Shift Up Now Athlete Hannah Grisham stood atop the podium with teammate Keawn Tandon - and followed up the victory with a third-place podium finish - during her debut weekend in a one-off run at the Lamborghini Super Trofeo race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) on September 19-21, 2024.
Grisham, who has been competing in her second season with Hannah Greenemeier for the Heart of Racing team in the Pirelli GT4 America Championship, expanded her resume at IMS in the two 50-minute races with Forty7 Motorsports in the Pro-Am class.
The race weekend began with practice on Thursday on the infield course of the historic Racing Capital of the World. Because of the GT4 America competition, Grisham was familiar with the track, a combination of the IndyCar oval and infield road course. She and Tandon immediately showed impressive pace, consistently running in the top five, and occasionally leading.
In qualifying on Friday, Tandon earned a class pole position, and Grisham followed it up with a fourth-place starting position.
Later that day, Tandon was lined up on the inside of row four - behind the Pro class drivers - for the start of race one. He slotted into fifth-place overall at the start, but fell back into his starting position as fierce battles raged throughout his stint for the Pro-Am lead.
With 30 minutes remaining in the first race, the pit stop window opened. Tandon handed the car over to Grisham, who took over running fourth in class while the other Pro-Am cars stayed out. Nearing the end of the pit window, the leaders anticipated a full-course yellow from an on-track collision and pitted. However, when the race stayed green, Grisham advanced to third in Pro-Am.
After another on-track collision and subsequent drive-through penalties - this time between the Pro-Am leaders - Grisham was promoted to the lead. By the time she crossed the finish line, she was showing top-five overall pace and had extended her lead to more than six seconds over the second-place car.
On Saturday afternoon, Grisham was behind the wheel for the start of race two, in fourth place in Pro-Am, and ninth overall. The first five laps of the competition were clean, and she moved into third in class during a heated battle, exchanging positions with the fourth- and fifth-place cars in the final laps before the pit window. When she handed the car over to Tandon, the duo was running fifth in Pro-Am.
A penalty to another competitor for a pit-stop violation slotted Tandon back into the fourth position in class. After many laps of pursuit, he was able to make a pass for third near the end of the race. With lapped traffic preventing him from making further advances, Tandon took the checkered flag in third place.
In Grisham’s debut Lamborghini Super Trofeo weekend, she was pleased to take home a victory and back-to back podiums.
"Thank you to the Heart of Racing for preparing me for this opportunity, and for encouraging me to take it," Grisham said. "And thank you to Forty7 Motorsport for bringing me on board to race to victory with Keawn at Indy!"
Grisham will return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on October 3-6, 2024, to compete in the final round of the Pirelli GT4 America championship, driving the No. 26 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 with Hannah Greenemeier.
