Campbell Out Front At Halfway After Incident-Filled Three Hours

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Matt Campbell led the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen for Porsche Penske Motorsport at the three-hour mark as the prototype field dove to pit lane under yellow after an incident and attrition-filled first half of the race.

The No. 6 crew short-filled Campbell’s Porsche 963 to help him leapfrog to the top of the GTP class field from 11th position during the race’s sixth full course yellow.

After recovering from an early spin, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R ran second in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque with Nick Yelloly in third aboard the pole-sitting No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06.

Jordan Taylor was fourth overall in the No. 40 WTR Cadillac with Philipp Eng’s No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 completing the top-five.

Romain Grosjean was on the move early, bringing his No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 up as high as fourth from 11th on the grid, utilizing the Italian prototype’s strength in wet conditions.

The Swiss driver led for most of the third hour, but lost ground on the most recent round of pit stops.

Renger van der Zande led the field to the green on a damp track, which saw multiple spins from GTP and LMP2 cars.

The Dutchman swapped the lead with a charging Felipe Nasr and the consistently pressing Jack Aitken in the opening stages.

Despite fighting at the head of the field and leading early laps, the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac faded from contention after losing time due to an air jack issue in the pits and being forced to serve a drive-through penalty for an unattended tire in pit lane.

The No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche of Nico Pino was taken out of the race after contact from the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG of Wyatt Brichacek sent both cars into the Turn 8 gravel trap, bringing out the race’s fifth yellow, with the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R collecting damage as well.

After a chaotic start to the race, which saw significant LMP2 attrition and multiple spins, Sebastian Alvarez brought his No. 8 Tower Motorsports car to the top of the class.

While the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition machine of Bijoy Garg sat ahead of Alvarez at the halfway mark, the Polish team was due a pit stop, leaving Tower as the net class leader.

Neil Verhagen led in GTD Pro, though the Paul Miller Racing driver sat at the head of the class off-sequence with the No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Frederic Vervisch behind in second.

Aaron Telitz ran third for Vasser Sullivan Racing with AO Racing’s Klaus Bachler behind in fourth.

The class pole-sitting No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 found the Turn 7 tire barrier at the two-hour mark with Sandy Mitchell behind the wheel, bringing out the race’s fourth yellow.

Mitchell would eventually bring out the most recent caution period after stopping on track.

Both Pro Paul Miller Racing BMWs dropped to the rear of the class after separately serving drive-through penalties.

The No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO was deemed responsible for a significant accident that triggered the race’s second yellow and the sister No. 48 machine was caught running the red light at the exit of the pit lane.

AF Corse’s Alessandro Pier Guidi sat at the head of the GTD field with the class pole-sitting No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Casper Stevenson in second.

Alec Udell quickly moved into the lead in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R over Zach Robichon.

Graham Doyle brought out the race’s caution after spinning his No. 45 WTR Lamborghini and colliding with the Turn 1 barriers just past the 30-minute mark as heavy rain began to fall.

The field quickly fell under caution again when Madison Snow spun Rodrigo Sales’ No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca, collecting unsighted Steven Thomas, with both LMP2 machines sustaining heavy damage.

Tobias Lutke was also collected in the Era Motorsports Oreca, with Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo taking damage while weaving through the wreckage.

Snow was handed a 60-second stop-and-hold penalty for incident responsibility.

Source: Sports Car 365