Brendon Leitch luckless in gruelling Indianapolis 8 Hour

New Zealand’s Brendon Leitch endured another tough race at one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues, failing to finish the Indianapolis 8 Hour after an incident late in the race caused terminal damage.

Leitch drove the No.61 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 with Adrian D’Silva (Malaysia) and Bastian Buus (Denmark) at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they qualified 16th.

The trio were vying for a Pro-Am podium finish in the Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli final until an incident in the final stint caused damage to the front splitter.

Buus was driving the car at the time when he went side-by-side with another competitor and was forced to shortcut the chicane. The vicious kerb launched the car a foot into the air and when it landed the front end suffered damage.

The car’s handling would only worsen and after several close calls the steering eventually broke after contact with another car, forcing the team to retire within the final hour.

It was a devastating end to the weekend for the trio, who were on course to feature on the Pro-Am class podium.

“Man, what a brutal day. The days building up to the race were really positive and the team did an excellent job and our practice pace showed we had massive potential to pull off a big result for Earl Bamber Motorsport and Porsche,” Leitch explained.

“An eight-hour race like that is a bit of a double-edged sword. You’ve got a lot of time to strategise and let the race play out, but it’s also a lot of time for things to go wrong. Unfortunately, the worst bit of our weekend came when it mattered at the very end.

“I’m gutted that we weren’t able to deliver Earl and the team a podium because I know we had the speed. Adrian did everything he needed to in his stints and Bastian was super quick too.

“My second-to-last stint was a tough slog on old tyres trying to fend off faster cars but the last stint I felt like I redeemed myself. That was a nice way to finish personally, but it still hurts to walk away from here without a trophy.”

The Indianapolis 8 Hour marked the last race for Leitch in North America this year but has ambitions to return in 2025.

“Although we’ve competed in two of the biggest GT races this year at Indianapolis, I feel like we’ve only just scratched the surface,” Leitch said.

“I know I’ve got potential to be a regular race winner here and I’d love to be back soon.”

More details of Brendon Leitch’s next racing activities will be announced later this week.