IMSA Returns Next Week after Hosting Races from 2012-14 on the IMS Road Course
By Jeff Olson
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway didn’t involve cars. Think balloons instead.
That’s right. The first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 was preceded nearly two years by a gas-filled balloon race. John Berry and Paul J. McCullough piloted the University City from Indianapolis to Fort Payne, Alabama, becoming the first winners of a race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in June 1909. It wasn’t until May 30, 1911, that Ray Harroun and the Marmon Wasp made automotive history by winning the first Indianapolis 500.
Since balloons, the Speedway has hosted a variety of vehicles beyond the traditional open-cockpit, open-wheel, single-seat format familiar to fans of the Indy 500. The list includes motorcycles, stock cars, midgets, Formula One cars, Indy cars and now, once again, sports cars.
The TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Sept. 17 reintroduces sports cars to the historic venue. The discipline first raced on the IMS road course in 2012 and returned to open-wheel racing’s shrine twice after that.
While sports cars didn’t appear at IMS before then, they were a part of the Indianapolis racing scene beginning in the 1950s. Stout Field, an Army airfield four miles south of IMS, began hosting sports car races on its runways in the mid-’50s.
In 1960, Indianapolis Raceway Park’s road course – six miles northwest of IMS – opened and held a diverse schedule of races, including sports cars, often in conjunction with the Indianapolis 500. In 1965, Mario Andretti scored his first Indy car win in the Hoosier Grand Prix at IRP.
Irv Hoerr’s lap of 1 minute, 27.451 seconds in 1994 is still listed as the IMSA GTS record on the IRP road course, which hosted SCCA club races until 2007.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway added its infield road course in 2000 and hosted Formula One’s U.S. Grand Prix for the next eight years. Sports cars debuted on the IMS road course in 2012 as the Brickyard Grand Prix under IMSA’s Rolex GRAND-AM Sports Car Series banner.
- In 2012, Sebastien Bourdais – who’ll be back to race again this year – was the overall winner with co-driver Alex Popow for Starworks Motorsports (they’re pictured above on the IMS victory podium). “It’s the only time that I’ve kissed the bricks,” Bourdais said, referencing the IMS winners’ postrace tradition, “so it was a pretty cool day. … It’s a very special place.”
- In 2013, Popow teamed with Ryan Dalziel (who’ll also be in the 2023 field) to win again for Starworks. “I’m glad we’re going back,” Dalziel said. “I was definitely glad to see it back on the schedule. It’s somewhere that we should be taking sports cars and I’m looking forward to it, for sure.”
- In 2014, Joao Barbosa (another driver slated to return in 2023) and Christian Fittipaldi drove the Action Express Racing Corvette DP to victory in the first season of what is now the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. “Indy being Indy, everybody wants to be there,” Barbosa said. “It’s definitely one of the biggest racetracks, and with the history that it has it’s important to go there.”
Other drivers who competed in at least one of those three IMSA races expected to be on the grid again this year include all-time IMSA wins leader Bill Auberlen, Filipe Albuquerque, Colin Braun, Antonio Garcia, Jack Hawksworth, Ben Keating, Andy Lally, Frankie Montecalvo, John Potter, Bryan Sellers, Mike Skeen, Madison Snow, brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor, Nick Tandy and Renger van der Zande.
The return of sports car racing to Indianapolis is set. NBC’s live coverage of the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at IMS begins Sunday, Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. ET. Tickets for the Sept. 15-17 weekend are available at IMS.com.