No. 10: Indy 8 Hour Lights Up IMS Road Course
December 22, 2022 | By Curt Cavin
Note: The editorial staff at IMS.com is taking a look back at the 10 biggest moments of 2022 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in this year-end series, with one installment appearing on the site per day in countdown fashion from Dec. 22-31.
Imagine, an Indianapolis Motor Speedway automobile race ending in near darkness.
That’s what fans of the iconic venue witnessed Oct. 8 when a Mercedes-AMG won the Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS in dramatic fashion. Not only was the front straightaway illuminated by the various scoreboards and the headlights of the cars, the finish of the endurance race came down to a separation of less than a second.
Driving the No. 77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Mercedes, 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. The victory came for Marciello and co-drivers Daniel Juncadella and former Indy Lights competitor Daniel Morad after they started a disappointing 16th, prompting Marciello to promise on Twitter after qualifying that the team would win from deep in the field.
The event featured some of the most evocative names in global motorsports – Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. The eight-hour endurance race featured two series racing simultaneously on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course, with 25 cars competing into the dusk of the day, a unique sight for fans at the Racing Capital of the World.
There were an assortment of IMS and INDYCAR ties in the GT World Challenge America field. Jarett Andretti, the son of INDYCAR SERIES race winner John Andretti, and INDYCAR SERIES race winner and Indianapolis 500 pole winner Ryan Briscoe joined Jeff Westphal behind the wheel of the No. 218 Andretti Autosport x Vital Speed Ferrari 488. The entry finished 15th.
The Indy 8 Hour will return next year Oct. 6-8.