BMW M Team WRT battles for upset IMSA victory at Indianapolis

The BMW M Team WRT organization achieved an upset victory in the 2026 Tirerack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 20, after Sheldon van der Linde executed a late overtake on Earl Bamber and Cadillac Whelen to achieve a win for himself, Dries Vanthoor and the organization.

The race-winning BMW M Team WRT No. 24 entry that was first piloted by Vanthoor rallied from being involved in an opening lap contact with a spinning Kevin Estre to spend the first half of the event racing towards the front while Tom Blomqvist and Acura Meyer Shank Racing dominated from pole position. Midway into the event and following a driver swap, the reigning Indianapolis IMSA winners of Cadillac Whelen, first piloted by Jack Aitken before Earl Bamber took over midway, assumed command for a majority of the final half of the event.

Following a debris caution with nearly an hour of the event remaining, the BMW M Team WRT No. 24 entry, which was piloted by Sheldon van der Linde midway, navigated its way into the runner-up spot. After continuing to trail Bamber for the event’s final restart with 48 minutes, Linde spent the event’s remainder navigating through lapped traffic and trying to reel in Bamber. Amid Linde’s several attempts of overtaking Bamber through lapped traffic with less than 10 minutes remaining, the former seized an opportunity to go three-wide on Bamber and a Ford Mustang entry through Turns 11 and 12 to lead with five minutes remaining. From there, Linde motored away for the event’s remainder and streaked across the yard of bricks victorious for the organization’s first victory under its current identity.

The event’s starting lineup for each of the field’s classes took distinct approaches due to inclement weather affecting the qualifying sessions of half of the classes. The Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Le Mans Prototype (LMP2) classes held 15-minute qualifying sessions apiece, with the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian team piloted by Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun securing the overall pole position in the GTP class while the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition team piloted by Jeremy Clarke and Tom Dillmann qualified on pole position in the LMP2 class.

The starting lineup for the GT Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes were determined by the point standings due to inclement weather canceling on-track qualifying. As a result, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing entry piloted by Neil Verhagen and Connor De Philippi was awarded the pole in the GTD Pro class. The No. 57 Winward Racing entry piloted by Russell Ward and Philip Ellis was awarded the pole in the GTD class.

When the green flag waved and the event spanning two hours and 40 minutes commenced, Blomqvist led a fanned-out field through the frontstretch. Then in the first turn, the event’s first caution flew when Julien Landlauer, driving the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry, got bumped and spun backwards in a cloud of smoke by his teammate Kevin Estre. In the process, Landlauer was collided into by PJ Hyett, Phil Fayer and George Kurtz. In front of the multi-car wreck, Nick Yelloly got turned in the second turn by Louis Deletraz while the rest of the field either scattered or reduced pace to avoid the carnage. Amid the chaos, Blomqvist maintained the lead and proceeded to lead the first lap under caution while Jack Aitken, Dries Vanthoor, Deletraz and Estre followed suit, respectively.

After a 15-minute caution period to have the carnage cleared, the event resumed under green flag conditions. At the start, Blomqvist rocketed away from Aitken and the field from Turn 14 through the frontstretch. With the scattered field navigating through the first three, tight turns smoothly, Bomqvist continued to lead through a backstretch chicane and a straightaway from Turns 4 to 6 before he made a sharp left-hand turn into Turn 7 before navigating through more tight turns from Turns 8 to 10. After leading from Turns 11 to 14 and back to the frontstretch, Blomqvist remained out in front of the event’s GTP class and overall event. Behind, Jeremy Clarke led the LMP2 group, Neil Verhagen led the GTD Pro group and Patrick Gallagher led the GTD group.

Twenty minutes into the event, Blomqvist continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Aitken while Vanthoor, Deletraz and Estre occupied the top-five spots in the GTP class over Albuquerque, Ross Gunn, Philipp Eng and Nick Yelloly. Behind, Clarke led the LMP2 group by nine-tenths of a second over Misha Goikhberg, Daniel Goldburg, Tobi Lutke, Nick Boulle, Chris Cumming and John Farano. Neil Verhagen led the GTP Pro group over Tommy Milner, Andrea Caldarelli, Christopher Mies and Harry King while Tom Gamble led the GTD group over Patrick Gallagher, Lorenzo Patrese, Benjamin Pedersen and Danny Formal.

Another 10 minutes later, Blomqvist was reeled in by Aitken for the lead while third-place Vanthoor was also slowly reeling in the top-two leaders through every turn and straightaway. With Blomqvist having to navigate his way through traffic earlier, Daniel Goldburg briefly went off the track in Turn 10, but he proceeded without drawing a caution as Blomqvist, who had his lead shrunk to two-tenths of a second earlier, led by six-tenths of a second over Aitken and by eight-tenths of a second over Vanthoor. Clarke, Verhagen and Gamble retained the lead in the LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD groups, respectively, as both Blomqvist and Aitken started to generate a gap between themselves and Vanthoor over the next five minutes, with the latter trailing by a second.

