MotoGP Legend Rossi Adds Four-Wheeled Victory at IMS
Team WRT earned its third consecutive victory in the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a race hampered by severe weather during its second half.
The team of Kelvin van der Linde of South Africa, Charles Weerts of Belgium and MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi of Italy won the eight-hour race for the Intercontinental GT Challenge and GT World Challenge America powered by AWS in the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 under caution during a heavy rainstorm. Just two laps of green flag racing took place on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course in the final four hours of the race due to waves of lightning and heavy thunderstorms that rolled through Central Indiana.
SEE: Race Results
This was the fourth Intercontinental GT Challenge victory in five races this season for van der Linde, who also clinched the series championship with the win. BMW also clinched its first manufacturers’ championship in the season finale for the global series for GT3-spec sports cars.
“It’s a bit of an anticlimax, to be honest,” van der Linde said. “It’s such a cool race, and to spend two hours behind the Safety Car is a bit of a tricky one. The 777 (Team WRT sister car) deserved the win today, so I feel a bit of mixed emotions for the team.
“Nonetheless, four out of five for BMW Motorsport has made me very proud. There are some years where you have luck on your side, and things work out. That’s one of those years.”
Seven-time MotoGP World Champion Rossi earned his first Intercontinental GT Challenge victory and the distinction of becoming an IMS winner on two and four wheels, as he also won the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP MotoGP race in 2008. Ironically, that race also took place in torrential rain.
“I’m very happy because it was a great race, and at the end we were very lucky,” Rossi said. “Winning here for me is very special because I won here in 2008 with MotoGP, so it’s something fantastic. I’m very happy to help Kelvin win the championship.”
The No. 888 Mercedes-AMG Team GMR Mercedes-AMG shared by Maro Engel, Tom Kalender and Luca Stolz finished second. Team WRT also took the final spot on the podium with its No. 777 BMW M4 driven by Raffaele Marciello, Augusto Farfus and Al Faisal Al Zubair.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES standout Conor Daly was a member of the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 driver lineup that finished fourth. Two-time INDYCAR SERIES champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power finished sixth with the No. 75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG team in his first sportscar race since 2003.
The red flag first flew for lightning four hours and three minutes into the race. The 25 cars in the race returned to the track under caution behind the Safety Car with one hour, 32 minutes remaining.
Track conditions improved and rain subsided enough for the race to return to green-flag conditions with 40 minutes remaining. But the field only ran under full power for two laps before the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG of Jules Gounon stopped at the entrance of the pit lane with an apparent gearbox problem. Gounon’s team started from the pole after the No. 51 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 that Philipp Eng drove to the quickest time in qualifying Friday was found to have a technical violation in post-qualifying inspection.
Then another heavy downpour soaked IMS, with large pools of standing water on the racetrack creating dangerous conditions that prevented green-flag racing. Despite attempts by sweeper trucks to clear the water, the race ended under yellow at its scheduled time of 8:20 p.m. ET.
While severe weather impacted the second half of the race, the first four hours featured feverish, caution-free action.
Van der Linde was running second, five seconds behind teammate and championship rival Marciello, when the approach of lightning triggered the first caution period and then the extended red flag.
When cars returned to the track under yellow with one hour, 32 minutes remaining, team strategists went to work on stands up and down pit lane to call cars to the pits for fuel and to reset drivers’ stint lengths, as a maximum stint of 65 minutes is allowed per series rules.
Team WRT called van der Linde to the pits in his No. 46 entry with 65 minutes remaining to reset his stint length a lap earlier than most other cars. Marciello did the same on the following lap, along with most of the leaders.
That strategic ploy allowed van der Linde to jump ahead of Marciello in the running order before the green flag flew for the final time for just two laps, and Marciello couldn’t get past van der Linde during the brief full-power racing session.
