WRT commands weather affected Indianapolis 8 Hour

Both the Intercontinental GT Challenge and GT World Challenge America converged at Indianapolis with titles to decide, and the No. 46 WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts and Valentino Rossi was the car on top in a race that was heavily affected by bad weather, which included a two hour interruption due to lightning.
 
The No. 80 LSR Mercedes held the lead in the initial moments against the horde of BMWs around Lin Hodenius, but to make things more difficult for him, Philipp Eng was carrying the No. 51 Random Vandals BMW to the podium places and gaining momentum. It was a Mercedes vs. BMW battle, but the No. 34 JMF Mercedes and the No. 888 GMR Mercedes were basically isolated out of the squabble.
 
Near the end of the first hour, Hodenius was chased by Eng, and in the rush to escape from the No. 51, he pushed the No. 61 EBM Porsche to a spin, which gave a drive through penalty to an already second placed No. 80, as Eng concluded the maneuver before the penalty.
 
The second hour became a BMW affair for the lead as the No. 51 Random Vandals car was chased by Augusto Farfus in the No. 777 WRT entry, but with driver changes at the end of the hour, it shifted in favor of the No. 888 GMR Mercedes as Luca Stolz quickly dethroned Al-Faisal Al-Zubair, all while the No. 46 WRT BMW was coming into the scene as it took the third place from the No. 51 Random Vandals BMW.
 
The No. 777 had Raffaele Marciello for the third hour, and he was able to put the car in the fight for the top again as he had a clear pace advantage over Stolz, and while it took some laps for Marciello to conclude the move, he did it in swift fashion, bringing the No. 46 WRT BMW with the No. 777 in order to break the pace of the No. 888 to not allow a counter attack, effectively throwing Stolz into third place.
 
It was at halfway that the concern turned from the track to the sky, as heavy clouds were accumulated around Indianapolis, with the standard SRO procedure happening pretty quickly, as the transition from full course yellow to the Safety Car happened in a lap, while the lightining alert in the region made the stewards wave the red flag. A few minutes after the lightning, rain fell in the area with a bit of a fog.
 
After two and a half hours, the red flag was lifted and the cars were sent on track again under full course yellow procedure, with the cars taking turns in the lead as those within driving time limits needed to reset it while also making sure there was tires and fuel for the final hour. Although it took nearly an hour, the race was back to the green flag for a while after the full course yellow laps and track work removed a portion of the standing water, but then the Safety Car almost immediately as the No. 80 LSR Mercedes stopped in the pit entry.
 
With the situation regarding the standing water not improving, the final 40 minutes were spent behind the Safety Car, decided in favor of the No. 46 WRT BMW, which was the first in line once all cars stopped, with the No. 99 Random Vandals BMW being the best Pro Cup car from GTWC America in fourth. The No. 21 Blattner by Herberth Porsche won the Pro-Am Cup while the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari has beaten the No. 6 Dollahite Mustang for Am Cup honors.
 
Indianapolis 8 Hour - Race results
 

The win at Indianapolis sealed the deal for Kelvin van der Linde in between the BMW clash for the IGTC crown, with BMW also securing the manufacturers title in the United States. Kenny Habul was the only Mercedes driver designated for the Independent Cup, and he beat Antares Au by a single point, with 62 points against 61.
 

The GTWC America matters were settled with Kenton Koch and Connor de Phillippi securing the Pro Cup title, while Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg were the Pro-Am Cup champions. In an unexpected turn of events, Jay Schreibman and Osvaldo Negri took the Am Cup crown from the hands of Scott Dollahite after the final race of the season.
 
The 2026 season will return only on 29 March at Sonoma, when the new three hour format will debut in the series.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/Fabian Lagunas