VisitFlorida.com Racing Wins Wet and Wild 6H Watkins Glen

Photo: DarrenPierson.com

VisitFlorida.com Racing broke through to become the first repeat winner in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season, following Sunday’s wet and wild Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

The No. 90 Corvette DP of Richard Westbrook took the checkered flag of the rain-soaked race under caution, following a series of late-race yellows and a red flag for numerous incidents, as well as track flooding.

Westbrook inherited the lead with less than ten minutes remaining when the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford of Joey Hand pitted for a fuel-only stop, just moments prior to a crash by the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, which brought out the race-ending caution.

It marked back-to-back victories for Westbrook and co-driver Michael Valiante at Watkins Glen, which has seen the pairing take over the Prototype class championship lead.

Despite the late-race stop, Hand and Scott Pruett came home second, with the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi completing the overall and P class podium in third.

Barbosa briefly led in the final hour, following a heavy crash for the then-leading No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor, who went off at Turn 10 and saw Hand spin his Riley-Ford in avoidance.

Taylor was one of three P class cars to not finish the race, with the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda dropping out after suspension issues with two hours to go and the DeltaWing encountering early-race gearbox woes.

The race also saw a 14-minute red flag period in the fifth hour for track flooding, following heavy rain.

The Prototype Challenge class saw Starworks Motorsport collect its second consecutive win, following a hard-fought battle for top honors in the closing stages.

Renger van der Zande held off a hard-charging No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of Tom Kimber-Smith for the win.

The Dutchman exchanged the lead with the No. 16 BAR1 Motorsports entry of Martin Plowman, which had led with all three of its drivers but faded in the wet final 30 minutes.

Plowman, Daniel Burkett and Matt McMurry came home third, behind PR1/Mathisen’s Kimber-Smith, Mike Guasch and Andrew Palmer, who have closed to within one point of CORE autosport in the title race.

Van der Zande shared the winning Starworks entry with Mike Hedlund and Alex Popow, who both collected their first class victories of the season.

The No. 54 CORE car of Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and James Gue finished fourth after not contending all race, leaving the four-time and defending class champions still winless this season.

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