Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams SunEnergy 1 Racing 75 Express, Mercedes-AMG Team GMR, JMF Motorsports and Regulator Racing combined to secure an Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) season title and top three race and GT World Challenge America championship showings on Saturday, October 18 in the sixth running of the Indianapolis 8 Hour at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Highlight results of the competitive and chaotic race, which concluded in the final hours in heavy rain, were a second place overall and Pro-class finish by the No. 888 Mercedes-AMG Team GRM Mercedes-AMG GT3 and another IGTC title for Kenny Habul and his No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 team that clinched the Independent Cup for amateur drivers.
Habul sealed his series-leading fifth IGTC title and enlisted some of his superstar Australian countryman to reach the milestone. Two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power joined Habul in a move up to the Pro class for the Indy 8 Hour. The additions and class change paid off, with Habul qualifying and driving in the race’s opening hours as competitively as he ever has performed.
Power also impressed in his first race in a car with a roof in more than 20 years, including a late and on-pace run in the teeming downpour that hit IMS in the second half of the race. Mostert stepped in for the wet run to the finish and, after passing a pair of cars in the only two green flag laps run in the race’s final 90 minutes, went on to take the checkered flag sixth overall, four spots ahead of Habul’s closest Independent Cup challengers.
The top finish of the six competing Mercedes-AMG GT3 entries was earned by the trio of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Tom Kalender in the No. 888 Mercedes-AMG Team GRM Mercedes-AMG GT3. The No. 888 quickly moved into lead-pack contention after starting seventh, with Engel, Kalender and Stolz all battling at the front of the field for the majority of the race.
Stolz led for more than hour as the skies grew dark approaching the halfway point, and the No. 888 was one of the few cars that ran as competitively in the wet conditions as it did in the dry. Starting driver Engel also drove the final stint to the finish and passed for second place during the last of the race’s required 65-minute stint reset pit stops.
The GRM effort was one of two AMG Performance Teams competing in the Indy 8 Hour. The No. 80 Mercedes-AMG Team Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 team returned for its second consecutive IGTC race at the Brickyard as a Performance Team and was the race’s pacesetter in practice and qualifying. After Jules Gounon won the overall and Pro-class pole on Friday, Lin Hodenius started the 8 Hour and promptly led the first hour, replicating his similar lead-from-the-start showing with Lone Star Racing in last month’s IMSA Battle on the Bricks six-hour race at IMS.
The Lone Star team rebounded from an early penalty to stay on the lead lap, and Gounon was at the wheel late in the rain hoping for the charge to the finish. Unfortunately, as the race was restarted for a brief run of wet green flag laps, Gounon dashed to the pits when the No. 80 suffered a mechanical issue that led to the team’s retirement.
The Indianapolis 8 Hour once again served as the season finale for both the IGTC and the SRO GT World Challenge America powered by AWS series. Both the Pro-class No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 team and the Pro-Am No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 squad came to Indianapolis with at least a mathematical chance of securing season titles. In the end, both JMF and Regulator clinched top three championship season finishes after a pair of persistent and no quit runs at the Brickyard.
The first implication of the inclement weather was a nearly two and a half hours long red flag delay for lightning within the vicinity of IMS just past the race’s halfway point. Ironically, the rain heavily picked up as the thunder and lightning diminished, and that was when JMF made the biggest gamble of the race as the competitors returned to the track behind the safety car just before 7 p.m. EDT.
While nearly the entire field immediately pit for service, with most changing drivers, Lucas Auer stayed on track in the JMF No. 34 and cycled into the lead. The team’s strategy was to gain track position ahead of the GT World Challenge Pro-class points leader, and Auer – who was enlisted for the 8 Hour alongside full-season co-drivers Michai Stephens and Mikael Grenier – held station at the front of the field behind the safety car for more than 30 minutes.
The JMF team was hoping for a quick return to green flag racing, but Auer ultimately had to pit for fuel and give up the lead. The No. 34 squad came up short in securing the Pro division titles but still claimed class runner-up driver and team honors after a winning season in what was remarkably the first in GT3 for JMF Motorsports and Stephens. The JMF team scored race wins this season at Sonoma Raceway, Road America and Barber Motorsports Park.
Regulator and full-season co-drivers Jeff Burton and Philip Ellis finished third in the Pro-Am season championship standings for the second year in a row on the strength of victories at Circuit of The Americas and Road America. The No. 91 team was joined at Indy by Daan Arrow at Indy, who set what was then the fastest lap of the race in his first driving stint early in the second hour.
Arrow’s eye-opening quick lap followed the race’s first two fastest laps that were set by Hodenius in the first five minutes of his fast race-opening stint at the front of the field. Stolz then upped the ante even more in the race’s third hour when he clocked in with another fast tour around the 2.439-mile IMS road course that was the best in the field at the time. Mercedes-AMG was the only manufacturer in the Indianapolis 8 Hour to set fastest race laps with more than one of its cars.
The No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 team returned to SRO Pro-Am competition at Indianapolis, and former GT World Challenge America champions George Kurtz and Colin Braun were joined by Toby Sowery for a sixth-place finish class finish in the 8 Hour. Kurtz also secured a second-place result in the sister No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 in Friday’s 40-minute GT America sprint race.
The No. 37 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 team contested the weekend’s Pirelli GT4 America doubleheader to close out the team’s first season with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing. Team drivers Eddie Killeen and Marc Miller joined the hard-working Dome crew in rebounding from being taken out in a lap one, turn one incident in Friday’s first race for a top 10 finish in Sunday’s final 60-minute race of the year.
The Indianapolis 8 Hour weekend concluded with the annual SRO America Championships Awards Celebration Sunday evening at the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.
Maro Engel, Driver – No. 888 Mercedes-AMG Team GRM Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Many thanks to my teammates and the entire Mercedes-AMG Team GMR. I felt straight away that the car was strong and moved my way forward, and Tom and Luca did an awesome job in taking us all the way to the lead. Second is a strong result but obviously we wanted to race it out on track at the end. You never want to finish a race behind the safety car, but nobody can do anything about the conditions. I am convinced that victory would have been possible if the race had restarted. I am proud of the job everyone did, and a big thank you to everyone.”
Luca Stolz, Driver – No. 888 Mercedes-AMG Team GRM Mercedes-AMG GT3: “A good race for us. Maro started off quite good, improved many positions, and then Tom did a really good job, and we ended up in the fight for the lead. Second place from seventh on the grid is a good result. Unfortunately, the race really never did restart in the wet, but I think in the rain there was the potential to win. Especially with Maro at the wheel, and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a little bit better in the wet than the others. Nevertheless, a good podium for us.”
Tom Kalender, Driver – No. 888 Mercedes-AMG Team GRM Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was my first time in a Pro car and my first time in the United States. It is super nice to have driven here on this iconic race circuit. I really enjoyed the track layout, and it was quite smooth. It was great fun, and second place is a good result, which I am quite happy with. We worked so hard to get to the lead, and I think we could have won, but we got a bit unlucky with the rain and the red flags. The rain was unfortunate for us because we definitely had the pace to win the race.”
Kenny Habul, Driver – No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Thank you to Mercedes-AMG for the long-standing, fantastic partnership that has brought us this success. Everything came together this season: my teammates, the car, the support. Winning a title for the fifth time at my age makes me proud. It also shows that I am still one of the best Bronze drivers.”
Will Power, Driver – No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3: “The main objective was to get Kenny the Independent Cup Championship, and I really had a lot of fun this weekend. I just kept learning, and I really wish I could have done more laps. The rain really made it a bit anticlimactic, but it was really cool working with Kenny, Chaz and everyone. I really enjoyed it.”
Chaz Mostert, Driver – No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Everyone did a fantastic job in the first four hours of the race. Kenny really didn’t want to start, but he tightened the belts, didn’t crack and did the job he needed to do. Then Will got in, and he was super-fast, and we stayed on the lead lap. Then it was my job to stay on the lead lap too, but then the lightning came but we were still in a position where we needed to be to get the Independent Cup. The weather was pretty sketchy, and the two laps we went green, it was good enough, but it was really just a downpour here at Indianapolis.”
Jules Gounon, Driver – No. 80 Mercedes-AMG Team Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “A disappointing race for us unfortunately. We had a really good car, so hats off to Lone Star Racing for giving us such a great Mercedes-AMG GT3. We had pole position, we were fast all weekend long, but in the end we had a failure that didn’t allow us to make it to the finish. We will have to come back again next year after coming so close many times in Indianapolis.”
Michai Stephens, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “An evening and weekend to remember on many accounts. Most importantly is the collaboration of this team as it was really a novice entry at the start of the season. We have all grown together tremendously, with high hopes for the future, which is an exceptional takeaway to go home with. Even though we fell short of the ultimate goal, it doesn't mean our hearts were not in it, along with the partners that we are fortunate to have. We have a tremendous relationship with Mercedes-AMG we hope to continue to enrich and build on. Most importantly, the fire has not been dimmed and now just burns brighter for the future.”
