The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Battle on the Bricks Sept. 18-20, marking the ultimate dash race of the season with a 44-car grid spanning GTP, LMP2, GTD Professional, and GTD. Current penalties have additionally put driving requirements and race management’s strategy to contact again in focus.
At the newest IMSA race – the GTD dash spherical at Virginia Worldwide Raceway – officers handed out seven penalties, six of which have been drive-throughs.
Probably the most contentious determination got here late within the race when the #27 Coronary heart of Racing Group and driver Tom Gamble have been assessed a late-race drive-through penalty for incident accountability and avoidable contact whereas battling Philip Ellis for the GTD class lead. Notably, Gamble obtained the penalty regardless of giving up the place moments after the tight battle for the lead.
The heightened scrutiny has raised questions on how drivers will strategy racing at Indianapolis.
2025 race begin, GTD class at Indianapolis
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Mikkel Jensen, driver of the #2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07, enters the weekend fourth in LMP2 factors alongside co-driver Phil Fayer. Jensen – the 2021 class champion, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring winner, and undefeated throughout three begins at IMS – stated drivers have confronted uncertainty over how race management interprets the bounds of acceptable contact.
“I do not know, I feel it has been a bit unsure how a lot you may push the boundaries in IMSA during the last couple of years, as a result of final 12 months you weren’t allowed to not depart any race room to anyone even having their nostril in across the outdoors,” Jensen stated. “Then sooner or later, it was form of forgotten, as a result of I felt like no penalties got. After that, and now it is coming again a bit once more, so that you clearly choose just a little bit from what has occurred on the previous races, as a result of typically you are feeling like issues are allowed, and typically they don’t seem to be.”
Jensen added that each overtaking try nonetheless carries some danger.
“On this sport, there isn’t any scenario that is the identical, so that you all the time have to evaluate the scenario, and typically you are proper, typically you are fallacious,” Jensen stated. “I feel there isn’t any actual scenario that may be in contrast in race management, as a result of each second is completely different, so… there’s all the time danger once you go for a transfer.”
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Within the GTP class, drivers seem unfazed by the officiating focus. Nick Yelloly, who sits third in driver factors with co-driver Renger van der Zande within the #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06, is available in with robust Indy pedigree, together with back-to-back podiums in 2023 and 2024.
“Yeah, I imply, simply proceed to race, a minimum of from our standpoint, the identical manner we have now,” Yelloly stated. “I do not really feel like we have had very a lot points or run-ins in any respect with the powers that be and really, little or no contact. So, I feel we have been doing job on our facet, and we’ll preserve it clear, however laborious and truthful as all the time, and yeah, simply trying ahead to get going.”
Defending race winner Earl Bamber took an analogous view. Bamber, co-driver of the GTP points-leading #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Sequence.R alongside Jack Aitken, has captured wins at Detroit and Watkins Glen this season.
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Uniquely, it was Aitken who was concerned in a late-race collision with Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kevin Estre on the ultimate restart at Street America, Estre was subsequently positioned on probation, with IMSA additionally taking a firmer strategy to driving requirements in later rounds.
“Yeah, I would say the identical for us,” Bamber stated. “We have form of steered away from the powers that be, so we do not really want to vary a lot on our facet. However yeah it’s going to be attention-grabbing to see the extent of aggression of the sector when all of it rolls out on Sunday.”
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