IMSA - 6 Hours of Watkins Glen Guide

The field for this year’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is set to equal the largest ever for the historic event at Watkins Glen International when the IMSA

 

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship visits for the six-hour race on June 25.

Fifty-seven cars are entered for the fifth event of the 2023 WeatherTech

 

Championship season. If that holds, it will tie the number of cars that competed in the Six Hours in 1984 – a race won by Al Holbert, Derek Bell and Jim Adams in the Porsche 962 GTP. That proved to be the first and only time that the Grand Touring Prototypes of that era competed in the six-hour classic at The Glen, but the reborn GTP class is back in 2023 as the headliner class with hybrid-electrified power.

 

All five WeatherTech Championship classes will be in competition together for the first time since the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. The Sahlen’s Six Hours also serves as the third of four rounds in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.

The entry list is HERE.

Fast Facts

• Circuit Type: 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course

 

• Classes Competing: Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), Grand Touring Daytona (GTD)

 

• Race Length: 6 hours

Timetable (CET)

Friday 23 June

22h30-00h00 : Free Practice 1

 

Satuday 24 June

14h00-15h45 : Free Practice 2

19h20-20h30 : Qualifying ➡️ Watch live video on Endurance-Info

 

Sunday 25 June 

14h00-14h20 : Warm Up

16h40-22h40 : Race ➡️ Watch live video on Endurance-Infofo 

Track Records

• DPi: Tom Blomqvist, Acura DPi, 1:29.580 / 136.637 mph, June 2022)
• LMP2: Gabriel Aubry, ORECA LMP2 07, 1:31.735 / 133.427 mph, June 2019
• LMP3: Colin Braun, Ligier JS P320, 1:39.967 / 122.440 mph, July 2021
• GTD PRO: Connor De Phillippi, BMW M4 GT3, 1:44.755 / 116.844 mph, June 2022
• GTD: Jack Hawksworth, Lexus RC F GT3, 1:44.499 / 117.130 mph, June 2018

2022 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen Winners

• GTP: New class in 2023 (2022 DPi winners: Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque, No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05)
• LMP2: Ben Keating/Mikkel Jensen/Scott Huffaker, No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07
• LMP3: Gar Robinson/Felipe Fraga/Kay van Berlo, No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320
• GTD PRO: Ross Gunn/Alex Riberas, No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3
• GTD: Roman De Angelis/Maxime Martin/Ian James, No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3

Storylines

• Reborn GTP Class Continues to Impress: The heralded Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class has been an unqualified success in its first season featuring hybrid-electrified powertrains paired with internal combustion engines in each car. Nine GTP entries are on the pre-event entry list for The Glen representing the four participating manufacturers: Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche. Three of the four manufacturers – Acura, Cadillac and Porsche – have already won races, and a different team has won each of the season’s four GTP races.

 

• The Band’s Back Together: The five classes of the WeatherTech Championship – GTP, LMP2, LMP3, GTD PRO and GTD – will race together for the first time since Sebring more than three months ago. That should lead to plenty of battles throughout the field as cars race for position within their class and faster-class cars have to carefully negotiate their way through traffic.

 

• Tight Points Battles Throughout: All five classes feature close competition at the top of their respective season standings. The largest margin for any leader is just 63 points (less than the difference between a first- and fourth-place race finish). It means that all the class championships remain wide open and puts a premium on qualifying and finishing well at The Glen.

 

• Michelin Endurance Cup Resumes: The Sahlen’s Six Hours marks the third of four events making up the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, where drivers and teams rack up points separate from the season championship at designated junctures of each endurance race. Points at Watkins Glen (five for being in first place in class, four points for second place, three points for third and two points for all others) will be awarded at the halfway mark and conclusion of the six-hour race. The competition in the Michelin Endurance Cup is extremely close across the board, with no team or driver leading their class by more than four points.

 

• Crowdstrike Endurance, Teamwork and Speed Award: A new honor in 2023, the Crowdstrike Endurance, Teamwork and Speed Award rewards the teams in each WeatherTech Championship class that post the quickest combined times of their best qualifying lap and fastest race lap for each driver at the Michelin Endurance Cup events. The winning team from Sebring – the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in GTP, No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07 in LMP2, No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 in LMP3, Corvette Racing C8.R GTD in GTD PRO and No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in GTD – will be recognized in prerace ceremonies at Watkins Glen.

Who’s Hot?