With two hours of the event remaining, Aitken, the driver’s championship leader, capitalized on lapped traffic to overtake Blomqvist from Turns 7 to 10 to assume the lead both in the GTP class and the event overall. As Aitken led Blomqvist, Vanthoor continued to trail in third place ahead of Estre and Deletraz while Cumming, Verhagen and Gamble were leading in the LMP2 GTD Pro and GTD classes, respectively. In the LMP2 class, Golburg, Boulle, Goikhberg and Clarke were in the top five while Milner, Caldarelli, Mies and King raced in the top five, respectively, in the GTD Pro class. Meanwhile, Patrese, Gallagher, Pedersen and Danny Formal were scored in the top five, respectively, as Aitken proceeded to extend his advantage up by more than three seconds over Bomqvist and five seconds over Vanthoor during the next five laps.

One hour into the event, Aitken stabilized his advantage over Blomqvist by five seconds while Vanthoor, Estre and Deletraz trailed by as far back as nine seconds. With the front-runners of the GTP class remaining on the track and having not yet made a pit stop, split strategies for the other classes had already ensued, with Golburg continuing to lead the LMP2 class while Verhagen led the LMP2 class. Behind Pedersen led the GTD class before he pitted seven minutes later. By then, Dolburg pitted from the lead in the LMP2 class and Boulle was leading over Clarke while Verhagen led the GTD Pro class. Meanwhile, Aitken used the previous 10 minutes to stretch his advantage over Blomqvist up by six seconds.

Within the final 90-minutes mark, the leaders Blomqvist and Aitken along with Eestre pitted for service and for a driver change. Vanthoor and Albuquerque pitted a lap later. Following the pit stops, Earl Bamber, who replaced Aitken, managed to exit pit road first ahead of Laurin Heinrich, who replaced Estre, and Colin Braun, who replaced Blomqvist, respectively. During Vanthoor and Albuquerque’s respective pit stops, Sheldon van der Linde and Ricky Taylor replaced them, respectively. Meanwhile, Philipp Eng, who has yet to pit, assumed the lead while Bamber carved his way up to second place. Once Eng pitted with approximately one hour and 25 minutes left in the event, Bamber cycled the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen entry back atop the leaderboard.

At the event’s halfway at one hour and 20 minutes, Bamber was leading the GTP class and overall event by eight-tenths of a second over Heinrich while Linde, Braun and Roman De Angelis trailed int he top five over Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Marco Wittmann and Renger van der Zande, respectively. Meanwhile, Nick Boulle led in his Era Motorsport entry over Paul Di Resta, Harry Tincknell, Mathias Beche and Tom Dillmann while Neil Verhagen led in the GTD Pro class over Max Esterson, Nicky Catsburg, Nick Tandy and Ben Barker seconds before Verhagen strategically pitted. Dude Barrichello led the GTD class over Albert Costa, Robby Foley, Trent Hindman and Giacomo Altoe, respectively.

Ten minutes later, Bamber slightly increased his advantage up by more than a second over Heinrich while Linde trailed by nearly five seconds in third place. Meanwhile, Angelis trailed in fourth place by 18 seconds while Braun was mired 21 seconds behind in fifth place. Resta, Frederic Vervisch and Barrichello led in the LMP2 GTD Pro and GTD classes, respectively, as Bamber added another second to his advantage over Henrich and Linde over the following five minutes.

Then with one hour and three minutes remaining, the caution flew due to debris in the form of a rear bumper spotted on the course. The rear bumper came off the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW entry piloted by Connor De Phillippi after he rubbed fenders with the No. 4 Corvette Racing entry driven by Nicky Catsburg in the first turn. Prior to the caution, Bamber, who went off the course in Turn 12, managed to retain the lead.

During the caution, the GTP field led by Bamber pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bamber managed to beat Linde off of pit road first while Jordan Taylor, Braun, Angelis, Heinrich, Wittmann, Ricky Taylor, Zande and Nico Mueller followed suit, respectively, while Resta, Nikita Johnson and Albert Costa led the LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes, respectively. With more pit stops ensuing within the field and classes, a fire escalated in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing/DEX Lamborghini pit box piloted by Trent Hindman and Danny Formal.

The next restart with 48 minutes and 15 seconds remaining featured Bamber fending off Linde to retain the lead through the first three turns and the backstretch’s chicane. Then in Turn 7 and as the GTP field jostled for late positions through the backstretch, Roman De Angelis and Marco Wittmann spun together after the latter collided into the left side of the former through the turn. Amid the chaos that did not generate a caution, where Wittmann was assessed a drive-through penalty for the contact, Bamber maintained his lead over Linde and Jordan Taylor retained third place while Braun tried to reel in from fourth place ahead of Heinrich. Amid the scramble, Resta, Nikita Johnson and Robby Foley led the LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes, respectively, as Bamber led by seven-tenths of a second with less than 45 minutes remaining.

