De Phillippi “Felt in Control” Until Traffic Struck Towards End

BMW driver Connor De Phillippi “felt in control” of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen until traffic from other classes bunched up the GTP battle and led to a late change of lead in Porsche’s favor.

De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly finished second in Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race after a decisive closing-stint charge from Mathieu Jaminet.

The gap between the Porsche driver and De Phillippi was around six seconds with 20 minutes to go, but only five minutes later it was down to under two seconds, giving Jaminet the impetus to mount an attack.

The Frenchman eventually got past the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 on the straight between Turns 7 and 8 with just over five minutes to go, sealing Porsche’s second win of the year and BMW’s third second-place result.

De Phillippi said after the podium: “Given the action where we were after the first hour or so with the contact [with the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R] and all of the chaos, I think at that point, if you would have asked us if we would be happy with second, we’d say, ‘Yes.

“But obviously once you get yourself into that position… Nick drove a fantastic triple stint through the middle of the race. He definitely iron-manned that so it was impressive to see that.

“When I got in, I had to drive the wheels off it. We did an undercut. The team did a great strategy, came out in front, opened the gap and I was really confident with the car and felt in control.

“It’s IMSA racing, it’s the best in the business. It’s multi-class racing. All it took was two laps where I had LMP3 cars driving next to each other for two-and-a-half corners.

“You’re going to lose three seconds and there’s nothing you can do about it. When you’re the chaser, you have a 50/50 shot, you’ve just got to do the opposite of the guy ahead of you and you have a higher chance of getting it right.

“When you’re the leader, you have a bigger chance of getting caught out. That’s just how it is. For sure I’m frustrated with myself but in the end that’s just racing.

“The team has been doing a great job. We’re making steps in the right direction. I know the win is coming so we’ve just got to keep our heads down, keep it professional and keep moving forward.”

Jaminet agreed that traffic management played an important role in the deciding battle, although the No. 6 Porsche was also on a softer tire compound than the No. 25 BMW.

“When I came out of the pits, I knew the gap was quite big but as we know there were just so many cars out there, on pure pace and clean air we were not for sure as fast, or just matching,” Jaminet reckoned.

“It was all about traffic. I said, ‘OK, let’s take full risk.’ We agreed [on] this with the team before that let’s not think about the championship and let’s just go all in and see what happens.

“I saw with the traffic, lap after lap, I was just slightly coming tenth after tenth. Then I started to see him. It starts to feel good when you start to see the car in front of you.’

“I also know the feeling when you are the car behind and you also don’t feel as comfortable when you are the leader and you see that you are [being hunted].

“We came to Turn 7 and there was traffic in front of us. I saw a small gap on the inside, so I just basically went in and hoped it worked. I went back on power, hoped we had traction and it worked out on the exit.

“I made the pass and I had just the space for it, so it was a fair drive from Connor.

“It worked out and then a yellow came out, so this was also a bit of luck on our side.”

Despite missing out on a potential first GTP victory for BMW, De Phillippi and Yelloly were encouraged by taking the manufacturer’s third podium of the season.

“I think it’s been a collective effort,” said Yelloly. “The hours that the boys and girls back at base in Munich and in Indy have been tremendous.

“Also we were able to test here as did a few other manufacturers, and it’s one of the first circuits since we’re starting to have that upper trend and have a solid two-day test, and then have a couple of weeks to digest it all before we came back.

“I think it proves that each session we were in the mix around the front. We obviously want to keep that going in two weeks’ time in Canada as well.”