Michelin and its technical partner teams from Dodge Viper SRT, Risi Competitizone Ferrari, Porsche North America, Corvette Racing and BMW Team RLL made it a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 Michelin day in GTLM in TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GTLM class competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The GTLM win completed a 3-2-1 podium climb for Dodge Viper SRT first-time winners Jonathan Bomarito of California and Kuno Wittmer of Montreal. In the last three events, they have finished in third place at Watkins Glen International, in second place at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and now celebrated a GTLM class victory in the Brickyard Grand Prix.
Finishing second in GTLM was the pole-winning Risi Competizione Ferrari driven by Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer. Completing the Michelin podium sweep was the Porsche North American Porsche 911 RSR driven by Patrick Long and Michael Christensen.
“In addition to its history and tradition, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway presents unique technical and tire management challenges. Our Michelin engineers collaborated closely with our technical partner teams as we all gained valuable data and insights, session to session and even stint to stint,” said Chris Baker, director of motorsports, Michelin North America. “As a result, we enjoyed a very successful race and will build upon this experience when we return next year.”
The Dodge Viper victory ended a four consecutive race win streak for Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia who finished fourth. They were followed by teammates Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner. The Corvettes were followed by a pair of BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTEs and the Dodge Viper sister car, all are Michelin technical partners.
Taking the overall race win was the Action Express Corvette DP prototype driven by Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa.