Brian Herta Autosport Hyundai cars make 1-2 at the Brickyard
Michael Wilkins and Mason Filippi drove their #98 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N to victory in the TCR class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge 2-hour race at Indianapolis. It was the first win of the season for the pair that led home the #33 sister car of Robert Wickens and Harry Gottsacker.
After a chaotic start and an early full course yellow, the #99 Victor González Racing Hyundai rocketed from deep in the field to the lead and looked a potential winner. Until lap 22 when Morgan Burkhard was punted into the T1 grass by a GS competitor. Burkhard’s misfortune opened the door for the #98 BHA Hyundai to take the lead. Wilkins and Filippi duly maintained that lead for the remainder of the race, leading a 1-2 for the team ahead of the #33 Hyundai of teammates Gottsacker and Wickens. TCR championship leaders Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor finished third in the #17 JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS 3 LMS.
Although the #98 Hyundai led the final two-thirds of the race and enjoyed a relatively comfortable 4.4-second lead over the #33 sister car at the finish, Filippi was by no means comfortable. He had taken the helm from Wilkins on lap 26 and with no full-course yellows to slow the pace and the rate of fuel consumption, Filippi slowed by two or more seconds a lap to make the finish without a late splash of fuel.
“The last two laps we had five liters of fuel left,” said Filippi. “I lost the calculator on my dash, so I was just going off what the team told me to do. The car handled so well, we could save fuel and set a good pace.”
The JDC-Miller Audi battled back from an early penalty, as Miller was hit with a drive-through for jumping the start. Relegated to the back of the, the Audi stopped for fuel during the lap 22 full-course yellow, which enabled it to go the rest of the way on just one more stop. They ran much of the remainder of the race in second place before that second stop dropped them to fourth. Lapping two seconds or more faster than the cars ahead of him, Taylor caught and passed the # 72 Pegram Racing Audi in the closing laps but was too far behind the pair of leading Hyundai cars to threaten them.
Although second place enabled Gottsacker-Wickens to edge a little closer in the points standings, Taylor-Miller head to the season finale at Road Atlanta on October 11, with a 150-point margin over the defending champion #33 team.
Indianapolis – Race
- M. Filippi/M. Wilkins (Bryan Herta Autosport, Hyundai Elantra N), 71 laps
- H. Gottsacker/R. Wickens (Bryan Herta Autosport, Hyundai Elantra N), 4.427
- C. Miller/M. Taylor (JDC-Miller MotorSports, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1 lap
Championship points
- C. Miller/M. Taylor, 2750 pts; 2. R. Wickens/H. Gottsacker, 2600; 3. M. Filippi/M. Wilkins n, 2540
Picture: IMSA/LAT Images
