Mazda Stretches Fuel to 6H Watkins Glen Win

Photo: IMSA

Mazda Motorsports has scored back-to-back wins at Watkins Glen International with Harry Tincknell stretching the fuel in his No. 55 Mazda RT24-P in Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

Tincknell, who pitted with 53 minutes to go, edged out the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 of Olivier Pla by 0.995 seconds following a final-hour yellow and restart that shook up the running order.

The Englishman emerged as the leader after a single-tire stop and short fuel during the race’s fourth and final full course caution, after the then-leading MSR Acura DPi took a full fuel load and left-side Michelin tires.

It put the Mazda out front and en route to its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season.

Tincknell, who ran out of fuel on the cool-down lap, shared top honors with Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito.

Two years ago at Watkins Glen, Tincknell, Bomarito and Pla gave Mazda its first DPi victory in what kicked off a three-race win streak for the Multimatic-run operation.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura DPi of Filipe Albuquerque finished third on Sunday ahead of the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Pipo Derani, who made a late charge to fourth after being one of several cars to top off fuel during the final yellow.

Kamui Kobayashi initially crossed the line in fourth but was handed a post-race penalty equivalent to a drive-through after being deemed responsible for contact with the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Kevin Magnussen on the final lap. 

Magnussen failed to finish the race after running as high as third earlier in the running with co-driver Renger van der Zande.

WIN, Riley Take Prototype Class Wins

Tristan Nunez maneuvered his way to WIN Autosport’s maiden victory in LMP2, capitalizing on traffic on the final restart to hold off a hard-charging Mikkel Jensen.

Nunez took the No. 11 Oreca 07 Gibson to a 1.139-second win over the Dane in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca following a race-long battle between the two cars.

The former Mazda factory driver took top class honors with Thomas Merrill and class pole-sitter Steven Thomas.

The LMP3 class win went to the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Scott Andrews, in a commanding run for the trio.

Fraga held off the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier of Colin Braun for the class win, with the No. 91 Riley entry, which initially stayed out on the final yellow in a split strategy call, finishing third in class.

Garcia, Taylor Come Out on Top in GTLM

Corvette Racing celebrated victory in GT Le Mans with Antonio Garcia surviving a late-race challenge from the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE of John Edwards.

Garcia took the class lead with 30 minutes to go from teammate Nick Tandy in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, who dropped to third behind Edwards in the scramble.

The Spaniard finished just 0.845 seconds ahead of Edwards at the line.

It marked Garcia and co-driver Jordan Taylor’s first class win since the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona and the first for the Pratt & Miller-run squad at Watkins Glen since 2014.

Tandy ultimately finished fourth in class after the No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi managed to also get by the Englishman in the closing stages.

Turner BMW Wins GTD on Strategy

A well-timed stop by Turner Motorsport saw Bill Auberlen, Robby Foley and Aidan Read claim top class honors in GT Daytona.

Read pitted the No. 96 BMW M6 GT3 just moments before the caution was called, giving Auberlen track position over the majority of the field, which pitted under the yellow.

Auberlen finished 5.747 seconds ahead of  the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Bryan Sellers, who along with Madison Snow and Corey Lewis finished second.

The No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Ian James completed the class podium in third.

NTe Sport’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo was fourth in class after also being on the same strategy as the class-winning Turner BMW, while Daniel Morad brought the No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo home in fifth.

The class pole-sitting No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, which along with the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, exchanged the class lead throughout the first half of the race, finished sixth and eighth, respectively. 

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