Van der Linde claims historic title treble in stormy Indianapolis 8 Hour
Team WRT BMW ace Van der Linde’s fourth win of the season was far from straightforward in a race that featured a lengthy red flag stoppage due to severe weather, and a key strategic call during the disrupted final stages swung the momentum in the South African’s favour. The result gives Team WRT its third-straight Indy 8 Hour win, and Rossi his first IGTC glory. The Italian legend also becomes a winner at The Brickyard on both two wheels and four, following his MotoGP success at the venue back in 2008. The points also gave BMW its first IGTC GT3 Manufacturers title.
With Van der Linde having already wrapped up both the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint and Overall titles, only Raffaele Marciello could deny him a historic treble. The Swiss did all he could alongside team-mates Al Faisal Al Zubair and Augusto Farfus, leading the race into the final 90 minutes before losing out to the sister car’s pit strategy.
The twin WRT BMWs were in the mix throughout a fast-paced opening half of the race, even if Mercedes-AMG looked in control early on with Lin Hodenius leading comfortably from pole by the middle of the first hour. However, that changed when the Dutchman came under pressure from Philipp Eng in the #51 Random Vandals BMW, who had charged up to second having started 10th. A tangle with a Porsche while trying to fend off Eng through traffic earned Hodenius a drive-through penalty that dumped the #80 Lone Star car down the order.
Eng enjoyed a spell in the lead before a throttle body issue consigned the M4 back to the garage. That left the #777 WRT M4 and #888 GMR Mercedes-AMG to dispute the lead, handled by Al Zubair and Luca Stolz respectively. Stolz leapfrogged the BMW to become the race’s fourth different leader after the second round of stops. But Al Zubair kept the German in his sights and handed across to Marciello in the third hour. Marciello closed in on Stolz and pulled an opportunistic pass for the lead into Turn 1 when Stolz lost momentum in traffic.
Rossi and Weerts had kept the #46 Team WRT BMW in third by the time Van der Linde joined the fray, and he followed Marciello through with a similar move on Stolz a few laps later.
Lightning strikes in the Indianapolis area were reported soon after, bringing about a lengthy stoppage as the storm passed through. While the lightning passed, torrential rain remained and running resumed behind the safety car with 90 minutes remaining. This would prove pivotal to Van der Linde’s victory as he opted to top up with fuel immediately and then timed one final stop to reset his stint time bang on the 65-minute mark, meaning he could run to the finish and enjoy a quick lap back to catch the back of the safety car train. Marciello stayed out a lap longer and lost out, with Van der Linde vaulting ahead, and eventually assuming the overall lead when Lucas Auer had to stop the #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG for fuel after gambling to stay out and run long.
Marciello filtered back into third after his final stop, behind Van der Linde and Maro Engel in the GMR car. Marciello’s only hope was for racing to resume in earnest so he could go on the attack and, while the track did go green briefly, the treacherous conditions were simply too dangerous. The safety car returned to lead the field to the flag, and Van der Linde to the championship.
Engel was second ahead of Marciello. Fourth went to Conor Daly, Kenton Koch and Connor de Phillippi (Random Vandals BMW), with Alex Sedgwick, Jan Heylen and Alessio Picariello (RS1 Porsche) fifth. Sixth went to Kenny Habul, Chaz Mostert and Will Power, which was enough to hand Habul his second class victory of the year and confirm him as the Independent Cup Champion.
Dustin Blattner, Alfred Renauer and Dennis Marschall won the Pro-Am contest in their Herberth Motorsport Porsche, ahead of Independent Cup challenger Antares Au, Loek Hartog and Patric Niederhauser. After lifting the class title last year, Au capped another strong season with second in the points this time around. Ralf Bohn was in title contention throughout thanks to victory at Spa-Francorchamps and a podium at Suzuka and rounds out the year third in the points in the Herberth Motorsport Porsche he shares with Rolf Ineichen and Robert Renauer.
Am class glory went the way of Marcelo and Christian Hahn and Allam Khodair aboard the AF Corse USA Ferrari.
Results are HERE
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