Porsche Penske Motorsport leads the IMSA SportsCar Championship heading into the final round, after scoring important points at the Battle on the Bricks in Indianapolis.
The six-hour race at the famous 'Brickyard' was a tough outing for
Despite this, the #6 of Campbell set the fastest lap of anyone in the race itself, proving the pace and performance of Porsche machinery.
The #7 car was involved in two separate on-track incidents which pinned the car a lap down with no ability to turn things around.
The #6 was also assessed a penalty, but was able to stay on the lead lap and finish mid-pack in the GTP category, scoring very important points ahead of the Petit Le Mans where Porsche will look to defend multiple class and championship titles won in 2024.
Campbell and Jaminet hold a 131-point lead over Nasr and Tandy in the Drivers’ Championship heading to the final round, with the #6 car on 2582 points and the sister #7 entry on 2451.
Porsche Penske Motorsport holds both first and second places in the Teams’ standings, and currently leads the Manufacturers’ standings ahead of Acura with a 7-point lead.
Story of the race
There were two cautions in the first hour alone, and immediately the two cars took different strategies, with Campbell keeping the #6 car out on track as one of only two cars not to stop early, while the #7 took a pitstop, mirroring the competition.
However, on the second restart, the #7 was given a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility and spent a large portion of the next hour out of reach of the rest of the GTP cars, while Jaminet took over the #6.
The #6 picked up a penalty soon after for blocking, and quick thinking from the team pitted the car to serve the drive-through just before a full-course caution to minimize the time lost.
Both cars picked up spots over the next couple of stints, before a caution with just over three and a half hours to go opened up room for strategy, with the #7, now in Tandy’s hands, taking less fuel to leap up the order.
A loss of two positions in the first lap after the restart followed, but Tandy held fourth most of the next stint, with the #6 of Jaminet working forwards to sixth via smart overtaking moves.
However, as the clock ticked past halfway, Tandy spun the #7 after contact with a car a lap down, falling down the order, before another incident involving a GT car 10 minutes later earned him a penalty.
It also meant the #7 car was pinned one lap down and unable to make progress from the back of the field.
That left the #6 as the leading Porsche Penske Motorsport car, and it ran fourth for much of the third-quarter of the race.
A late caution with just over an hour left initiated pitstops where Campbell was eighth, and he passed the #93 car with 30 minutes to go to take seventh.
A full course yellow in the closing stages bunched up the pack and created a two-lap dash to the finish, although Campbell didn’t make any further progress as all the cars watched their depleting energy usage running down in a nail-biting climax.
Campbell took the finish in seventh, while Nasr brought the #7 car home 12th.
You don't have to wait long to see the Porsche Penske Motorsport team in action again, as the team will race at the 6 Hours of Fuji in the World Endurance Championship on September 28. The IMSA finale at Road Atlanta takes place on October 11.
Customer racing
The #85 car was the sole customer racing entry in the GTP class.
Porsche factory driver Nico Müller joined JDC-Miller MotorSports for this race, and showed flashes of pace despite a tricky day for the team where it struggled to move forward from the back of the class.
The car, co-driven by team regular Tijmen van der Helm, finished eighth, in part down to good strategy and others pitting late in the race.
GTD Pro and GTD
The #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich looked set to claim GTD Pro victory before bad luck struck in the final 30 minutes.
Both Heinrich and Bachler exhibited some of the best defensive driving you will see in IMSA all season fending off the #65 car in the first half of the race. Lap after lap, it tried to pass at Turn 1 and 7 especially, in a thrilling exhibition for the fans.
Having been in that position via staying out early when many others pitted, around the halfway point the #77 was shuffled back from the lead but remained in the top five until the caution with just over an hour to go allowed it to jump back into contention in second.
With 40 minutes to go, Heinrich pulled off a great move at Turn 2 to go around the outside then inside at Turn 3 to take the lead. But minutes later, he was bumped off the track at Turn 4, and then a couple of laps later was bumped off at Turn 12 falling all the way to eighth and last in class.
Remarkably Heinrich made it back up to sixth on the last restart, but was hit by another competitor, dropping him back to seventh.
In the GTD class, the #120 Wright Motorsports 911 GT3 R (992) of Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer and Tom Sargent had a tough qualifying with 13th in class, but it moved forward excellently in the race and was into the top five before the halfway stage.
An excellent move at Turn 12 with 21 minutes to go secured second in class, matching their best result of the year from Daytona.
