Acura MSR Wins 6H Watkins Glen in Energy Race

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Meyer Shank Racing claimed its second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory after Action Express Racing’s Earl Bamber was forced to pit on the final lap for energy in Sunday’s dramatic Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

Tom Blomqvist drove his No. 60 Acura ARX-06 to a narrow 1.880-second win over the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Louis Deletraz to take a dramatic win in an incident-filled race that featured ten full course cautions.

Bamber, who appeared to be en route to victory, ran out of energy as the white flag flew following a late-race caution for the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Charlie Eastwood, which stopped on track with suspension failure.

It set up a three-minute/two-lap dash to the finish, which saw the majority of the GTP runners elect to stretch their energy and not pit.

The No. 93 MSR Acura of Nick Yelloly, who was running second behind Bamber at the time, however, came in for a top-up as the field took the restart, and ended up finishing sixth, one position behind the No. 31 AXR Cadillac in fifth..

Blomqvist shared top honors with Colin Braun in the topsy-turvy Michelin Endurance Cup round that included an early race downpour.

Filipe Albuquerque completed the GTP podium with WTR co-driver Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Cadillac, while the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell claimed a surprise fourth place result after electing to pit just prior to the final yellow.

Jaminet and Campbell provisionally take over the GTP championship lead after its sister No. 7 Porsche of Nick Tandy crashed out with 1 hour and 20 minutes to go.

Lamborghini scored its best-ever result with its SC63, which saw Romain Grosjean finish seventh after leading the majority of the second hour.

Philip Eng brought home the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 in eighth, ahead of the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie.

The No. 25 BMW of Marco Wittmann, meanwhile, suffered a race-ending accident that brought out the race’s seventh yellow several hours earlier.

Three GTP cars failed to finish, with the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche of Nico Pino dropping out in a three-car incident that involved the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Wyatt Brichacek and Tom Sargent’s No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R just prior to halfway.

Brichacek was given incident responsibility.

LMP2 class honors went to the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson of Paul Di Resta, Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh.

Di Resta held off a hard-charging Dane Cameron, who made up more than five seconds after a slow final pit stop for his No. 99 AO Racing entry.

The No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca two stop-and-hold plus-60 second penalties and early race nose damage to complete the class podium in third.

Two LMP2 contenders were eliminated early on when Madison Snow turned around the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry of Rodrigo Sales, who was broad-sighted by Steven Thomas’ No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca amid the rain.

Both drivers escaped injury, with the TDS entry briefly returning to action.

Paul Miller Racing came out on top in GTD Pro, with Max Hesse and Dan Harper claiming their first career class victories

Harper drove the No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO to a XX-second win over the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette of Alexander Sims, who take over the class points lead.

Laurin Heinrich faded in the closing stages while being on fuel save mode in his No. 77 AO Racing Porsche and ended up sixth, behind the the No. 65 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3 of Christoper Mies and Fred Vervisch, who completed the class podium.

Heart of Racing Team took a surprise victory in GTD after the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth apparently ran out of fuel on the final lap.

It put Tom Gamble, in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, into the lead after charging through the field late in the race.

GTD championship leaders Winward Racing lost more than ten laps in the garage in the second hour after contact with the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG in the incident that involved Thomas and Sales.

More to come…

Source: Sports Car 365