Inter Europol, Corvette and WTR Lamborghini Pace Other Classes
By John Oreovicz
INDIANAPOLIS – Porsche Penske Motorsport is pulling out all the stops in its efforts to win the driver and manufacturer titles in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. On Friday, the German manufacturer enjoyed a strong start to the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Kevin Estre drove the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 to the fastest time of the day in a 90-minute practice session, lapping the 2.439-mile IMS road course in 1 minute, 15.764 seconds for an average speed of 115.891 miles per hour.
The No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist clocked in second, 0.089 of a second in arrears, ahead of the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde. Porsche Penske’s No. 7 entry was fourth fastest at 1:16.147 (115.308 mph) in the hands of Felipe Nasr.
PPM has shuffled its GTP driver lineups for the Battle on the Bricks to increase the championship chances for Laurin Heinrich, who is the highest ranked Porsche driver in the point standings with two races remaining in the 2026 campaign. Heinrich arrives at Indy with a 118-point deficit to Jack Aitken in his No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.
Heinrich started the year scheduled to compete in a three-race IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup program in the No. 7 Porsche with Nasr and Julien Andlauer. After that trio won the first two races of the season (the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring), several additional races were added to Heinrich’s slate in the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963, and he and Tijmen van der Helm won at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, briefly elevating Heinrich into the GTP points lead.
Porsche has teamed Heinrich with Estre in the No. 6 factory 963 this weekend before he completes the season as planned in the No. 7 at the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in two weeks.
Estre and Aitken collided in the closing stages of the most recent GTP round, the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America. Following a comprehensive post-race review of the incident between Cars 6 and 31, IMSA imposed a two-race probation on Estre. But the Frenchman said Friday it won’t affect his approach or performance at Indianapolis or over the close of the season.
“I will do what I always do, which is trying to drive as fast as I can,” Estre said. “And if I can overtake, I will overtake. I think my mindset is quite clear. The mindset of the other (drivers) is something which I’m questioning. Obviously, they know that I’m on probation. But in the end, we are in a professional environment. Hopefully we can have a fair fight and try to enjoy the last two races.
“For sure, it’s important to get points for Porsche as a manufacturer, and of course for Laurin, who is driving with me now, and trying to be in the fight in a good position for Road Atlanta.”
Heinrich is less than a year removed from his first race in a Porsche 963 prototype, yet he finds himself Porsche’s best hope in this year’s GTP driver championship.
“It’s quite a unique situation, and certainly, I’ve grown a lot from being thrown into all of these different cars,” Heinrich remarked. “There’s always different engineering crews, different mechanic crews, who I have to get to know and to work with. I’ve been on the simulator with the Car 6 engineers, the Car 6 crew, and Kevin has done the same setup changes that I did on the sim to just see how our feedback correlates.
“I think Team Penske, they are used to getting new drivers acquainted, and I think we are well prepared.”
Earl Bamber was sixth fastest Friday in the No. 31 Cadillac he shares with points leader Aitken. The pair won at Indy last year with Frederik Vesti. Their best lap of 1:16.216 (115.287) was 0.452 of a second off the No. 6 Porsche’s benchmark.
“Of course, Laurin is second in the championship, so we will look at what he’s doing,” Aitken said. “But there are three Porsches out there and they’ve all been running well this year at various times. I’m sure he’ll do a good job and will be competitive, but it doesn’t change a huge amount for us.”
In the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, Tom Dillmann was fastest in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 he shares with Jeremy Clarke, with a lap timed at 1:16.545 (114.708 mph) that was just 0.781 second off Estre’s overall pace-setting GTP time. Paul Di Resta was next up at 1:16.830 (114.283 mph) in the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 co-driven by Daniel Goldburg.
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports ran 1-2 in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, with Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R just ahead of Alexander Sims in the No. 3 by 0.078 of a second. Catsburg’s best lap was clocked at 1:23.567 (105.069 mph).
GTD PRO features the closest title fight among the WeatherTech Championship’s four classes, with the top five competitors separated by just 67 points. Catsburg and Tommy Milner arrive in Indianapolis second in the GTD PRO standings, just 23 markers behind leaders Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi, who were seventh in class Friday in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
“This is a positive start; it’s always nice to start the weekend up front,” stated Catsburg. “Every race so far, we’ve been rolling off the truck in a really good window. It seems like the car works well here. I feel like everyone else might be focusing on other stuff, but to be honest, I feel like we’re quick. Let’s see if we can do the same thing tomorrow.”
Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) saw Trent Hindman (who co-drives with Danny Formal) top the timing screens in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 with a best effort of 1:23.630 (104.990 mph). GTD points leaders Russell Ward and Philip Ellis (No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3) were next up at 1:23.786 (104.795 mph), while Matt Bell demonstrated more potential from the Corvette Z06 GT3.R by running third in the No. 13 entry he shares with 13 Autosport owner Orey Fidani.
Saturday’s action at IMS includes another 90-minute free practice for the WeatherTech Championship followed by individual qualifying sessions for each class. The latter session, starting at 5:05 p.m. ET, is live on Peacock and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel.