(Photo: Audi Sport)
By Aaron Bearden
Chaos reigned during Sunday’s second running of the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS. But in the end, the No. 25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc group rose to the occasion and survived the attrition to secure a big win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Patric Niederhauser delivered the victorious closing stint, putting together a clean final run to rise into the lead in the No. 25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo. An hour earlier the Swiss ace had been stalking Callum Ilott for the position, but a mixture of attrition and penalties opened the door for a smooth drive to victory lane.
Ilott’s race was lost when he slammed into the GT4 entry of Mikel Miller in the final hour, both drivers having gone for the high lane heading into Turn 1 in a moment of miscommunication.
That opened the door for Dries Vanthoor to take the lead, as Niederhauser had pitted before the caution, with Jules Gounon following in second. But Gounon crashed into Ben Barnicoat on the ensuing green-flag run and Vanthoor was penalized for failing to follow instructions from race control, allowing Naiderhauser to rise into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
Sainteloc’s victory was its first in a marquee event since the 2017 24 Hours of Spa. In a unique twist, the French squad had only two of its three victorious drivers standing atop the podium, with Markus Winkelhock missing out after leaving early due to the imminent birth of his child. That left just Niederhauser and Christopher Haase to celebrate with the team at day’s end.
The No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo followed in second with Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Timur Boguslavskly taking the checkered flag 11.958 seconds behind the winning entry. K-PAX Racing completed the podium, with the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo piloted by Jordan Pepper, Andrea Caldarelli and Mirko Bortolotti.
Sainteloc also triumphed in the Silver Cup class, taking the top spot with Aurelien Panis, Lucas Legeret and Nicolas Baert in fourth-place overall. The group benefitted from late trouble for the leading No. 77 Compass Racing entry driven by Matt McMurry, which came into contact with the No. 51 AF Corse of Alessandro Pier Guidi and wound up spun in the wrong direction late in the race.
McMurry made it to the finish to come home second in class and seventh overall with Mario Farnbacher and Ashton Harrison. The No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura wrapped up the podium in eighth-place overall with Jacob Abel, Dakota Dickerson and Taylor Hagler.
While the overall race win didn’t materialize, McMurry and Compass Racing did lead all Fanatec GT World Challenge America contenders to claim a race within the main race. The season finale for the series was considered decided at the three-hour mark of Sunday’s race, giving Compass the overall win for the tour.
The Pro-Am division was won by the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes, driven by Kenny Habul, Mikael Grenier and Martin Konrad.
In GT4 competition, the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 took top honors, with the veteran Bill Auberlen winning alongside James Clay and Chandler Hull. The win came after Auberlen closed up a one-lap gap to overtake the No. 54 Black Swan Racing Porsche.
The No. 119 Stephen Cameron Racing entry followed in second with Guy Cosmo, Tom Dyer and Sean Quinlan. Black Swan settled for third with Tim Pappas alongside Jeroen and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen.
Next up for the Intercontinental GT Challenge field is the Kyalami 9 Hour, scheduled for Dec. 3-4. Audi holds the championship advantage, having come four points shy of clinching the title in Indianapolis.
