The world’s best GT3 sports car racing teams have come to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to compete this weekend, but American teams defended home soil by locking out the front row Friday for the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.
BMW factory driver Philipp Eng joined Random Vandals Racing, based in Concord, North Carolina, this weekend for the season finale of the Intercontinental GT Challenge and GT World Challenge America powered by AWS series and won the pole for the eight-hour endurance race Saturday.
Eng, from Austria, turned a top lap of 1 minute, 22.271 seconds in the No. 51 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 that he will share with Americans Varun Choksey and Bill Auberlen in the race, which starts at 12:20 p.m. ET Saturday and finishes in darkness with race car headlights at 8:20 p.m. Eng won this race in 2023 driving with Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor in a BMW fielded by Team WRT.
“When we rolled the car off the truck straightaway, it was so well prepared by Random Vandals,” Eng said. “We improved the car step by step, and I’m very happy for the guys because this is my first time joining the team, first time being a Random Vandal, and I love it.
“I was very happy with the car, with the lap. It’s a long race ahead. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.”
Jules Gounon, from France, qualified second at 1:22.283 – just .012 of a second shy of pole -- in the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG fielded by Mercedes-AMG Lone Star Racing, based in Denison, Texas. Gounon will share that car with Lin Hodenius of the Netherlands and Maxime Martin of Belgium.
The 10-car Pole Shootout session was tight, with just .235 of a second separating the top six drivers.
There will be 25 cars competing in the eight-hour race from renowned manufacturers Aston Martin, BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. These are all GT3-specification sports cars, which resemble their showroom counterparts.
Particular attention will be paid to Row 2 of the starting grid, occupied by the two drivers vying for the season championship in the global sports car series driving for the same team, Team WRT.
Raffaele Marciello of Italy qualified third at 1:22.316 in the No. 777 Team WRT BMW M4. Teammate Kelvin van der Linde qualified fourth in the No. 46 Team WRT BMW after a best lap of 1:22.408. Van der Linde’s team includes MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, who is making his four-wheeled IMS debut.
Van der Linde leads Marciello, 85-80, in the standings with 25 points available to the winner Saturday.
Van der Linde and Marciello teamed up to win this season at Nurburgring and Suzuka for the WRT BMW team, but they were separated at Bathurst and Spa and will continue to be rivals this weekend at IMS. There’s little to separate the two drivers, as van der Linde has three victories and Marciello two. The WRT team also has won the Indianapolis 8 Hour the last two years, so there’s no team advantage for either driver.
Row 3 was claimed by two teams featuring NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers.
Connor De Phillippi qualified fifth at 1:22.445 in the No. 99 BMW M4 fielded by pole winners Random Vandals Racing. He will share that car with popular INDYCAR SERIES driver Conor Daly and Kenton Koch.
The No. 75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG will start sixth after Chaz Mostert’s best lap of 1:22.506. Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power will compete in his first sports car race since 2003, sharing the car with fellow Australians Mostert and Kenny Habul.
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