Rahal, BMW Celebrate A ‘Greatest Victory’ at IMSA Battle on the Bricks

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• Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng scored the first win on the track in GTP by the BMW team after nearly two seasons of trying.

• BMW’s American team had won only one race, but that resulted from a technical advancement from second to first last year when the Porsche Penske Motorsport team was disqualified at Watkins Glen.

• A pair of factory-run entries in the World Endurance Championship, launched this year, have yet to win.

Bobby Rahal has won races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a variety of unusual circumstances. The one-two victory sweep on a rainy Sunday at the Speedway by his BMW team in the six-hour IMSA WeatherTech Championship race was no exception.

When Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng crossed the yard of bricks at the finish in their No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, it was the first win in GTP by the BMW team earned on the track after nearly two seasons of trying. Emphasizing a sound defeat of the entries from Porsche, Cadillac, Acura, and Lamborghini, the No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly were just 1.647 seconds behind their winning teammates at the checkers.

But five days before the first six-hour version of the Battle on the Bricks, just up the road in Zionsville, Ind., things did not look so bright at the headquarters of RLL Racing. A group of FBI agents raided the headquarters of the Rahal team, co-owned by David Letterman and Mike Lanigan. They were pursuing an investigation yet to be announced.

In the post-race media conference after his team’s one-two knockout, Rahal’s first words were telling. “Given all the craziness of this week, this may rank as our greatest victory as a team,” he said. “You know, I'm so pleased for these guys who have done a great job last year and this year.”

Perhaps the flatfoots at the FBI chose a week for their surprise visit when it could be anticipated Rahal and his team would be all-in at their shops in preparation for the hometown IMSA race. The only comment from the team on the day of the raid was that it had cooperated with the agents. Rahal declined to respond to questions about the incident after the race.

Sunday’s victory was sweet since BMW’s American team had won only one race. But that resulted from a technical advancement from second to first last year when the Porsche Penske Motorsport team was disqualified for a relatively minuscule violation at Watkins Glen. A pair of factory-run entries in the World Endurance Championship, launched this year, have yet to win.

“Our relationship with BMW Motorsport, I mean, these people work night and day just as we do as a team to try to get us to this position that we achieved today,” said Rahal. “I'm just so thrilled for everyone in our team and at BMW Motorsport because it's been, you know—it's been a tough year in a lot of respects.

“Last year, we had a number of podiums,” he continued, “and I don't know, maybe we thought it's a little easier than it is, and this year, it's been more difficult.”

Rahal is no stranger to unusual circumstances when winning at Indy. He won the Indy 500 in 1986 with a late-race overtaking of Kevin Cogan. After joining Rahal in the post-race celebration, Jim Trueman, his much admired and successful CART team owner, died from cancer just days later.

As a team owner, Rahal’s first victory at the Brickyard in 2004 was a rain-shortened affair won by Buddy Rice. As soon as the checkers were waved, a packed house of fans were told to leave the Speedway under an evacuation order due to an approaching tornado, which dumped a sustained deluge on the track and along the entire length of 16th Street.

The BMWs have been quick in qualifying and in races, but BMW M Team RLL had not been able to put all the pieces together until Sunday’s rainy race, which featured a one-hour caution midway due to standing water and drivers’ cars aquaplaning.

When the rain let up, the BMW team elected to go to slicks early on its regularly scheduled pit stop. When other teams had to make an extra stop to switch from Michelin rain tires, it set up an energy-saving drive at the finish for the BMWs that beat the third-placed Porsche Penske Motorsports team’s No. 6 Porsche 963 of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet to the line.

The two BMWs were in the mix throughout a race where all five GTP manufacturers led at least once, including the Lamborghini SC63 driven by Roman Grosjean in the wet. The No. 01 Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande led a race-high 52 laps, but suffered a tire problem following a late-race pit stop.

The winners handled the wet conditions for the first three hours and the dry at the finish due to consistency over long runs, said Rahal, which had been honed in a test at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. “We qualified fifth and eighth, I think it was, and we weren't the fastest. But come race day that didn't matter, did it? Pit stops were good. Strategy was good.”

As if Rahal and his team had not experienced enough unannounced inspections in one week, IMSA impounded seven of the GTP hybrid cars representing all five manufacturers after the race. Until a detailed inspection for compliance with the LMDh regulations is complete, results at Indy remain provisional. IMSA expects to finish its surprise inspection by Tuesday.

But nothing was going to interfere with the ebullient Rahal’s post-race plateau.

“This is huge,” he said. “This is what you really work for. I have to say, going into Petit Le Mans, we have to think very positively about that. That's a long race, as this one was. But this may be, outside of my Indy 500 win, this may be the most important win we've had. It's just so timely and it just represents all the effort that all of us have put in, these guys, RLL and of course BMW Motorsport.”