IMSA: BMW wins Battle on the Bricks race after Van der Linde pulls off dramatic late-stage move on Bamber
BMW's Sheldon van der Linde pulled off a late-race overtake on long standing race leader Earl Bamber's Cadillac, to finally achieve the team's first GTP win, in what was a fantastic Battle on the Bricks IMSA round.
As it happened: After a weather-impacted qualifying session, which saw both GTD Pro and GTD sessions cancelled, Tom Blomqvist had set the pole lap in the No.60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura, with the No.31 Whelen Cadillac of championship leader Jack Aitken three tenths back in second.
The No.43 Inter Europol Competition car started on LMP2 pole, with both GTD Pro and GTD grids being set on team points, as the No.1 Paul Miller Racing BMW started on pole for GTD Pro and the No.57 Winward Racing Mercedes on pole for GTD, although the latter would start last after all, due to a pre-race reconnaissance lap infringement.
It was a rather chaotic start for the GTPs and LMP2s, with an incident involving the No.7 Penske Porsche of Julien Andlauer being spun round and into the path of a few LMP2 cars. Several cars were involed with the No.25 BMW of Phillip Eng seemingly the cause of it, with him bouncing off the first corner curb into the side of the No.6 Porsche of Kevin Estre.
This caused Estre to veer into the sister No.7 car, spinning it round and into the path of Phil Fayer's No.2, PJ Hyett's No.99 and George Kurtz's No.04 LMP2s, with it sustaining damages to the sidepods, entering the pits for repairs. The race however was over for the No.2 United Autosports and the No.99 AO Racing entries, with the No.04 not lasting for much longer.
A couple of meters up ahead, the No.93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura was spun round by Louis Deletraz's No.40 WTR Cadillac, with all incidents investigated by the stewards, although no further action was taken. This caused an initial full course yellow which turned into a safety car, as the first corner had significant debris.
After 15 minutes behind the safety car, racing resumed with Blomqvist in the lead, ahead of Aitken and Dries Vanthoor's No.24 BMW, with the No.43 Inter Europol leading still in LMP2, the No.1 BMW still in front of the GTD Pro pack and the No.96 BMW of Patrick Gallagher in first place of the GTD runners.
The latter's lead lasted only for a few minutes more, before Tom Gamble overtook him, in the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. Gamble was on fire during this opening phase, quickly building a gap of over five seconds to Gallagher, establishing his team as the early favourites for GTD.
Meanwhile Blomqvist was feeling the pressure of Aitken for the GTP/Overall lead, with the BMW of Vanthoor also in the mix, the three of them comfortably escaping Estre's Porsche in fourth.
With two hours remaining the first scheduled pit stops had started, courtesy of the LMP2 field, when Aitken, taking advantage of traffic in the way, made his way past Blomqvist and into the lead, completing the overtake on the brakes for turns seven and eight.
Aitken's pace was electric in the next laps, helped in part by also managing the traffic better, quickly opening the gap to the Acura to over three and a half seconds.
Throughout the field pit stops started to be made also by the GT cars of both classes, with some sporadic on track action for position also occuring. Despite that the only lead battle remaining was that of Neil Verhagen in the No.1 BMW with the No.4 Corvette Racing of Tommy Milner.
Not much happened for the next dozen of laps, with the GTPs starting their first round of pitstops around laps 48 and 49 for the most part, with driver swaps meaning it was now Earl Bamber leading in the No.31 Cadillac, followed by the No.6 Porsche of Laurin Heinrich, which jumped infront of the No.60 Acura, now of Colin Braun.
As a matter of fact Braun also found himself behind the No.24 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde. Heinrich and Van der Linde were all the way up to the back of Bamber in the coming laps, a combination of traffic and faster pitstops.
In LMP2 the No.18 ERA Motorsport of Nick Boulle was leading, with the No.43's race falling apart after a drive-through penalty for Jeremy Clarke, for responsibility in an incident with the No.36 GTD DXDT Corvette.
Further back, Neil Verhagen surrendered the GTD Pro lead after staying out for as long as possible before pitting, the team setting the No.1 BMW in a different strategy to the rest, with Ford enjoying a 1-2 with the No.64 Mustang leading the No.65, before the team switched them around a bit later as they were on different strategies. In GTD however the No.27 Aston Martin retained the class lead, with Dudu Barrichello behind the wheel.
