Shift Up Now Athletes Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham earned their fourth pole position of the season—two for Greenemeier, two for Grisham—and matched their best finish, coming in sixth in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) on September 18-20, 2026.
Competing in the tenth and penultimate event of the 2026 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC) season, “The Hannahs” piloted the Heart of Racing No. 26 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
The race weekend began on Friday with two practice sessions for the field of 44 cars (31 in the GT4 class). Grisham set the sixth-fastest time in practice on Friday morning, then Greenemeier followed it up with a fifth-fastest time in the second session that afternoon.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning, with Greenemeier behind the wheel. When her flying lap clocked in two-tenths faster than anyone else in the field, she secured her second pole of the season, and the fourth for the duo.
Later that day, the two-hour race began at 2:30pm ET with Greenemeier leading the field to green, on the inside of row one as cars ran two-by-two to the famous Yard of Bricks. Greenemeier immediately pulled cleanly into the lead heading into turn one, then she and the second-place car began to break away from the rest of the pack by the end of the first lap.
Within the first five minutes, they were still nose-to-tail, with a two-second lead over the rest of the field. But when a full-course yellow emerged for a car in the tires in turn seven, it closed the gap the two lead cars had built.
After a short cleanup, green-flag racing resumed. On the restart, Greenemeier got a solid jump on the two cars behind her that teamed up to attempt a bump draft into turn one. They nearly closed the gap by working together, but Greenemeier emerged cleanly back in the lead.
Just then, another yellow flag flew when a car further back in the field suffered a broken suspension. Once again, cleanup was short and Greenemeier had another strong restart, this time without challenge. However, less than one lap later, in true racing fashion, the old “yellows breed yellows” adage came to fruition. Multiple cars sustained damage as the safety crew went to work cleaning up the melee.
On the third restart, Greenemeier again led the field to green. This time, she was forced to defend from a car in her tow. When it moved to the outside, the pair ran side-by-said through turns one and two. Greenemeier was then able to get her car fully ahead by turn three to maintain her lead.
Finally, sustained green flag racing ensued, and Greenemeier began pulling a gap on the rest of the field, and running more than a second ahead of the second-place car before pulling the No. 26 car into pit lane for the team’s first pit stop, driver change, and new tires.
The Heart of Racing team made an early call to “back time” from the end of the race to avoid trying to save fuel during the last stint.
Grisham was only on track for a few laps before the next full-course caution flew, bringing a majority of the field into pit lane for fuel and tires. The No. 26 team opted to come back to pit lane for a splash of fuel, effectively leap-frogging all teams doing full pit stops. With teams now on various pit strategies, Grisham cycled to fifth place.
After the restart, she began to methodically work her way forward, both through passes and alternate strategies for her competitors. By the time she came to pit lane for her final stop with just 40 minutes remaining in the race, she had advanced to second place.
As planned, the final stop was just for fuel. Grisham then went out for what would be a long green-flag run as the various strategies began to play out. With 10 minutes remaining, she was in fifth place and closing fast on several cars ahead that were trying to stretch their fuel to the end.
The plan was working until a competitor ran out of fuel on track with just six minutes to go. The full-course caution brought the entire field back together for one last restart. To add to the difficulty, rain began falling at IMS just as the field prepared for the final one-lap dash.
Caught behind another competitor who was also running out of fuel coming to the green flag, and in amongst lapped traffic, and mixed-class competition cars, Grisham was able to hold on for a sixth-place finish, matching the No. 26 team’s best IMPC finish to date.
"Ultimately it was a good week in Indy," said Hannah Greenemeier. "The car was really fast and the team did a great job. It was cool to get another pole and do it at such an iconic track. The end result wasn’t what we wanted as a car in front of us ran out of fuel as we went to go for the last restart. We will keep pushing to get the results that we know we can achieve. Huge thank you to the entire Heart of Racing team for all their hard work and the opportunity to drive for such a great team and cause."
Next up, “the Hannahs” head to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the season finale of the 2026 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series, the Motul Petit Le Mans, on September 30-October 3, 2026.
