race shop in Charlotte that houses the sports car team as well as the Dallara Indy car tub that has been stripped down to the bare carbon to be crack checked and twist tested.

“As we have the time, you know, we'll slowly build it back up,” Sullivan said. “But as I said, not clinching the championship, but putting us in a position where we go to Petit Le Mans, take the green flag, and we've got it, that goes a long, long way to us coming back to Indy, but in a different race car, not in a sports car.”

Sullivan indicated that the team could be ready as soon as 2024 in what would most likely be in a joint capacity.

A spin to … podium

In the first 15 minutes of the race, Nolan Siegel’s No. 30 JR III Racing LMP3 machine was facing the wrong way. After Anton Dias Perera spun the No. 15 Lone Star Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 in Turn 12, Perera hit the left rear of Siegel’s car, turning the Indy NXT racer into the grass.

Siegel was seventh in class after losing 15 seconds to get his car pointed the right way. After Garett Grist took over driving duties at the first pit stop, he kept the car in contention late in the race and was set to finish fourth until Dakota Dickerson had late contact with Felipe Nasr, giving Dickerson a puncture that allowed Grist to move into third in the race’s final 3 minutes.

Grist was surprised more than anything at the result.

“We got lucky to be honest,” Grist said. “I don't know, (…) through the whole race (the) pace wasn’t stellar, so it was definitely some good luck today of why we're on the podium.”

Siegel had mixed emotions. While the car led 30 laps midway through, there’s always contemplation of what could have been.

“Happy to be on the podium, but definitely frustrated with the way the race went,” Siegel said. “I think we probably deserved a win today and that all the guys at Junior Three (Racing) deserved a win. We made some mistakes that cost us today and it is what it is, but still, it's not a bad day when you're on the podium.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IMSA at Indianapolis: Championships come into focus