Ford Continues IMSA “Big Race” Win Run with Brickyard Victory

When you can win at two iconic venues and your hometown city in the same season, you can call it a successful year.

 

That’s what Ford Multimatic Motorsports can declare on Sunday in Indianapolis, adding a win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to its earlier 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the streets of Detroit not far from its global headquarters in the Motor City.

 

For Mike Rockenfeller and Seb Priaulx, who shared the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) winning No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3, hopes looked dim after a poor qualifying effort. The No. 64 lined up seventh in the 11-car GTD PRO field and wasn’t necessarily front of mind among the contenders for Sunday’s race.

However, the No. 64 tried playing the track position game early by bypassing a first pit stop to launch up to second, which put them in contention for the rest of the race. The car made it to the lead by Lap 48, early in the second hour, and remained among the top runners for the rest of the race.

 

The No. 64 car appeared the backgrounder while others in class – its sister No. 65 car wheeled by Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies, the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler, and the pair of Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVOs featured more prominently up front.

 

Slowly but surely though, the No. 64 made its move. The No. 1 PMR BMW – which prioritized scoring IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points – fell out of the battle by pitting off-sequence to the contenders.

 

The race came alive even more after a restart following the sixth full-course caution with one hour remaining with an hour to go.

 

Heinrich and Priaulx – former teammates at AO for the first half of 2024 – emerged ahead of the No. 48 PMR BMW of Max Hesse, who’d taken over from polesitter Dan Harper. But on Lap 207, in the final hour, the decisive move occurred.

 

Priaulx muscled his Mustang by Heinrich through Turns 2 and 3, completing the move on the exit of Turn 4. With Heinrich’s momentum stalled, the No. 48 PMR BMW and No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa also made it through as “Rexy’s” grille gathered grass to its teeth.

 

Priaulx maintained momentum from there and survived the final restart with two laps remaining to bring home the victory by 0.594 of a second. It’s his fourth IMSA win and first in a Michelin Endurance Cup event, while it’s Rockenfeller’s seventh. 

 

“I just want to say thanks to IMSA for making it more cleaner racing,” Priaulx said. “That's made a lot of help for us to actually race cleanly and actually it's more fun I would say. Yeah, it was a nice pass. I felt like I executed a perfect move there, and he went wide, and that was it really. It was the move for the win, I think, really. Easy to get stuck behind there. You need to be assertive, and I was, and just had to get it done. So yeah, happy with that.”

 

Rockenfeller noted a bit of luck, too, from the “Resilient Racer” the No. 64 Mustang carried on board this weekend. In recognition of Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, the new program connected IMSA and its two proud charity partners, Austin Hatcher Foundation and Camp Boggy Creek. The first name and last initial of a child affected by pediatric cancer or other serious illness was displayed above both doors of the race car and in the spotters guide for the Battle on the Bricks, as a powerful show of encouragement and support. 

 

“Sebby did a great job today but I also don't want to forget we had a third guy on the car which was Jackson Daniels, and I think IMSA did a fantastic thing with Camp Boggy Creek to basically have those kids here and the families,” Rockenfeller said. “He brought luck to us. Yesterday I had a really bad quali. I think the car was really out of balance and we tweaked it for today.

 

“But you're really disappointed sometimes in racing, but then you meet those people and especially Jackson, how strong he is. It was really inspiring especially as a dad to see that, and it puts it all in a different perspective.”

 

Continuing their stealth push towards a potential GTD PRO championship, Costa carved his way up to second in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari he shared Sunday with Davide Rigon. That result, coupled with a fourth place for the title rival No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, has unofficially placed Costa only 18 points behind Corvette’s Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims heading to Motul Petit Le Mans for the season finale.

 

Harper and Hesse were third, ensuring the Paul Miller Racing BMW had a podium result to show for their weekend pace that included Saturday’s Motul Pole Award.

 

Rockenfeller and Priaulx are now third in the championship, 169 points back, with AO falling to fourth, 245 points back as they try to keep the GTD PRO title for another year.

 

GTD: A 38th Special for Iribe, Inception with Breakthrough IMSA Win

 

Thirty-eight starts. It rang as a number that surprised Brendan Iribe when sitting on the stage alongside co-drivers Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy in the post-race press conference.

 

There was a good reason the trio was sitting on that stage. Inception Racing has, at long last, secured an overdue first WeatherTech Championship win.

Perhaps it was music to their ears that Iribe’s 38th start was, in fact, special. 

 

“I didn't know it was 38 IMSA races. Sounds like more than it feels. But it is a great feeling,” Iribe said. “This is an iconic track. It's a beautiful track. I can't wait to kiss the bricks.”

 

Coming one year after the team switched from its longtime running of McLaren GT3 machinery to Ferrari, perhaps it was fitting that the No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 secured the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) win. Perhaps even more fitting, 40 years since Danny Sullivan’s famous “spin and win” in the 1985 Indianapolis 500, this win for Inception came with a stroke of luck that had to be seen to be believed.

 

In 1985, Sullivan spun after overtaking Mario Andretti for the lead entering the oval Turn 1 but didn’t hit anything and kept on chugging. A caution flag came out.

 

On Sunday, Schandorff’s hood popped off of his No. 70 Ferrari just past the oval Turn 1, which is Turn 14 of the IMS road course. The stationary hood lay bare on the track, potentially vulnerable. A caution flag came out.

 

The ensuing caution allowed the team to put on a fresh hood and also benefit with varying pit strategies for the competitors. So not only did the No. 70 car not lose time, it actually gained on some rivals.

 

History doesn’t repeat itself, but occasionally it rhymes, and so the sun shone on a team that had six prior runner-up finishes in GTD before finally breaking through. It also took one more effort from Schandorff ahead of the GTD field – with the car having risen from its 15th starting position in GTD to lead the final 41 laps – to hold off all comers and ensure the victory. Schandorff did so by 2.276 seconds.

 

“It didn't feel nice, obviously. We’d actually been leading Daytona quite a few times, and always something happening,” Schandorff said. “Then I thought, ‘oh, no.’ I did expect hopefully they could fix it, but I wouldn't expect that actually we were able to fight for the win in the end. I had to stay cool because the worst thing you can is, like, panic and get frustrated and do mistakes.”

 

Last year’s Indianapolis winners Wright Motorsports finished second with the trio of Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer and Tom Sargent in their No. 120 Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Conquest Racing’s trio of Daniel Serra, Manny Franco and Ben Tuck third in the No. 34 Ferrari 296 GT3.

 

Championship leaders Winward Racing finished fifth with Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 and unofficially carry a 224-point over Casper Stevenson in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. The polesitting No. 27 Aston Martin finished 11th on Sunday.

 

The closer championship came as a result of Iribe’s win, the best of four Bronze-rated entries competing this race. Orey Fidani in the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R led Iribe by 30 points coming into the race, but with Inception atop the order, the Bob Akin Award points are now tied heading into Motul Petit Le Mans. Whichever car of the No. 70 or 13 finishes ahead, wins the Bob Akin Award and IMSA’s automatic invitation to the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans that goes with it.

 

“I think it all comes down to the last race, just how IMSA and the fans want it,” Iribe said.

Results are HERE