SRT Motorsports drivers Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer stood atop the Indianapolis Motor Speedway podium after scoring the first TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class victory for the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R on Friday in the Brickyard Grand Prix.

Bomarito qualified the car third and yielded to Wittmer to start the race. With 44 minutes elapsed in the two-hour and 45-minute race, Bomarito took over behind the wheel. Just over an hour later, Bomarito passed Nick Tandy in the Porsche 911 RSR for the lead and held it until the checkered flag.

“I was second in 2012, and I’ve got to tell you, I was pretty jealous watching those guys kiss the bricks,” said Bomarito. “To come back here and experience that first hand with the team…everybody that is part of this team was out there kissing the bricks. I hope, and I know, it drives everyone to push even harder between now and the race at Road America.”

'You don't get to kiss the bricks every day'

“Everything is coming together ever so slowly and it’s starting to show. The last two or three races you think, ‘Can we keep this momentum going?’ That’s always the question and you always try to work harder,” said Wittmer. “You don’t get to kiss the bricks every day.”

Patrick Long and Michael Christensen put Porsche North American on the podium with a third-place run in their No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, finishing just 0.348 seconds out of second.

Formula 1 veteran Giancarlo Fisichella earned the No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia its first GTLM pole on Thursday and teamed with Pierre Kaffer to finish second for Risi Competizione. During his run, Fisichella turned a new race lap record of 1:26.846.

Fisichella surrendered the lead to John Edwards just eight minutes into the race, but battled back into the lead 15 minutes later. He would give it back up for good while pitting under yellow at the 48-minute mark.

Bomarito and Wittmer had been slowly working their way up the podium in recent races after finishing third at Watkins Glen International and second at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

“It was very special. It’s great momentum, we have three podiums in a row,” added Bomarito.

The top seven GTLM cars finished on the same lap.

IMSA