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UPDATE: Gounon inherits Indy 8 Hour pole after Random Vandals found underweight

Update: The No. 51 Random Vandals BMW has been moved to tenth on the grid for Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour after the car was found to be underweight in post-qualifying inspection. Lone Star Racing’s Mercedes AMG-GT3 EVO – originally qualified in second – will now start from pole Saturday.

After Mercedes-AMG led most of the sessions, one Mercedes driver suggested the BMWs had not yet shown their pace, and the Pole Shootout for the Indianapolis 8 Hour seemed to bear that out. BMW filled four of the top five positions and took pole courtesy of Phillipp Eng and Random Vandals Racing.

“When we rolled the car out of the truck, straight away it was so well prepared from Random Vandals, and we just had very clean practice sessions,” said Eng. “We improved the car step by step. I’m very happy for the guys because it’s my first time joining the team, first time being a Random Vandal, and I love it. It’s a long race ahead; luckily, I’ve been in the position before to be able to win the race in 2023 with WRT, which was great. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.”

With a 1m22.589s lap (106.31mph), Eng pushed the No. 51 BMW M4 GT3 that he shares with Varun Choksey and Bill Auberlen to the top. It was a welcome result after a generally tough GT World Challenge America season for Choksey and Auberlen. The other Random Vandals car, the No. 99 leading the GTWCA Pro Driver championship for Connor De Phillippi and Kenton Koch, will start fifth after De Phillippi qualified the car. Conor Daly will be the third driver in the No. 99.

BMWs looked ready to sweep the top three positions until Jules Gounon put in a 1m22.283s flyer in the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG Team Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO he’s sharing with Lin Hodenius and Maxime Martin. Gounon leapt to the top for a moment before being supplanted by Eng, only 0.012s better. The No. 80, which posted the quickest three-driver average of 1m22.747s in qualifying to make it into the pole shootout, will start second. 

The two Team WRT BMWs will start third and fourth, the No. 777 of Al Faisal Al Zubair, August Farfus and qualifier Raffaele Marciello leading the No. 46 qualified by Kelvin van der Linde and co-driven by Valentino Rossi and Charles Weerts. It was a close result for the two leading contenders for the Intercontinental GT Challenge Drivers Championship, Marciello trailing van der Linde by five points heading into Saturday’s race where a maximum of 25 points is on the line.

Another BMW – the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley, Justin Rothberg and Patrick Gallagher – was the only Pro-Am car to crack the top 10 in qualifying and make it to the pole shootout, and this guaranteed the team the Pro-Am pole. The team discovered a small leak and skipped the shootout., so the No. 29 will start 10th overall.

Just missing the pole shootout was Turner’s biggest rival for the GTWCA Pro-Am championship, the No.11 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven during the rest of the season by Blake McDonald and Matt Bell. Alec Udell joins them for the 8 Hour as McDonald and Bell try to pass Foley and Rothberg in the title fight. The DXDT squad will need to win and Turner finish seventh or worse to claim the title.

Scott Dollahite, Eric Powell and Stefano Gattuso missed the pole shootout, but not by much. The No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 will start 12th overall, the highest position of the two Am-class cars.

The Indianapolis 8 Hour kicks of at 12:20 p.m. ET Saturday, and will be carried live on RACER+.