Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy have won the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Six Hours of the Glen, after a hard fought battle with BMW and Cadillac, who finished second and third respectively.
Tandy started the #6 Porsche 963 on pole and retained the lead until teamcar #7 Porsche 963 jumped them through anticipating a caution, with Matt Campbell at the wheel. The Porsches ran 1-2 for a while, before the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R crew jumped them via strategy to take the lead at the halfway mark.
While the other Porsche fell by the wayside with hybrid issues, Jamninet and Tandy took the lead back and then kept it. However, with two hours to go, the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 team took the lead through an aggressive undercut strategy.
Connor De Phillippi, at the wheel, was able to extend the lead up to 10 seconds. However, all three leading cars needed one more stop in order to make it to the end. Pipo Derani pitted the #31 Cadillac first in an unsuccessful attempt to undercut the BMW and Porsche. De Phillippi responded and also pitted the following lap, emerging with a 10 second lead over the Brazilian.
Tandy, meanwhile, kept the Porsche out, making their final stop shorter. He finally pitted and handed the car over to Mathieu Jaminet, who immediately set about reeling in De Phillippi, around seven seconds up the road.
Initially it looked as if Jaminet wouldn’t be able to catch the American, but the gap then started coming down. Soon, it was down to just a few seconds, then a second, then, with under 10 minutes to go, below a second.
Try as he might the Frenchman couldn’t find a way through. However, he was then able to use the traffic of lower classes on the back straight to pass De Phillippi, who did everything possible to stop the Porsche driver passing him. It was all for nowt though, as Jaminet swept through into the lead and the win.
In the final few minutes, Bill Auberlen then rolled his #95 Turner BMW M4 GT3, which caused the race to end under caution, giving Jaminet the win.
With De Phillippi second, Pipo Derani brought the #31 Cadillac home third. The car led for a significant period of time with Jack Aitken and Alexander Sims at the wheel, but ultimately didn’t have the pace to challenge for the win.
Fourth was the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, who similarly did not have the pace to challenge for the podium. The car led for a while mid race but got a pit lane speeding penalty, putting an end to hopes of a podium.
And fifth was the customer #5 JDC Miller Porsche 963 of Mike Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm, finishing 2 laps down in a great display in only the car’s second race. Van der Helm and Rockenfeller kept their noses clean and while they didn’t have the pace of the winning factory Porsches, they were able to finish fifth thanks to consistent driving.
In LMP2, Ben Hanley, George Kurtz, and Nolan Siegel won in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca 07-Gibson, after a fierce race-long challenge from the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07-Gibson of Christian Rasmussen, Ryan Dalziel, and Dwight Merriman, who finished second, and Paul-Loup Chatin, Ben Keating, and Alex Quinn in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07-Gibson, who finished third.
Kurtz started the car fourth, with Keating in second. Keating soon took the lead, but came a cropper when Salih Yoluc, in the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson, tried an ambitious move into the last corner for the lead. This caused Keating to spin, and put polesitter Steven Thomas into the wall.
From thereon, it was a battle between the three podium-finishing cars, with Hanley prevailing from Rasmussen and Chatin in the end.
Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson, and Josh Burdon won the LMP3 class in the #74 Riley Ligier JS P320, from Garett Grist, Daniel Murry, and Dakota Dickerson in the #30 Jr III Ligier JS P320. Wayne Boyd, Nico Varrone and Anthony Mantella finished third in the #17 AWA Duqueine D08.
It was a double win for Vasser Sullivan’s Lexus crew in the GTD classes, with Aaron Telitz victorious overall in the two combined classes, driving the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 along with his teammates Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson.
Behind him was the teamcar, #14 Vasser Sullivan, with Jack Hawksworth on board, leading home the GTD Pro field. The car, also driven by Ben Barnicoat, started third in GTD Pro but was able to overcome the challenge from Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, who finished second in class.
Third in GTD Pro was Antonio Garcia, driving the #3 Corvette C8.R along with Jordan Taylor.
Second and third in GTD went to Madison Snow, in the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, and Jan Heylen, in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R.
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