Acura MSR Wins 6H Watkins Glen in Late-Race Energy Thriller

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 checkered flag, 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 of Bamber, Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti in fifth.

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

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 points lead after its sister No. 7 Porsche of Nick Tandy crashed out with 1 hour and 20 minutes to go after Tandy lost control of the car over the Turn 1 curbing.

Lamborghini had its best-ever race with its SC63, which saw Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat finish seventh after leading the majority of the second hour.

Philip Eng brought the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 home in eighth, ahead of the ninth-placed No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie after running in the top-five in the closing half-hour.

JDC-Miller Motorsports’ Porsche, meanwhile, appeared to stop on track on the final lap and was not running at the finish.

In addition to Tandy’s accident, the No. 25 BMW of Marco Wittmann suffered a race-ending crash, which brought out the race’s seventh yellow.

Four 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 the halfway mark.

Brichacek was handed 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, with the final yellow appearing to thwart any possible challenge from the reigning GTP champion.

The No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca overcame two stop-and-hold plus-60 second penalties and early race nose damage to complete the LMP2 podium in third with Malthe Jakobsen taking the car to the line.

It came after both the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca and No. 74 Riley entry had drive-through penalties in the final hour, while the No. 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca of Sebastien Bourdais suffered a right-rear damage while coming to the final restart.

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, Heart of Racing Take GT Class Honors

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 1.199-second win over the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette of Alexander Sims, who along with co-driver Antonio Garcia, take over the class points lead.

Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler entered the weekend as championship leaders, faded in the closing stages while Heinrich was on energy save mode in his No. 77 AO Racing Porsche and ended up sixth in class.

The No. 65 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3 of Christoper Mies and Fred Vervisch, which came back from a nose change with 1 hour and 36 minutes to go, completed the class podium in third, ahead of the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 in fourth.

Fifth went to the No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg, who fought with Heinrich in the closing laps in shades of the previous race in Detroit.

Heart of Racing Team, meanwhile, 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 a late race charge through the field.

Gamble shared the GTD win with Casper Stevenson and Zach Robichon.

The No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari of Frederik Schandorff, Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy finished second in class, ahead of the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG, which was involved in an early race incident with GTD championship leaders Winward Racing that sent the its Mercedes-AMG to the garage for repairs, costing them more than ten laps.

Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje ended up 16th in class.

RESULTS: Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John