Battle on the Bricks Notebook: IMS President Pleased with Event’s Growth - Speedway Digest

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile road course will feature six hours of competition, an expansion that makes it the fourth of five rounds in the 2024 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. That’s still more than twice the length of the 2023 Indianapolis race, won by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet and Porsche Penske Motorsport, which at two hours, 40 minutes was run as a standard WeatherTech Championship “sprint” race.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles is pleased with how the lead-up to this year’s event has gone. Activities started Thursday evening with a fan event, the IMSA Street Festival, on Main Street in Speedway, just outside Turn 1 of the IMS oval.

“I think the event went really well for the first year,” Boles said. “Having the GTP prototypes back last year was really big for us. A lot of people love the GT cars because they connect with them; they look like the cars we drive. But the GTP cars have an extra cool side – the hybrid side of it, just how advanced they are. You look in the cockpit at all the buttons that all the drivers have to manage, and the solutions that each manufacturer has developed.

“What I’m most excited about this year is going from the two-hour, 40-minute race to the six-hour race as part of the endurance championship.”

The 2023 Battle on the Bricks was the first major event where IMS created an infield camping area. The offering was a success and is back this year.

“We liked it enough that we allowed camping (this year) on the weekend for the Brickyard 400 NASCAR weekend, which was the first time we’ve done that,” Boles said. “Our camping numbers are up a bit for this race because I think camping is such a big element at a road course when you go to a place like Mid-Ohio or Watkins Glen or Road America. Fans love camping next to the track at a racetrack.

“It’s going to take some time to continue to grow it, but it’s done really well.”

While obviously most famous for the Indianapolis 500, IMS has embraced sports car competition as a key element in its growth and development.

“We’re known for the month of May, and people have always asked, ‘What do you do for the rest of the year?’” said Boles. “The nice thing about IMSA is that there are 18 different manufacturers that participate in the weekend activities – that’s a lot of OEMs. We have cars on track 140 days of the year, and most of those days are OEM testing days, where they bring in new product to demonstrate to their sales teams and others.

“We have a lot of sports car teams testing, and special manufacturer events like Ferrari Challenge,” he added. “That’s great for the racetrack, because when people hear the noise because cars are on the track, that’s the best marketing tool we have.”

Korthoff/Preston Seeking to Double Wins and Michelin Endurance Cup Crowns

Korthoff/Preston Motorsports won its first Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class race at the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway last month. The enjoyment period has been … brief.

“It’s funny how short-lived the highs can feel sometimes because it goes right into the next thing!” laughed Kenton Koch, who shares the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with full-season co-driver Mikael Grenier and the returning Mike Skeen for the last two races.

“It’s, ‘Yay, we won!’ followed by right back into driving again, testing at (Michelin Raceway) Road Atlanta with this car.”

The trio won last year’s IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup and seek an encore this year. With two races remaining – each an endurance event – they’re five points back (31-26) of Winward Racing’s trio of Philip Ellis, Russell Ward and Indy Dontje in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3. Lessons learned from the Michelin Raceway test should help them defend the title, though Koch said the team is prioritizing adding to its win list over a repeat title.

“We want to go win, and sometimes you compromise yourself in the end if you go for those (endurance championship) points,” he explained. “How you go about the races is different depending on the approach. Here at Indy, for instance, it’ll race like another Watkins Glen, and having the prototypes around makes opportunities to pass compared to just GT races where it can be harder.”

Kellymoss, DragonSpeed Expand GTD Field

In addition to returning Michelin Endurance Cup-only entries in GTD, two other cars are making “first” GTD starts of this season. Kellymoss with Riley makes its first start since the Rolex 24 At Daytona, albeit with a new car number and entirely new driver lineup, while longtime Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class entrant DragonSpeed enters a Ferrari.

Last year’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion Riley Dickinson joins fellow WeatherTech Championship debutant Jake Pedersen and 2023 WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca GTD winner Kay van Berlo in the No. 90 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). For Dickinson, stepping into this series after his Carrera Cup success and Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class win at Daytona this year is a dream come true.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Dickinson said. “We tested a couple weeks ago and it went well. Indianapolis is a fantastic place for me – there have been a lot of firsts for me here in my career – so walking up to the pit lane was a really cool feeling.”

DragonSpeed, which was just confirmed by IMSA to run a full 2025 campaign in GTD with its No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3, gets some running in at Indianapolis with Henrik Hedman, Toni Vilander and Rasmus Lindh in the car that wears No. 56 this weekend.

“It’s good to be back in a Ferrari,” said Hedman, who has extensive Ferrari experience in other models and championships. “It’s not as physical (as the LMP2 car) and it puts us into a deep field.”

IMSA Wire Service PR