Down to the final 30 minutes of the event, Bamber was leading by one-and-a-half seconds over Linde while Henrich, Jordan Taylor and Braun trailed in the top-five mark, respectively, in the GTP class. Meanwhile, Resta led the LMP2 class by more than eight seconds over Chrstian Rasmussen, Johnson maintained the lead in the GTD Pro class by nearly two seconds over Dennis Olsen and Robby Foley led by more than two seconds over Felipe Fraga in the GTD class. Tristan Vautier, Connor De Phillippi and Philip Ellis occupied third place in the LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes, respectively, while third-place Heinrich in the GTP class trailed the lead by more than nine seconds.

Five minutes later, the battle for the lead intensified as Linde, who trailed Bamber by two seconds earlier, reeled in Bamber for the lead by within two-tenths of a second. After getting close to Bamber’s rear bumper a lap prior from Turns 12 to the frontstretch, the two leaders were mired in lapped traffic as Bamber managed to retain a steady lead over Linde the following lap through the frontstretch. As Rasmussen, Johnson and Foley led the LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes, respectively, Bamber, who navigated his way through more lapped traffic, but faster than Linde, continued to lead by one-and-a-half seconds over the latter with 20 minutes left.

With 15 minutes left, Bamber extended his lead up to two seconds over Linde while third-place Heinrich trailed by eight seconds. Meanwhile, Jordan Taylor and Braun continued to occupy the top-five spots in the GTP class and trail the lead by double digits along with sixth-place Ricky Taylor while Rasmussen led Tristan Vautier by 27 seconds in the LMP2 class. Nikita Johnson led Dennis Olsen in the GTD Pro class by four-tenths of a second while Robby Foley led Philip Ellis in the GTD class by a second. Meanwhile, Phillippi, who spun in Turn 10 from third place after he was hit by the No. 65 Ford Racing Mustang of Frederic Vervisch three minutes earlier, plummeted to the tail end of the GTD Pro class. As Vervisch was penalized for the on-track contact, Bamber retained the lead by half a second over Linde with 10 minutes remaining.

Then with seven laps remaining and the top-two leaders in the GTP class being mired in lapped traffic, Linde reeled in and executed a bold three-wide move beneath a Corvette and Bamber, who got briefly slow a lap prior through Turns 4 through 6. After being side-by-side with Bamber and nearly executing an overtake for the lead entering Turn 7, they rubbed fenders and Bamber managed to fend off the latter to retain the lead. Amid Bamber’s effort in leading the next lap and maintaining it, Linde executed his overtake on Bamber and a lapped Mustang from Turns 11 and 12 to assume the lead with nearly five minutes remaining. Following his overtake and lead of a full cycle, Linde proceeded to extend his late lead by one-and-a-half seconds over Bamber with less than four minutes remaining.

When the clocked expired and the event started its final lap, Linde remained in the lead over Bamber. With no competition reeling from behind, Linde was able to navigate the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT entry around Indianapolis smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and secured the victory by nearly three seconds.

With the victory, the BMW M Team WRT organization achieved its first victory under its new WRT operation and BMW achieved its second win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a second time in three years after initially winning the six-hour event under the title BMW M Team RLL in 2024. Prior to Indianapolis, the BMW M Team WRT organization had finished on the podium a combined three times between the Nos. 24 and 25 entries at events that include the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Detroit Street Circuit, respectively. In addition, Linde achieved his first IMSA victory since the 2017 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta while Vanthoor notched his first IMSA victory since Road America in mid-September 2025.

“As soon as I got into the lead, I got goosebumps for three laps to go, which is ideal,” Linde said. “Obviously, [I] try and stay composed for this, but we waited so freaking long for this. I even hurt my ribs trying to celebrate on the way out of the car. I’m so proud of Dries. He did an incredible job. We’ve been fighting for this one for so long. We’ve been close so many times. It’s incredible.”

Earl Bamber, who won at Indianapolis a year ago with Jack Aitken, Frederik Vesti and the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen team a year ago, settled in the runner-up spot while Laurin Heinrich piloted the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry to a third-place result in the GTP class. Despite falling short of winning at Indianapolis for a second consecutive year, Aitken maintains the lead in the driver’s championship standings by 147 points over Laurin Heinrich heading into this year’s finale at Michele Raceway Road Atlanta scheduled for October 3.

