Mercedes-AMG GT3 Teams Bring “Brickyard” Double-Win Momentum Back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this Weekend’s Dual Intercontinental GT Challenge and Fanatec GT World Challenge Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams bring a double dose of race-winning momentum at the “Racing Capital of the World” back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) this weekend for the fourth annual running of the Intercontinental GT Challenge Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS. The full weekend of competition on the 2.439-mile IMS road course also includes the season-ending rounds of all 2023 SRO Motorsports America championships in a packed Thursday through Sunday schedule. The highlight is Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS that is both the penultimate round of the global Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) series and the double-points finale of the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge America season.
Six Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams take up the challenge of Saturday’s eight-hour endurance race with four of them designated as points-earning IGTC entries. The quartet includes two Mercedes-AMG Performance Teams from Hong Kong, defending Indianapolis 8 Hour winners Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing and Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing. Craft-Bamboo gave Mercedes-AMG its first overall IGTC victory on American soil in last year’s Indy 8 Hour with the trio of Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Daniel Morad co-driving to victory.
Marciello returns to the team to defend the win in the No. 77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 this year with teammates Maximilian Götz and last year’s Indy 8 Hour pole-winner Jules Gounon.
Juncadella co-drives the No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 this weekend with Maro Engel and Luca Stolz. GruppeM is set for its first 8 Hour IGTC round in the U.S. since finishing second with one of its two entries in the 2019 running of the race that was the last of three editions held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca before the switch to Indianapolis in 2020.
Juncadella and Gounon combined for a second-consecutive major victory at IMS for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 just three weeks ago. Co-driving the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing/Proton Competition Mercedes-AMG GT3, the duo garnered GT Daytona (GTD) Pro-class honors in the inaugural Battle on the Bricks IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race on September 17.
Another victory at Indy on Saturday would give Juncadella a streak of three consecutive major sports car wins at IMS with three different teams.
The other IGTC points eligible Mercedes-AMG GT3 entries at Indy are a pair of Fanatec GT World Challenge America regulars looking to make a mark in the year’s final race.
Perennial GT World Challenge America Pro-Am contenders George Kurtz and Colin Braun will be joined by Nolan Siegel in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3. The team competes for IGTC points in addition to being a close second in a tight battle for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Pro-Am class championship. Kurtz, Braun and the No. 04 team have 187 points heading back to Indy, just three points out of first place.
The other full-season GT World Challenge Pro-Am team stepping up to support the IGTC points chase at Indy is the No. 91 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 that will see another recent Mercedes-AMG race winner at the Brickyard join the squad.
Philip Ellis co-drove the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the GTD-class win at the Battle on the Bricks and joins Juncadella in looking for a repeat win less than a month after their previous victories at IMS. Ellis’s co-drives with full-season No. 91 teammates Jeff Burton and Corey Lewis.
In other racing action at the Brickyard this weekend, six Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams are also entered in the season-ending GT America powered by AWS doubleheader. A single driver sprint series featuring a pair of 40-minute races Friday and Sunday, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 has been the car to beat all season in GT America.
Four different race-winning teams combined to give Mercedes-AMG an early lock on its second-consecutive GT America manufacturer championship one race ago at Sebring International Raceway. Now, two of those teams – TKO Motorsports and CRP Racing – take the battle for the GT America driver and team championships down to the wire at Indy.
Memo Gidley drove the No. 101 TKO Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 to a series-high sixth victory of the season in the opening race at Sebring, but his title rival Jason Daskalos came right back with an equally strong victory ahead of Gidley in the No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 at the Sebring finale. Daskalos’ victory was his fourth GT America race win of the season.
Gidley brings an 18-point GT America driver championship lead ahead of Daskalos to Indy, 277 – 259.
CRP in turn has a two-point lead over TKO in the GT America team championship standings, 284 – 282. In addition to the four race wins by Daskalos, first-year team driver Todd Treffert contributed to the team’s championship bid with his first professional race win at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) in June in the No. 41 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The GT America races mark the North American professional competition debut of the Mercedes-AMG GT2. Lone Star Racing and team owner/driver Dan Knox compete in the GT2 class in their new No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2. Knox competes alongside the team’s No. 011 Lone Star Racing/Mad Joker Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Marc Austin.