Up ahead after initial pressure, Bamber started again to gradually pull away in his No.31 Cadillac, finding himself around two seconds ahead of Heinrich come lap 63, with Van der Linde's BMW more than four seconds away, with all other GTPs at least 19 seconds behind the leader.
With just over an hour left however, things became much more interesting in what was a dull-ish race after the initial start incidents. First Bamber had a small off-road excursion, resulting in a two and a half seconds gap being wiped, whilst at the same time a Full Course Yellow/Safety Car was called for on-track debris, coming from the back of the No.1 BMW.
This meant a massive opportunity for any crews that had not pitted yet around that time, with essentially a free pitstop on offer. Nearly all GTP, GTD Pro and GTD crews were reaping the benefits of a free pitstop, alongside a couple of LMP2s, as most of that field had little to gain from pitting at that point in time.
It was an action-packed pit-lane to say the least, with the No.6 Porsche finding itself going from second to fifth, behind Van der Linde's No.24 BMW, Jordan Taylor's No.40 Cadillac and Braun's No.60 Acura.
At the GTD field it was disaster for the No.45 WTR Lamborghini, as fuel spilled onto the exhaust causing a fire that thankfully was put out quickly. Come the end of the SC, it was the No.34 Ferrari leading, but it was not to last, as the team got a stop plus 60, for exceeding the pit time limit for emergency repairs under FCY, which it served just after the restart.
When green flag conditions resumed it was again chaos at the GTP field, with the No.23 Aston Martin of Roman de Angelis and the No.25 BMW of Marco Wittmann colliding, after the former's failed attempt to grab fifth from the No.6 Porsche around the outside of turn seven.
The BMW driver tried to exploit the gap but failed, sending both cars into a spin and giving himself a drive-through penalty. In LMP2 it was the No.22 United Autosports entry in the hands of Paul di Resta leading, but also not for long, as it was deemed Di Resta had overtaken under yellow flag conditions, the team also receiving a drive-through penalty, meaning the No.18 ERA Motorsport of Christian Rasmussen was the effective leader.
The surprise story of the day however, was the No.59 RLL Team McLaren finding itself into the GTD Pro lead after a perfectly timed pit stop, just as the FCY was called, with Nikita Johnson leading from the No.1 BMW of Connor de Phillippi.
With half an hour to go action picked right up with battles up and down the field, hard-fought ones at that, with Heinrich grabbing third from Taylor in GTP. Rasmussen led comfortably in LMP2, Johnson in GTD Pro and the No.96 BMW of Robby Foley in GTD, after the No.34 Ferrari's ''demise''.
Sheldon van der Linde also picked up the pace, starting to seriously pressure Bamber for the lead, although traffic allowed the latter to hold on, the Cadillac driver majestic at navigating it.
Down the order, the GTD Pro battle for third between the No.1 BMW and the No.65 Ford was explosive, as Frederic Vervisch punted De Phillippi off track in his attempt to get past, the Mustang driver receiving a drive-through penalty for the offense.
As only seven minutes remained, the GTP lead battle was lit brightly, as Van der Linde again closed by, this time managing to get by Bamber and into the lead, after a decent enough scrap, with Bamber at a point nearly forcing the BMW out of the track due to locking his tyres up.
The South African held the lead and crossed the line to win for BMW, this being the team's first GTP win of the season, with Bamber crossing the line in second, crucially though ahead of championship rival Heinrich in third.
In LMP2 it was the No.18 ERA Motorsport that won, with the No.52 Bryan Herta Autosport in second and the No.22 United Autosports in third, with GTD Pro ending in dramatic fashion, as Nikita Johnson's fuel was not enough for him to win.
This forced a last-gasp pit stop that handed the win to the No.64 Ford of Dennis Olsen, who held on, despite a titanic scrap with the -eventual- second place car, the No.4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, as Andrea Caldarelli was third in the No.9 Pfaff Lamborghini.
Even more stunning was the GTD finish, with the No.96 Turner BMW holding on to win in the hands of Foley by only half a second from the No.57 Winward Mercedes that started last.
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