As the BMW M Team WRT organization celebrated an overall GTP victory, Era Motorsports celebrated an LMP2 victory with Christian Rasmussen piloting the organization’s No. 18 ORECA LMP2 07 entry across the finish line with the victory following a late fuel gamble stretch and celebrating with co-driver Nick Boulle. This marks Era Motorsports’ first victory since the 2024 12 Hours of Sebring, Rasmussen’s first since winning the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona and Boulle’s first since winning at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park during his 2024 championship season.

Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen’s No. 52 entry with drivers Harry Tincknell and Misha Goikhberg finished in the runner-up spot while the No. 22 United Autosports USA team piloted by Paul Di Resta and Daniel Goldburg rounded out the podium in third place.

Meanwhile, Dennis Olsen with co-driver Ben Barker and the No. 64 Ford Racing Mustang team took advantage of Nikita Johnson and RLL Team McLaren’s misfortune of not having enough fuel to remain on the track with the lead and victory within the final two minutes to win at Indianapolis in the GTD Pro class. This marks the Ford Racing Mustang’s second GTD Pro victory of the 2026 season after the organization’s No. 65 entry won at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Nicky Catsburg along with co-driver Tommy Milner piloted the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports entry to second place while the third and final podium spot was occupied by Andrea Caldarelli, Sandy Mitchell and the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 entry.

Lastly, Robby Foley with co-driver Patrick Gallagher and the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO entry team secured the victory in the GT Daytona class. This marks the organization’s first victory in the GTD class since they won at Road America in early August 2024.

Philip Ellis and Russell Ward co-piloted the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 entry to a runner-up result while 13 Autosport’s No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R entry co-piloted by Matthew Bell and Trey Fidani achieved a third-place result.

Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) Results:

1. Sheldon van der Linde/Dries Vanthoor (#24 BMW M Team WRT)
2. Earl Bamber/Jack Aitken (#31 Cadillac Whelen)
3. Laurin Heinrich/Kevin Estre (#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport)
4. Jordan Taylor/Louis Deletraz (#40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing)
5. Colin Braun/Tom Blomqvist (#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian)
6. Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing)
7. Renger van der Zande/Nick Yelloly (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian)
8. Roman De Angelis/Ross Gunn (#23 ASTON MARTIN THOR Team)
9. Nico Mueller/Tijmen van der Helm (#5 JDC-Miller MotorSports)
10. Marco Wittmann/Philipp Eng (#25 BMW M Team WRT)

Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) Results:

1. Christian Rasmussen/Nick Boulle (#18 Era Motorsport)
2. Harry Tincknell/Misha Goikhberg (#52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen)
3. Paul Di Resta/Daniel Goldburg (#22 United Autosports USA)
4. Tristan Vautier/John Farano (#8 Tower Motorsports)
5. Pietro Fittipaldi/Chris Cumming (#73 Pratt Miller Motorsports)
6. Tom Dillmann/Jeremy Clarke (#43 Inter Europol Competition)
7. Mathias Beche/Tobi Lutke (#11 TDS Racing)

GT Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) Results:

1. Dennis Olsen/Ben Barker (#64 Ford Racing)
2. Nicky Catsburg/Tommy Milner (#4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports)
3. Andrea Caldarelli/Sandy Mitchell (#9 Pfaff Motorsports)
4. Alexander Sims/Antonio Garcia (#3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports)
5. Jack Hawksworth/Ben Barnicoat (#14 Vasser Sullivan Racing)
6. Connor De Phillippi/Neil Verhagen (#1 Paul Miller Racing
7. Frederic Vervisch/Christopher Mies (#65 Ford Racing)
8. Nikita Johnson/Max Esterson (#59 RLL Team McLaren)
9. Valentin Hasse Clot/Marco Sorensen (#68 Car Blanche)
10. Nick Tandy/Harry King (#77 AO Racing)

GT Daytona (GTD) Results:

1. Robby Foley/Patrick Gallagher (#96 Turner Motorsport)
2. Philip Ellis/Russell Ward (#57 Winward Racing)
3. Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani (#13 13 Racing)
4. Giacomo Altoe/Casper Stevenson (#81 DragonSpeed)
5. Dudu Barrichello/Tom Gamble (#27 Heart of Racing Team)
6. Callum Ilott/Adam Adelson (#120 Wright Motorsports)
7. Corey Lewis/Jake Walker (#66 Gradient Racing)
8. Aaron Telitz/Benjamin Pedersen (#12 Vasser Sullivan Racing)
9. Felipe Fraga/Sheena Monk (#16 Myers Riley Motorsports)
10. Frederik Schandorff/Brendan Iribe (#70 Inception Racing)
11. Albert Costa/Lorenzo Patrese (#34 Conquest Racing)

The 2026 IMSA SportsCar Championship season continues on October 3 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, for the 10-hour season-finale Motul Petit Le Mans event. The event’s broadcast coverage commences at noon ET on NBC and will continue forth through NBCSN, beginning at 3 p.m. ET.