Watkins Glen Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

***Meyer Shank Racing claimed back-to-back victories in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with its No. 60 Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun picking up their first series win since the 2023 season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans. It marked the teams’ 20th class win in IMSA competition.

***It came in an energy race that saw both the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber and Nick Yelloly’s No. 93 MSR Acura forced to pit in the closing two laps.

***Yelloly said: “Unfortunately we just didn’t have the fuel like the 31 car to do the extra lap or so, so we were a bit disappointed about that. That’s the type of racing we have where you have to push it right to the limit and we got it slightly wrong today. But on the other hand the alternate strategy with the 60 Acura, they managed to win the race.”

***The No. 60 Acura overcame a broken windshield wiper early in the race for Braun, which proved to be a challenge amid the downpour. Braun said: “Debris hit the wiper or something got lodged there, but I had no wiper for the whole race. With the heavy rain coming down it was really challenging when we weren’t going too fast to see. Restarts, obviously, where all the spray is coming up, I had to kind of rely on the spotter telling me what was on my left and right, and looking out the side window more than the front windshield because I could not see anything.”

***Nearly half of the race – 2 hours and 53 minutes – was run behind the safety car, totaling ten full-course cautions, which broke the record for the most yellows in the race’s history since being part of the WeatherTech Championship.

***Runner-up finisher Louis Deletraz said: “For sure it was a bit frustrating to not get going and so much time under yellow, so especially it’s hot in the cars because when you don’t have speed, just the cockpit and the heat is quite hard. I’d have liked more green running, but we had a good day, and it is what it is with IMSA racing.”

***Deletraz and Jordan Taylor claimed their best result of the season, in second, while teammates Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque’s third place result gave Wayne Taylor Racing its first-ever double podium finish since expanding into a two-car GTP operation last year.

***The team overcame a mid-race power outage in the No. 40 pit box while the car was on pit road. “We had a meltdown in our timing stand because it was so hot,” said team owner Wayne Taylor. “The plug got hot and burned through our communications system mid-race, making it difficult to speak with our drivers. It was at a critical time in the race. As fast as it went down, the guys built it back up. They are like rocket scientists.”

***A fourth place result for Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell has seen the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport duo take over the GTP championship lead, 12 points ahead of teammates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, after the No. 7 Porsche 963 crashed out in the hands of Tandy with 1 hour and 20 minutes to go. While Tandy was unhurt, Porsche Penske managing director Jonathan Diuguid revealed post-race that it was a 25-g impact into the Turn 1 barriers.

***Diuguid said: “Thanks to advances in race car safety, he came out of it unharmed. While he’ll likely feel the effects for a few days, he’s doing well. This underscores how much progress has been made in modern race car safety, an achievement that’s vital for the sport.”

***Both factory Porsches struggled for pace in the race amid 90-degree Fahrenheit ambient temperatures. “We were strong in the early stages when conditions were tricky and even managed to take the lead,” said Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle. “But once the weather became more like summer, our chances diminished, as we’d already anticipated from the performance data.”

***The No. 6 Porsche replaced its rear deck on a yellow flag pit stop in the second hour after the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde ran into the rear of Jaminet. The BMW’s day came to an early end when van der Linde’s co-driver Marco Wittmann crashed out in Turn 6 in the fourth hour.

***Lamborghini had its best-ever race in top-level prototype competition, with its SC63 finishing seventh after leading 23 laps, mostly in the second hour. Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat completed the race with a non-functioning air conditioning system, which saw Grosjean visibly exhausted at the end of his two stints.

***United Autosports’ Paul Di Resta, Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh took over the LMP2 points lead following their second class win in three races so far this season, with Di Resta holding off a hard-charging Dane Cameron for victory.

***Di Resta said: “I think on the back of a big break and a difficult end to Sebring, it was job done. We’ve come here, it’s been a difficult weekend, actually, but we re-baselined ourselves this morning, went with something that we trusted and knew, and credit to have that structure there behind us. I think everybody did their job. We had one hiccup in a pit stop, a wheel nut which put us back in the queue, but we fought our way through steadily and controlled it at the end.”

***The No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson of George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen and Toby Sowery finished third in class despite an early race incident for Kurtz, which damaged the nose while in the rain that led to an unauthorized pit stop to Michelin wet-weather tires and an ensuing stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty, followed by another stop-and-hold plus-60 for running the red light at pit exit.

***TDS Racing repaired its No. 11 Oreca, which was involved in a massive head-on accident with the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry of Rodrigo Sales at the end of the opening hour in the rain. The French squad, however, later parked the car after verifying it was successfully rebuilt for the next round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

***While not getting to race on Sunday, TDS driver Hunter McElrea revealed on social media that he was in the hospital for two days in the run-up to the event due to undergoing surgery. “Somehow things turned around and I recovered in time to get cleared and fly to the track for Saturday.”

***Paul Miller Racing claimed its first GTD Pro win since Virginia International Raceway last year, with Max Hesse and Dan Harper becoming first-time WeatherTech Championship winners in only their fifth race starts.

***The sister No. 1 car, which ran in contention for much of the race, was classified in eighth in class after receiving a mechanical black flag for failure to adhere to tire operational requirements, which was initially ignored and led to a drive-through penalty.

***The GTD Pro pole-sitting No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 encountered multiple issues in the race, leading to an early retirement after Sandy Mitchell slowed on track in the second hour, which was followed by an off-course excursion in Turn 7 before going behind the wall and returning only to again pull off the track.

***The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 lost more than ten laps after Aaron Telitz stopped on track and required a tow back to the pit lane after losing his left-rear wheel, which was not tightened properly.

***With the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler finishing sixth in class after a rough-and-tumble race, the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports duo of Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia have taken over the GTD Pro points lead, 62 points ahead of the AO duo.

***Heart of Racing Team took its second consecutive class win at Watkins Glen, but this time in GTD, after its GTD Pro triumph last year. It came after the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Jack Hawksworth ran out of fuel on the final lap, which enabled the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Tom Gamble to slip by for top honors with co-drivers Zach Robichon and Casper Stevenson.

***Gamble said: “I think before the yellow came out at the end, it was looking a bit better because I had just got past the Rexy Pro car. So I was hunting him down, and then the yellow came out, and obviously he got put back in front. So made my life a little bit more difficult. And then the that last two laps were just — I think my heart was about 190 BPM for the last two laps. When I saw the Lexus, I think it had run out of fuel. It was a good feeling.”

***Hawksworth said: “A heartbreaker today. Maybe the worst day in the history of this team in terms of the way it all ended. The No. 14 Lexus was running a good race, and they had an issue. We had a fantastic race on the 12 car side. We got track position and our Lexus was working well, managing the race.”

***The majority of the GTP field are on track at Watkins Glen on Monday for a Michelin tire test, the final test with the new ‘Pilot Sport Endurance 2026’ range of slicks that will debut in the WeatherTech Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship next year.

***Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the Chevrolet Grand Prix at CTMP, which will be a LMP2 headline race along with GTD Pro and GTD entries. The race is set for July 11-13.

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