A Storied History; Momentum Vs. Rest; Michelin Endurance Cup Returns
By David Phillips
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The summer solstice is at hand. Time for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s annual date with one of the world’s most iconic racetracks: Watkins Glen International.
And what a date. For the first time since March’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, all four categories of the WeatherTech Championship series – Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) – will do battle on the track at the same time.
And what a track! Twisting and turning over hill and dale for 3.4 miles, the 11-turn road course presents formidable challenges for drivers, cars and teams. Sweeping turns? Check. Tight corners? Check. Booming straightaways? Check. Dramatic elevation changes? Check. A cornucopia of superb spectator vantage points? Check.
All this AND the nearby International Motor Racing Research Library along with a host of famous (or is that infamous?) watering holes including the Seneca Lodge, whose bar features a tree trunk pierced by scores of arrows, each – according to legend – shot by a race winner.
The Glen’s Storied Sports Car History
Did we mention history? Check! Sports cars and Watkins Glen have been synonymous since 1948 when Frank Griswold steered his Alfa Romeo 8C2900B to victory in a Watkins Glen Grand Prix staged on 6.6 miles of public roads in and around the town. Safety concerns eventually led to the construction of a permanent 2.3-mile road course in the hills overlooking Seneca Lake.
Opened in 1956, the circuit hosted all manner of racing from NASCAR to Formula 1, hosting the U.S. Grand Prix as well as top level sports car racing including the first Six Hours of The Glen in 1968. In 1984, IMSA first included the six-hour race distance on its schedule.
Although IMSA tinkered with the format – from 500 kilometers to 500 miles to three hours, sometimes exclusively for prototypes, other times for GT cars – in 1998 the race was restored to its full six hours for a combined field of prototypes and GTs.
Regardless of distance, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen or its shorter race variants has produced scores of classic races won by some of racing’s greatest drivers. Think Ickx, Siffert, Redman, Rodriguez, Andretti and Peterson; Holbert, Bell, Brabham, Fangio II, Pruett, Angelelli, Taylor, Albuquerque and Nasr … to name just a handful.
Legendary teams? Try Gulf Porsche, Scuderia Ferrari, Brumos Porsche, All American Racers, Dyson Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Action Express Racing, Mazda Motorsports, Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR), BMW M Team RLL and Porsche Penske Motorsport.
Iconic marques: How about Porsche, Ferrari, Riley, Dallara, Corvette, Cadillac, Ford, Mazda, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG, Acura, Aston Martin and BMW.
Momentum vs. Tanned, Rested & Ready
Your choice: Arrive to the Finger Lakes following a three-week stretch of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, a fortnight in France with test day, practice, qualifying and competing in la Ronde Infernale – the 24 Hours of Le Mans – all as a prelude to jetting to the Empire State for another full week of preparation before a six-hour race.
Or, rest up post-Detroit, review the first third of your IMSA campaign with your teammates in pursuit of more speed, reliability or both.
Each circumstance is unique, but the consensus appears to be the hectic four-week stretch of activity outweigh its downsides. Porsche often says “there is no substitute” as a tag line, and this line doubles in truth when it comes to volume of track time.
“If you have a good result (at Le Mans) that always helps,” said Urs Kuratle, Porsche Director Factory Racing, LMDh. “We have a ‘second team’ with a completely different team which is competing at Watkins Glen, a team based in Mooresville. I don’t think there is any disadvantage in doing the (Watkins Glen) race a week later (after Le Mans). So that’s manageable in our case because we have two teams.”
Kuratle also hailed Cadillac’s efforts with two singular teams running the Detroit-Le Mans-Watkins Glen gauntlet, in Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac Whelen.
“For the Cadillac teams which traveled all the way to Le Mans, I have to say I have big respect for those guys because, honestly, I don’t know how they manage to do the whole thing again,” Kuratle laughed.
As least one of those Cadillac guys foresees no trouble doing “the whole thing again” at Watkins Glen.
“It is going to be the fourth weekend in a row driving the Cadillac V-Series.R,” said Felipe Albuquerque, a two-time Watkins Glen winner who shares the No. 10 entry with Ricky Taylor. “We are having a great time driving, especially after Detroit, which was a good one for the No. 10 car.
I think of the year we won there with Ricky, and it was great memories with the team going to Seneca Lodge after the win. We want to repeat that!”
For two other manufacturers, the run of races benefits from a learning standpoint, even if their teams are different at Watkins Glen compared to Le Mans. Ford and Mercedes-AMG both have three cars apiece at Watkins Glen, with Ford’s split two in GTD PRO and one in GTD and all three in GTD for Mercedes-AMG.
“We are a year and a half into the program,” said Alex Allmandinger, Ford Performance Global Sports Car Manager. “We’re getting to understand the car a lot more now, but we’re constantly learning still. You know, the more miles you get.”
Stefan Wendl, Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing, added: “This was Mercedes’ first Le Mans in a while, certainly in the GT3 class. We’re continuing to learn and we can apply everything that we learned at Le Mans and every (other) race for this season and take that straight to Watkins Glen.”
IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Resumes
The 2025 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup resumes at Watkins Glen (points through Round 2 here) and will see some shakeups by way of the fact most GTP entries are only running two drivers versus three this race.
The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor lead the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun and Scott Dixon by eight points (31-23). Vanthoor and Dixon will resume their IMSA runs at Motul Petit Le Mans, leaving the full-season pairs to score points this race.
In LMP2, the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition (Tom Dillmann, Bijoy Garg) and No. 22 United Autosports USA (Paul Di Resta, Daniel Goldburg, Rasmus Lindh) ORECA LMP2 07s are deadlocked on 21 points.
Paul Miller Racing and BMW monopolize the top of GTD PRO with the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi four clear of teammates Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Jesse Krohn in the sister No. 48 car. Krohn is another driver absent this weekend, while De Phillippi is back as third driver in the No. 1 car.
GTD is a toss-up, with the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff, Ollie Millroy) one point clear of three entries: the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R and No. 21 Af Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
Porsche (GTP), BMW (GTD PRO) and Ferrari (GTD) lead the respective manufacturer standings. Points this race are awarded at the three- and six-hour marks. That will set the stage for the final two rounds at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
See the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen from noon ET on Sunday, June 22, live on network NBC. The race streams flag-to-flag domestically on Peacock, and internationally on IMSA.TV and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel.