| Inter Europol LMP2, PMR BMW, Triarsi Ferrari Lead Respective Classes September 21, 2025By Tony DiZinnoIMSA Wire Service |
| Hour 3 Results INDIANAPOLIS – The first three hours are in the books in the six-hour TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The last three hours of the penultimate round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race air live on network NBC at 3 p.m. ET, as well as streaming on Peacock in the U.S. and IMSA.TV and the official IMSA YouTube channel internationally. At the three-hour mark, it’s the two Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) entries fielding three drivers that are up front. Frederik Vesti in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R runs ahead of Kaku Ohta in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 by 0.851 of a second at the three-hour mark. Vesti took over from Jack Aitken, who inherited the Motul Pole Award and led a Cadillac 1-2-3 to the green, with Nick Yelloly starting the No. 93 car before handing off to Ohta. The No. 31 Cadillac led most of the race while the No. 93 Acura moved into second courtesy of a slick pass by Ohta on Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 off a restart with three hours, 20 minutes remaining. The sister No. 60 Acura – which qualified fastest before moving to the rear of the class after a violation was discovered in post-qualifying technical inspection – has recovered to third ahead of the No. 7 Porsche and No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8. Most of the runners in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) went through the wars in the first three hours with spins or penalties, but a handful stayed cleaner than most to run up front in class. Tom Dillmann leads in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 by 4.007 over Hunter McElrea, seeking the third straight Indianapolis LMP2 win for the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, and Toby Sowery in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA. Klaus Bachler in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R and Frederic Vervisch in the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 engaged in one of the best battles of the race, as Bachler defended cleanly against Vervisch for the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) lead. However, Vervisch’s crew got a move done in the pit lane against the 2024 Indianapolis GTD PRO winning entry just shy of the three-hour mark. That would have been for the net lead but actually cycled them to second behind the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. The team’s frequent strategy of maximizing their points in IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup rounds – the No. 1 was leading GTD PRO by four points entering Indianapolis – came into play again as Neil Verhagen stayed out when the rest of the GTD PRO field pitted under the fifth full-course caution of the race. Verhagen then had to defend against Vervisch for the GTD PRO lead for the remainder of the cycle until the three-hour mark. The second PMR BMW, the No. 48 entry driven by Max Hesse after taking over from polesitter Dan Harper, moved into second just 4.172 seconds behind shortly after an incident between Vervisch and Jordan Taylor’s No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. Verhagen is running in the only three-driver lineup in GTD PRO, sharing his car with Madison Snow and Connor De Phillippi. In Grand Touring Daytona (GTD), a slightly off-sequence strategy has propelled the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of James Calado to the lead in the car he shares with Kenton Koch and Onofrio Triarsi, who switch from the sister No. 021 car this race. The No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari is second by 0.472 of a second, currently driven by Ben Tuck, ahead of the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 driven by team newcomer Eric Filgueiras. Points are awarded in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup championship at the three-hour mark, with five for first place, four for second, three for third and two for all subsequent positions. In the GTP class, the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 team unofficially leads the standings by four points over the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06. In LMP2, the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 team has unofficially moved into a three-point lead over the No. 22 United Autosports USA team. In GTD PRO, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo team has a five-point advantage over its team car, the No. 48 BMW. And in GTD, the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, the No. 21 Af Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo remain tied atop the standings. |
