The 2023 IMSA Battle on the Bricks was a sports car race that was sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on September 17, 2023. The event was the tenth round of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship and the seventh round of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.
The No. 7 Porsche of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr qualified in pole position and initially held their advantage until Campbell was overtaken by Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Porsche on the race's first lap. Jaminet held the lead until pitting during the second full course caution period. Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 6 and No. 7 cars failed to overtake the GTD field during the field split. Whelen Engineering Racing's No. 31 Cadillac of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims inherited the lead which they maintained until Derani was overtaken by Nasr and Tandy. Tandy overtook Nasr in the final pit stop cycle to secure the victory. Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 7 car of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr finished second and the No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly came in third.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 11 TDS Racing car of Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas. Jensen took the lead in the closing stages of the race after passing No. 8 Tower Motorsports driver Louis Delétraz which earned Jensen and Thomas their second victory of the season. Wayne Boyd and Anthony Mantella took victory in LMP3. Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella's No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes took victory in the GTD Pro class with Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Aston Martin in second. Gounon and Juncadella went unchallenged throughout the race after inheriting the lead from The No. 9 Porsche of Klaus Bachler who received a drive-through penalty for changing lanes before crossing the start finish line at the start. The GTD class was won by Philip Ellis and Russell Ward ahead of The No. 78 Lamborghini of Misha Goikhberg and Loris Spinelli
The result meant Derani and Sims became the leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 2460 points, 3 ahead of fifth-placed finishers Albuquerque and Taylor, and a further 2 in front of Mathieu Jaminet, and Nick Tandy. De Phillippi and Yelolly dropped to fourth place and Matt Campbell, and Felipe Nasr advanced to fifth. Porsche took the lead of the Manufactures' Championship by eight points ahead of Cadillac and Acura dropped to third. BMW remained in fourth. Jensen and Thomas took the lead of the LMP2 Drivers' Championship. Boyd and Mantella moved to second in the LMP3 Drivers' Championship. In The GTD Pro Drivers' Championship, Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth extended their advantage over Antonio García and Jordan Taylor. Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers clinched the GTD Drivers' Championship with one race left in the season.
Background
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2022. The event marked IMSA's return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time since 2014 as the track replaced Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course after the 2022 season. The 2023 IMSA Battle on the Bricks was the tenth of eleven scheduled sports car races of 2023 by IMSA, and it was the seventh round held as part of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. The race was held at the fourteen-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on September 17, 2023.
On September 7, 2023, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the GTP, GTD Pro, and GTD classes. In GTP, the Acura ARX-06 received a 3 kilogram weight increase while the Porsche 963 received a 1 kilogram weight increase. The BMW M Hybrid V8 and Cadillac V-Series.R received no weight changes. All four GTP cars received power increases. In GTD Pro and GTD, the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo received a 30 kilogram weight increase. The Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) received a 10 kilogram weight increase and received a larger air restrictor. The BMW M4 GT3, Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD, and Lexus RC F GT3 received smaller air restrictors while most of the cars received fuel capacity adjustments.
Before the race, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor led the GTP Drivers' Championship with 2171 points, ahead of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims in second with 2157 points, and Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly in third with 2098 points. With 1345 points, Paul-Loup Chatin and Ben Keating led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship, 45 points ahead of Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas in second. In LMP3, Gar Robinson led the Drivers' Championship with a 251-point advantage over Matt Bell and Orey Fidani. Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth led the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship with 3165 points, ahead of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor with 3021 points. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow with 2996 points, ahead of Roman De Angelis and Marco Sørensen with 2621 points. Cadillac, Lexus, and BMW were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while WTR with Andretti Autosport, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Riley Motorsports, Vasser Sullivan Racing, and Paul Miller Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.
Entries
A total of 48 cars took part in the event split across five classes. Ten cars were entered in GTP, 7 in LMP2, 9 in LMP3, 5 in GTD Pro, and 17 in GTD. In LMP2, Dan Goldburg joined Louis Delétraz in the Tower Motorsports entry. Rodrigo Sales joined Giedo van der Garde in The No. 35 TDS Racing entry. In LMP3, Nolan Siegel substituted for Ari Balogh in the No. 30 Jr III Motorsports entry. Performance Tech Motorsports made their first appearance since the Watkins Glen round. Lance Willsey returned to the Sean Creech Motorsport entry. In GTD, Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Andretti returned after skipping the previous race at Virginia International Raceway. Lone Star Racing made their first appearance in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since 2019. Andretti Autosport made their first appearance since the Lime Rock round.
