Team Craft-Bamboo Wins Indianapolis 8 Hour by Less Than Second
October 09, 2022 | By Paul Kelly
INDIANAPOLIS (Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022) – After eight hours of intense sports car racing Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the No. 77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Mercedes won the Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS by less than a second, as predicted Friday by one of its drivers.
Raffaele Marciello edged the No. 71 AF Corse Francorchamps Ferrari 488 driven by Antonio Fuoco by just .800 of a second in the Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli endurance sports car race on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile IMS road course. The dramatic victory – in darkness at IMS – for Marciello and co-drivers Daniel Juncadella and former Indy Lights competitor Daniel Morad came after they started a disappointing 15th, prompting Marciello to promise on Twitter after qualifying Friday that the team would win from deep in the field.
The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 shared by Americans Robby Foley, Michael Dinan and John Edwards finished third, one minute, 5.864 seconds behind the winners.
“I think I was just lucky,” Marciello said. “If we didn’t do it (win), we would look pretty stupid, but we knew our car was really strong. Daniel (Morad) did a great job in the beginning and handed the car to Dani (Juncadella). They put the car in front. I’m really happy.”
Marciello and Fuoco exchanged the lead during their final stints, with Marciello leading Fuoco by 4.5 seconds after their respective final pit stops with two hours to go. Fuoco, who shared the No. 71 Ferrari with Daniel Serra and Ulysse De Pauw, trimmed the gap to only 4.1 seconds with an hour to go.
But Fuoco reduced Marciello’s lead to 2.2 seconds with 45 minutes to go, and the race was on as darkness fell over the Speedway. Fuoco pulled to within 1.2 seconds with 15 minutes remaining.
Fuoco closed to within .492 of a second – about three car lengths of Marciello – with five minutes remaining. The gap evaporated to two-tenths of a second approaching the final lap, but Marciello skillfully navigated lapped traffic to pull away for the win.
Canadian Morad wasted no time driving the Team Craft-Bamboo Mercedes from 15th to second in the first two hours of the race. Juncadella drove the car to the lead around the halfway mark of the race.
The pole-winning team of Jules Gounon, Russell Ward and Phillip Ellis finished fourth in the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes as the last car on the lead lap. Gounon would have clinched the IGTC drivers’ title with a victory, but instead he saw his points lead vanish to Juncadella, who took over the top spot.
“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Juncadella said.