Mercedes-AMG GT3 Teams Bring “Brickyard” Double-Win Momentum to this Weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Teams Bring “Brickyard” Double-Win Momentum Back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this Weekend’s Dual Intercontinental GT Challenge and Fanatec GT World Challenge Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana - Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams bring a double dose of race-winning momentum at the “Racing Capital of the World” back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) this weekend for the fourth annual running of the Intercontinental GT Challenge Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS. The full weekend of competition on the 2.439-mile IMS road course also includes the season-ending rounds of all 2023 SRO Motorsports America championships in a packed Thursday through Sunday schedule. The highlight is Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS that is both the penultimate round of the global Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) series and the double-points finale of the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge America season.
Six Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams take up the challenge of Saturday’s eight-hour endurance race with four of them designated as points-earning IGTC entries. The quartet includes two Mercedes-AMG Performance Teams from Hong Kong, defending Indianapolis 8 Hour winners Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing and Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing. Craft-Bamboo gave Mercedes-AMG its first overall IGTC victory on American soil in last year’s Indy 8 Hour with the trio of Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Daniel Morad co-driving to victory.
Juncadella co-drives the No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 this weekend with Maro Engel and Luca Stolz. GruppeM is set for its first 8 Hour IGTC round in the U.S. since finishing second with one of its two entries in the 2019 running of the race that was the last of three editions held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca before the switch to Indianapolis in 2020.
In other racing action at the Brickyard this weekend, six Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams are also entered in the season-ending GT America powered by AWS doubleheader. A single driver sprint series featuring a pair of 40-minute races Friday and Sunday, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 has been the car to beat all season in GT America.
Four different race-winning teams combined to give Mercedes-AMG an early lock on its second-consecutive GT America manufacturer championship one race ago at Sebring International Raceway. Now, two of those teams - TKO Motorsports and CRP Racing - take the battle for the GT America driver and team championships down to the wire at Indy.
Following practice sessions today for all series, including a nighttime session for the Indianapolis 8 Hour, the weekend’s first races for GT America and Pirelli GT4 take place Friday.
Qualifying for the Indy 8 Hour highlights Friday’s schedule, including the Top-10 Pole Shootout at 6:45 p.m. EDT.
Saturday’s featured Indianapolis 8 Hour goes green at 12:15 p.m. EDT with the checkered flag coming down soon after the sun does eight hours later at 8:15 p.m. EDT.
The weekend concludes with the final GT America and Pirelli GT4 races of the season Sunday morning.
All of this weekend’s races can be viewed live on the GTWorld YouTube channel.
Daniel Juncadella, Driver - No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It’s pretty exciting to be back at Indy after a very successful IMSA round. That obviously brings a lot of momentum into the weekend. It’s been a strong season so far, both this year and last year, and I am taking it all race-by-race and trying to deliver my best. That’s the way to keep scoring good results. The Indy layout is cool. It suited the Mercedes-AMG GT3 quite well in the IMSA round and let’s hope we are competitive again. I’ve raced several times with GruppeM, in DTM in 2021, some IGTC rounds last year and the Spa 24 Hours this year. I feel we deserve our bit of luck after just missing out in a couple of events we did together. I am really hoping I can win my third race at Indy with a third different team. That would be great. Luca and Maro are obviously very strong teammates by my side, and that is going to help have a strong weekend.”
Maro Engel, Driver - No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I am definitely looking forward to heading back over to the U.S. It’s always special and obviously Indianapolis is a place with incredible heritage. It’s a technical track for sure and one where two years ago we were in contention until late in the race, so hopefully we can have a strong run this weekend. The layout is for sure more about the corners, which suit the Mercedes-AMG GT3, so all of the medium and high-speed corners are places where the car will be good. The recent success in IMSA is definitely great but that is in a different series with different tires and different BoP (Balance of Performance). But we feel confident, we have a strong team and a very strong lineup with Dani and Luca on board. I am very happy with our preparations and now we look forward to rolling into the race weekend.”