Sports car racing takes center stage as autumn approaches at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the evocative automobile brands and top drivers and teams of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competing Sept. 18-20 in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.
Forty-four cars among four classes will compete simultaneously on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile IMS road course during the feature race, which starts at 3:10 p.m. ET Sunday. The race is considered a sprint event and lasts two hours, 40 minutes, a change from the six-hour endurance format of 2024 and 2025.
The premier Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class will be joined by the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), GT Daytona PRO (GTD PRO) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes on track for the race. GTP and LMP2 cars are exotic prototype race cars, while GTD PRO and GTD are based on production models and feature brands and models such as Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, McLaren and Porsche.
All teams field just two drivers, who rotate stints in the car, for this event. That’s a change from the three-driver lineups many teams employed for the endurance races of the past two years.
A victory at Indianapolis will carry more than just prestige, as championship races in all four classes are raging with this event being the penultimate race of the WeatherTech Championship this season. The last race of 2026 is Petit Le Mans on Sept. 30-Oct. 3 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Jack Aitken, who drove the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac team to victory last year at IMS, leads the GTP standings with the team by 118 points over Laurin Heinrich. Porsche is strategically moving Heinrich back to the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport alongside Kevin Estre from JDC-Miller Motorsports to try and gain ground on Aitken.
The GTP title race took an unexpected turn at the last race, Aug. 2 at Road America, when Aitken and Estre collided late while dueling for second place. That incident eliminated Aitken from the race, and he lost crucial points. Heinrich was part of the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche team that finished second in the race behind winners Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.
LMP2 has an even closer title race entering The Racing Capital of the World.
The No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR shared by George Kurtz and Alex Quinn leads the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car of Tom Dillmann and Jeremy Clarke by 36 points in what appears to be a two-car battle for the crown. Dillman and Clarke have won the class in the last two races this season to pull within title contention.
There will be a bit of NTT INDYCAR SERIES flavor in the LMP2 class, as ECR driver Christian Rasmussen was a late addition to the race roster. The Dane will share the No. 18 Era Motorsport car with Nick Boulle.
GTD PRO has a raging title race, as just 67 points separate the top five teams, each of which represent a different manufacturer (BMW, Chevrolet, Lamborghini, Porsche and Ford).
Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, sharing the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, lead the class by 23 points over the No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R shared by Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner.
The rising threat in GTD PRO is the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 shared by Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell. That team has won the class honors at the last two events this season to climb into third in the standings, 56 points behind leaders De Phillippi and Verhagen.
Newly crowned INDY NXT by Firestone champion Nikita Johnson isn’t laying low in the offseason, as he will share the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren McLaren 720S GT3 EVO in GTD PRO. Former INDYCAR SERIES driver Jack Hawksworth also is racing in the class in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 fielded by former INDYCAR SERIES team Vasser Sullivan Racing.
In GTD, Philip Ellis and Russell Ward have won the class in three straight races entering Indy in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, elevating it to the class lead. They lead Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 by 36 points.
The last time a WeatherTech Championship team won four consecutive races in any class was in 2023, when Riley took four straight in the former LMP3 class.
INDYCAR SERIES fans will note three former series drivers in the GTD field: Robert Wickens, Benjamin Pedersen and Callum Ilott.
WeatherTech Championship practice takes place at 3:25 p.m. ET Friday, with pre-qualifying practice at 10:45 a.m. Saturday. Qualifying is set for 5:05 p.m. Saturday.
Saturday’s feature race will be the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 for the Michelin Pilot Challenge, a two-hour race that starts at 2:30 p.m. That series also features a “race within a race,” but with just two classes of production-based sports cars and touring cars from brands such as Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Cupra, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Porsche, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.
2002 Indianapolis 500 pole winner Bruno Junqueira will return to IMS to share the No. 56 Baker Racing Audi RS3 LS in the Touring Car (TCR) class.
Support series racing also will take place in Porsche Carrera Cup, Lamborghini Trofeo and Mazda MX-5 this weekend.
Tickets and information for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks are available at IMS.com.
