Earl Bamber and Hunter McElrea delivered a memorable double triumph for New Zealand drivers at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Bamber helping guide Cadillac to an outright win in the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s Battle on the Bricks and McElrea sealing LMP2 honours for TDS Racing.
The six-hour enduro marked Cadillac’s long-awaited return to victory lane, with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering V-Series.R shared by Bamber, Jack Aitken, and Frederik Vesti snapping a drought stretching back to Sebring in 2023.
The trio produced a commanding performance at Indy, where Aitken started from pole and controlled the decisive closing stint to bring the car home just 0.988 seconds clear of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque.
For Bamber, who built a seven-second advantage during his middle stint before handing the car back to Aitken, the win was a statement of resilience after a string of near-misses this season.
“It’s an amazing result,” Bamber said.
“Everyone at Cadillac has been pushing so hard all year, so to finally get that first win – and our first podium in a long time – is huge. The Whelen team has been incredible on the pit wall and in the lane. Hopefully, this opens the floodgates to more.”
The victory also marked the 30th IMSA win for Action Express Racing, which weathered seven full-course cautions, including a late green-white-checkered restart after an accident for the LMP2 entry.
Despite pressure from both Taylor’s Cadillac and the No. 60 Meyer Shank Acura of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, Aitken kept his composure to secure a 1–2 finish for Cadillac.
Meanwhile in LMP2, Kiwi Hunter McElrea made it back-to-back victories at the Brickyard, joining teammates Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen in the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca.
Starting from fifth, Thomas charged through the field before McElrea took over near the halfway mark, seizing the class lead. From there, he and Jensen fended off fierce competition, including a dramatic late-race shuffle caused by multiple United Autosports incidents and Sowery’s crash in the No. 04 car.
The closing laps saw Jensen defend brilliantly from Tom Dillmann’s Inter Europol entry, crossing the line less than a second ahead to secure TDS Racing’s third consecutive class win.
“Coming into the weekend, we knew we had the fastest car,” McElrea said.
“Finally, we executed a clean race, and the win was ours. Steven was incredible all weekend, Mikkel brought it home as he always does – I’m just so happy for the whole team. For me personally, to come back here and win again, it really feels like we own this place.”
The double success added another chapter to New Zealand’s growing influence on international sports car racing.
For Bamber, it was a long-overdue return to the top step with Cadillac.
For McElrea, it confirmed his status as a rising force in endurance racing. Together, they ensured the Brickyard belonged to the Kiwis.
The IMSA SportsCar Championship will conclude with the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 12.
Header Image: Mike Levitt/IMSA
