Cadillac 1-2 in 2-lap shootout at the end of the Battle on the Bricks in IMSA
- DIVEBOMB Endurance Team
- 20 hours ago
- 6 min read
The No.31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederick Vesti have won the Battle on the Bricks in 2025 after a late FCY created a 2-lap shootout to end the race.
The penultimate round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship at Indianapolis Motor Speedway got underway at 11:40 local time, with Jack Aitken in the No.31 Cadillac leading the way.
He held the lead on the green flag, while the No.93 Acura jumped from fifth to second on the first lap. Behind the leaders it was all relatively clean for the prototypes, with a bit of argy-bargy going on in the GTD classes.
This bit of bumping and hitting left the No.47 Ferrari and No.19 Aston Martin without wing mirrors, one of which was on the racing line on the main straight. The debris in a dangerous place brought out the first Full-Course Yellow (FCY).
It was a short bit of green flag running afterwards, with George Kurtz in the No.04 Crowdstrike LMP2 finding himself backwards in the gravel. He tried to send a move on the No.52, but misjudged the braking and found himself hitting the PR1 Mathiasen car.
The ensuing yellow stops saw all but the No.10 Cadillac and No.6 Porsche hit pit lane for the prototypes, so they led the field in that order.
On the green flag, we saw the No.7 Porsche and the No.25 BMW go side by side. The Penske car squeezed the RLL car right to the outside and off the track, handing them a drive through penalty. Sheldon van der Linde found himself at the back of the GTPs are the incident too.
Back at the front Aitken was trying to get the No.31 into second, by the No.6 Porsche. While he didn't get the position at the first time of asking, he did eventually make the move to reinstate a Cadillac 1-2.
The No.21 Ferrari, No.18 LMP2 and No.36 Corvette all found themselves involved in separate incidents too, with all but the No.21 coming out unscathed. They had a mechanical issue, which ultimately spelled the end of their race, despite relentless efforts from the team.
The No.18 Era LMP2 had two more spins before it was brought into the pits for some checks. Later on in the race the issue persisted, and eventually led to a full suspension failure that put them out of the race.
Aitken kept on his charge in the mean time, taking the lead of the race with a move down the inside of turn 1.
Soon after there was a flurry of pit stops for both prototype classes, with no major position changes through this round of stops.
As they left the pits, the No.10 was trying to get by the No.6, but the Porsche moved on the back straight to block the Cadillac. The IMSA stewards didn't look upon this lightly, and gave the Porsche a drive-through.
The next FCY was for the No.36 Corvette, which had a suspension failure coming out of the pits.
Only a handful of prototypes pit when the pits open since they had only recently pit. However when the GT's came around, almost the entire field in both classes took service.
After all of the stops, the No.31 Cadillac still led the way but from the two Acuras, who jumped into second and third.
A group of cars misunderstood the rules on the wave-by during this FCY. The No.8, No.18 and No.88 LMP2s all got stop plus 2 minutes and 40 seconds. These monumental penalties lost then over two and a half laps on the class leaders.
Once again, it was a short green flag run after the SC went in, this time we went to yellow because the No.80 Mercedes had lost a wheel. They had previously led their class, so this scary incident cost them dearly.
After the next green flag, all eyes were on the GTD Pro class. The No.77 AO Racing 'Rexy' Porsche led the No.65 Ford. Fred Vervisch in the Mustang made Klaus Bachler defend for his life, with relentless attacks for position throughout the stint.
Bachler used some textbook defending - holding the inside and forcing the Ford to the outside - and prisitine car placement to hold on to the lead for about half an hour, before the next FCY. That caution was caused by the No.18, which met its eventual demise.
During the GT pit stops, the Porsche and Ford came out of the pits side by side, but the Mustang had priority position in the fast lane, so took the place. However, it wouldn't be the lead as the No.1 BMW didn't come into the pits.
The No.23 Aston Matin Valkyrie locked the rears and spun under the SC, re-joining relatively quickly. On his way back through the queue though, one of the GT Ferraris was weaving and didn't see the V12 machine, narrowly avoiding a collision.
When we went green, the No.7 Porsche was in second, but quickly lost position to both Acuras.
After a good run for the No.65 Ford, they were spun around by the No.40 Cadillac. The ensuing suspension damage ruined the day for the Multimatic crew, especially so when they had to go behind the wall.
A slightly quiet period, with a few close battles, went by before the No.7 Porsche found itself facing the wrong way. They were turned around in an incident with the No.25 BMW, meanwhile the No.60 Acura got a drive-through for blocking the same Porsche.
Nick Tandy fell foul of another incident with the No.021 Ferrari. He slowed in the opening sector, meaning he had to trundle all the way around the 2.5 miles to the pits.
After a cycle of pit stops, the top three in GTP was led by the No.31 still. The No.10 WTR was second, ahead of the No.25 BMW. The No.10 was however, off-set on their strategy and owed us a stop. That didn't stop them from giving us a mega battle for the lead for awhile, before they eventually stopped.
In LMP2 there was a battle for the lead between two Peugeot World Endurance Championship (WEC) drivers. Paul Di Resta in the No.22 made his way past Mikkel Jensen in the No.04 Crowdstrike. Two cars that had been involved in incidents earlier in the race.
That No.04 had an issue soon after though, coming into the pit lane going very slowly, a front-right puncture being the cause of the slow moving Oreca 07.
With just over an hour remaining, there was a FCY for debris on the main straight. The No.70 Inception Ferrari lost its bonnet and discarded it on the racing line on the main straight.
During the yellow, the No.45 Lamborghini stopped on track with a mechanical issue, lengthening the stoppage. The WTR car had a differential issue.
After these stops, as was the case in Watkins Glen, there were debates as to whether different cars could make to the end without needing another pit stop. In GTP, the most likely of those looked to be the No.40, who sacrificed track position for the latest possible FCY stop.
When we went to green, the No.7 Porsche looked to be battling with the No.63 Lamborghini for fourth, but the Porsche was a lap down, just looking to get the lap back. The two were side by side for entire stretches of the track, despite the one lap difference between the two.
Eventually the two had an incident, with both ending up off the road. An incident that could have been described as avoidable. The Lambo then pit for an unrelated reason, taking on fuel to try and get to the end.
Meanwhile the leaders in GTD, the No.57 Winward Mercedes, had to take a trip through the pit lane when they got caught speeding in the pits by one mile an hour.
In GTD Pro the No.4 and No.77 were having their own battle, with the Porsche being bumped off the track in the final sector. The Corvette was penalised for for the incident.
The Meanwhile the No.93 was fighting the No.6 Porsche when the Acura went wide on its own and hit the outside wall at the final corner.
With under 15 minutes left, the top three overall began to bunch up. The No.31 led from the No.60 and No.10. Ricky Taylor in the No.10 went for a move on the Acura and found himself in second place. None of these three cars were certain of getting to the end.
With just 10 minutes remaining, the No.04 LMP2 found itself backwards in the wall, bringing out one final FCY. This meant that it was much more likely for GTPs to make it to the end on their limited fuel.
Aitken went early on the restart, but almost caught the SC so he had to slow again. There was two laps to go, so it was flat out to the finish.
Aitken held on to the end to win from the No.10, making it a Cadillac 1-2. The No.60 Acura was third ahead of the No.24 BMW.
The No.11 TDS Racing held on to win LMP2, the No.64 Ford held on in GTD Pro and the No.70 Inception Ferrari won in the GTD class.
The No.77 Porsche ran out of fuel on the final lap, but they were out of contention for the win anyway.