Indianapolis also closes the curtain on the Pirelli GT4 America season that has once again seen the No. 34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 and returning driver Michai Stephens battle for the top-tier Silver-class championship. With Stephens co-driving this season with first-year Conquest/JMF driver Jesse Webb, the No. 34 team and drivers have won four races so far, including overall GT4 race wins in each of the last two event weekends at Sebring and Road America.
Second in the Silver-class point standings, Stephens, Webb and the No. 34 team are mathematically alive in the championship but need nothing short of a weekend sweep and the class leader to miss the final races to have a realistic shot at taking the title. A strong weekend showing, however, will likely clinch Silver-class championship runner-up honors, the third-straight year the No. 34 team and drivers have finished in the top-three GT4 Silver championship standings.
Following practice sessions today for all series, including a nighttime session for the Indianapolis 8 Hour, the weekend’s first races for GT America and Pirelli GT4 take place Friday.
Qualifying for the Indy 8 Hour highlights Friday’s schedule, including the Top-10 Pole Shootout at 6:45 p.m. EDT.
Saturday’s featured Indianapolis 8 Hour goes green at 12:15 p.m. EDT with the checkered flag coming down soon after the sun does eight hours later at 8:15 p.m. EDT.
The weekend concludes with the final GT America and Pirelli GT4 races of the season Sunday morning.
All of this weekend’s races can be viewed live on the GTWorld YouTube channel.
Daniel Juncadella, Driver – No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It’s pretty exciting to be back at Indy after a very successful IMSA round. That obviously brings a lot of momentum into the weekend. It’s been a strong season so far, both this year and last year, and I am taking it all race-by-race and trying to deliver my best. That’s the way to keep scoring good results. The Indy layout is cool. It suited the Mercedes-AMG GT3 quite well in the IMSA round and let’s hope we are competitive again. I’ve raced several times with GruppeM, in DTM in 2021, some IGTC rounds last year and the Spa 24 Hours this year. I feel we deserve our bit of luck after just missing out in a couple of events we did together. I am really hoping I can win my third race at Indy with a third different team. That would be great. Luca and Maro are obviously very strong teammates by my side, and that is going to help have a strong weekend.”
Maro Engel, Driver – No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I am definitely looking forward to heading back over to the U.S. It’s always special and obviously Indianapolis is a place with incredible heritage. It’s a technical track for sure and one where two years ago we were in contention until late in the race, so hopefully we can have a strong run this weekend. The layout is for sure more about the corners, which suit the Mercedes-AMG GT3, so all of the medium and high-speed corners are places where the car will be good. The recent success in IMSA is definitely great but that is in a different series with different tires and different BoP (Balance of Performance). But we feel confident, we have a strong team and a very strong lineup with Dani and Luca on board. I am very happy with our preparations and now we look forward to rolling into the race weekend.”
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 91 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I am really looking forward to being back at Indy, especially after the victory in IMSA. We also should have had a good race last year in the 8 Hour with Russell and Jules putting us on pole, so I think I am bringing some experience for sure to the team with the track and in the car. Corey and Bryan Sellers on the team, they know the track very well and may bring some other insights to me, which is very good. It will be a bit different BoP and different tires, but I think overall we will have a good car on the long run, which is always a strong suit for the Mercedes-AMG GT3. It will be difficult for sure, a lot of tire management – Indy has a very high tire degradation – but it should be a very interesting race and we are going to try and go for the win in Pro-Am.”
George Kurtz, Driver – No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Indy will be a one-race shootout for the title for the Fanatec GT World Challenge America Pro-Am championship. I think we have a good team, we have been to Indy this year already in testing and some other areas, so hopefully we will come away with the win. It’s going to be super tight but hopefully we have a little bit of an edge. We will see where it all shakes out.”
Memo Gidley, Driver – No. 101 TKO Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “The GT America series has 18 races, which is a lot of races and a lot of opportunities to do well and also have the occasional bad day. Being able to come down to the wire in Indy 18 points in the lead is just awesome. It feels great but I wish we had more points, and I wasn’t thinking about it so much! But I would rather be 18 points in the lead than 18 points behind. Confidence wise and preparation wise, there is no doubt in my mind that I am ready to go. Our TKO Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 is very consistent in what it does, and it is also very simple. Some of today’s GT3 cars can be pretty complicated, with so many buttons and switches when you are in them, but the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a much simpler package when you are inside of it.”