Testing 21 cars were involved in two days of testing divided into four sessions held at the circuit from July 28 to 29. Matt Capmbell set the fastest time early in the first day's running with a time of 1 minute, 15.636 seconds for the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche. Tijmen van der Helm later set the fastest time of the day in No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche. The fastest LMP2 lap came from Ben Hanley's No. 04 CrowdStrike Oreca while LMP3 was led by Matt Bell's No. 13 AWA Duqueine. Jack Hawksworth led GTD Pro in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 with a 1-minute, 24.898 seconds lap in the second session and Mikaël Grenier set the fastest time in GTD.
The second and final day of testing saw Connor De Phillippi lead in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW at 1 minute, 14.655 seconds. Mikkel Jensen in the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca set the fastest time in LMP2 while Wayne Boyd topped LMP3 in the No. 17 AWA Duqueine. Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Lexus set the fastest time in GTD Pro while Misha Goikhberg set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars.
Practice There were two scheduled practice sessions preceding the race start on Sunday, one on Friday afternoon and one on Saturday morning. The first session ran for 90 minutes on Friday afternoon while the second session ran for 105 minutes on Saturday morning.
In the first session, Matt Campbell's No. 6 Penske Porsche lapped quickest at 1:15.184, 0.022 seconds ahead of WTR's Filipe Albuquerque. Sébastien Bourdais was third in CGR's No. 01 Cadillac. De Phillippi and his teammate Eng were fourth and fifth for BMW. Mikkel Jensen led LMP2 with a 1:17.231 lap in TDS Racing's No. 11 car, 0.055 seconds ahead of Ryan Dalziel in the Era Motorsport car. Garett Grist was fastest in LMP3 with a time of 1:20.707. The GTD Pro class was topped by the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth with a time of 1:23.636. Klaus Bachler in the No. 9 Porsche was second fastest followed by Jules Gounon in the No. 79 Mercedes. Patrick Gallagher set the fastest time in GTD. The session was red flagged twice. 40 minutes into the session, Alan Brynjolfsson spun the No. 77 Porsche at turn six and got stuck in the gravel trap. With 15 minutes remaining, the No. 94 Andretti Autosport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Jarett Andretti suffered an engine failure and came to a stop at turn 7 bringing out the second red flag.
Campbell led the final session in the No. 7 Penske Porsche with a lap of 1 minute, 14.085 seconds. Jaminet was 0.185 seconds behind in second, with the No. 24 BMW of Eng in third. Yelloly's No. 24 BMW, along with Bourdais' No. 01 Cadillac were fourth and fifth. Jensen led LMP2 in TDS Racing's No. 11 car, 0.065 seconds ahead of Hanley in CrowdStrike's No. 04 Oreca. Matt Bell set the fastest time in LMP3 with a time of 1:20.840. The GTD Pro class was topped by the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Klaus Bachler with a time of 1:22.905. Jules Gounon in the No. 79 Mercedes was second fastest followed by Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Lexus. Loris Spinelli set the fastest time in GTD. The session was red flagged three times for on track incidents. 30 minutes into the session, Louis Delétraz spun the No. 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca at turn 1 and got beached in the gravel trap. 22 minutes later, Dwight Merriman in the No. 18 Era Motorsport car and Dennis Andersen in the No. 20 High Class Racing car collided at turn 1 causing debris to be scattered onto the track. Andersen was given a drive-through penalty. The final stoppage came in the closing minutes when the No. 13 AWA Duqueine of Orey Fidani spun at turn 4 and got stuck in the gravel trap.
Qualifying
Saturday's afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the GTP, LMP2 and LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD classes, which lasted for 20 minutes for the GTP session, and 15 minutes for the LMP2/LMP3, and GTD Pro/GTD sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am LMP2 class requiring a Bronze rated driver to qualify the car while the LMP3 class required a Bronze/Silver Rated driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put GTPs ahead of the LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro, and GTD cars.
The first was cars in the GTD Pro and GTD classes. Klaus Bachler qualified on pole in GTD Pro driving the No. 9 Porsche for Pfaff Motorsports, beating Jules Gounon in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes by 0.150 seconds. Following in third was Hawksworth's No. 14 Lexus. The No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD and the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin rounded out the GTD Pro rounded out the GTD Pro qualifiers. Madison Snow set the fastest time among all GTD cars driving the No. 1 car for Paul Miller Racing, 0.065 seconds faster than GTD Pro pole sitter Bachler. Snow was over three-tenths clear of Mikaël Grenier in the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG followed by Patrick Gallagher in the No. 96 BMW.