• 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport: Co-drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy have put together a string of three consecutive podium finishes in the No. 6 Porsche 963, including the manufacturer’s first victory of the new GTP era at Long Beach in April. The run has elevated the No. 6 to the top of the GTP standings.

 

• 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus: Talk about a run! Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat have built a streak of eight straight podium finishes in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 dating to the middle of the 2022 season. With one win, two seconds and a third to kick off 2023, they are leading the GTD PRO standings by 41 points heading to Watkins Glen.

 

• Le Mans Victors: Four drivers who claimed class wins June 11 in the centenary running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans are slated to race in the Sahlen’s Six Hours – each competing for a different team at Watkins Glen. Ben Keating (No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA in LMP2) and Nico Varrone (No. 17 AWA Duqueine D08 in LMP3) made up two-thirds of the Le Mans-winning Corvette lineup in GTE Am. Colin Braun (No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 in GTP) and George Kurtz (No. 04 Crowdstrike by APR ORECA in LMP2) teamed to win the LMP2 ProAm class at Le Mans.

Who’s Good Here?

• Auberlen, Barbosa and Lally: Three veteran drivers – Bill Auberlen, Joao Barbosa and Andy Lally – have each won the Sahlen’s Six Hours four times. Auberlen’s first win at The Glen came two decades ago and his most recent came in 2021. Barbosa’s four wins came in a six-year span from 2012-17. The most recent of Lally’s four victories came six years ago in the same GTD class in which he’ll drive this year.

 

• Heart of Racing Team: The Aston Martin team swept the victories in both GT classes a year ago in the weather-affected race. Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn are expected back to try and repeat in GTD PRO in the No. 23. Roman De Angelis will be back to defend in GTD in the No. 27 Aston, but he’s paired with a new full-season driver this year in Marco Sorensen.

Championships standings

Drivers / Teams GTP

1. Jaminet-Tandy (Porsche Penske Motorsports) 1307 pts, 2. Derani-Sims (Action Express Racing) 1282 pts, 3. Albuquerque-R. Taylor (Wayne Taylor Racing by Andretti Autosport) 1241 pts, 4. Bourdais-Van der Zande (Cadillac Racing) 1235 pts, 5. De Philippi-Yelloly (BMW M Team RLL) 1188, 6. Nasr-Campbell (Porsche Penske Motorsports) 1134 pts, etc.

 

Manufacturers GTP

1. Cadillac 1447 pts, 2. Porsche 1375 pts, 3. Acura 1344 pts, 4. BMW 1334 pts.

 

Drivers / Teams LMP2

1. Jensen-Thomas (TDS Racing) 730 pts, 2. Keating-Chatin (PR1 Mathiasen) 667, 3. Farano 629 pts, Hanley-Kurtz (Crowstrike Racing by APR) 623 pts, 5. Merriman-Dalziel (Era Motorsports) 586 pts, etc.

 

Pilotes / Equipes LMP3

1. Fraga-Robinson-Burdon (Riley) 380 pts, 2. Kern-M. Bell-Fidani (AWA) 344 pts, 3. Van der Helm-Bechtolsheimer (JDC-Miller MotorSports) 332 pts, 4. Goldburg 332 pts, 5. Mantello-Varrone-Boyd (AWA) 306 pts, etc. 

 

Drivers / Teams GTD Pro

1. Barnicoat / Hawksworth (Vasser Sullivan) 1415 pts, 2. Gounon / Juncadella (WeatherTech Racing) 1374 pts, 3. Bachler / Pilet (Pfaff Motorsports) 1324 pts, 4. Garcia-J. Taylor (Corvette Racing) 1297, 5. Riberas / Gunn (Heart of Racing Team) 1136 pts, etc.

 

Manufacturers GTD Pro

1. Lexus 1415 pts, 2. Mercedes-AMG 1374 pts, 3. Porsche 1324 pts, 4. Chevrolet 1297 pts, 5. Aston Martin 1146 pts, etc.

 

Drivers / Teams GTD

1. Sellers-Snow (Paul Miller Racing) 1244 pts, 2. Iribe-Schandorf (Inception Racing) 1182 pts, 3. Sorensen-De Angelis (Heart of Racing Team) 1171 pts, 4. Telitz-Montecalvo (Vasser Sullivan) 1106 pts, 4., 5. Gallagher-Folley (Turner Motorsport) 1023 pts, etc.

 

Manufacturers GTD

1. BMW 1378 pts, 2. Aston Martin 1348, 3. McLaren 1264, 4. Porsche 1251 pts, 5. Lexus 1210 pts, etc.