BMW’s Team WRT Breaks Through at Indy as Van der Linde Stuns Cadillac Late in IMSA Battle on the Bricks

Sheldon van der Linde seized the lead from Earl Bamber in Turn 12 with just over five minutes remaining, delivering the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to victory in Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — the first win for Team WRT since it took over BMW’s Grand Touring Prototype effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this season.

Co-driver Dries Vanthoor shared the winning machine, and the emotional victory was van der Linde’s second class win in the series and his first since 2017 in GTD. BMW’s GTP effort has taken overall honors at Indy before, winning in 2024 under Team RLL, and Team WRT has now scored three victories with the M Hybrid V8 this year across programs, including World Endurance Championship rounds at Spa and Sao Paulo.

Bamber and co-driver Jack Aitken settled for second in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. Aitken arrives at the Oct. 3 Petit Le Mans season finale at Michelin Road Atlanta with a 147-point cushion atop the GTP drivers’ standings. Laurin Heinrich and Kevin Estre took third in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, with Heinrich second in the points, while the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs rounded out the top five. In the manufacturer battle, Cadillac leads Porsche by 136 points and will wrap up that title simply by starting a car at Road Atlanta.

Other class winners

• LMP2: Era Motorsport scored its sixth class win — its first since Sebring in March 2024 — with a one-off lineup of Nick Boulle and Christian Rasmussen in the No. 18 ORECA LMP2 07. Championship contenders Inter Europol Competition, CrowdStrike Racing by APR and AO Racing all missed the podium, leaving the title fight open for the finale.
• GTD Pro: The No. 64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 ended a winless streak dating to last year’s Indy round with Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker, the latter earning his first IMSA class victory in his 19th start. Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner finished second in the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and moved into the GTD Pro points lead for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.
• GTD: Turner Motorsport snapped a two-year drought as Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley drove the No. 96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO to the team’s 26th class win and its first at Indianapolis, its first since Road America in August 2024.

Broadcast context

The WeatherTech Championship races under the NBC Sports umbrella, whose parent Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) recently traded at $22.74, down 1.22% from its previous close of $23.02, with a market capitalization near $92.5 billion.

Source: original release

What to watch

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season concludes Oct. 3 with the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Road Atlanta, where the GTP drivers’ title (Aitken leads by 147 points), the LMP2 crown, and the GTD Pro standings — now topped by Corvette’s Catsburg and Milner — will all be decided. Cadillac can clinch the manufacturers’ championship if one of its entries takes the green flag. Unofficial classification and fastest-lap data from Indianapolis are available via race documentation.