6H. of Watkins Glen – Albuquerque offers victory to Wayne Taylor Racing

Despite a sunny weekend, rain was expected for the end of the 6H race. from Watkins Glen. This heated up the spirits before the money time usual as the radars of the different teams took on clouds, everyone knowing the importance of positioning themselves in case a scenario similar to the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the opening round of the 2022 WEC season, was repeating itself. As a reminder, the Florida round of the World Endurance Championship ended in its seventh hour (instead of eight) due to a risk of storm, which ended up hitting the circuit.

In fact, American law requires a 30-minute interruption if thunderstorms appear nearby. This happened once again at Watkins Glen this Sunday, when the race had just been marked by the violent exit from the track of the #3 Lamborghini Huracan GT39 driven by Jeff Westphal. The Italian car found itself propelled off the track by the LM P2 of Fabio Scherer, the Swiss himself avoiding that of the Racing Team Nederland driven by Dylan Murry, hitting the rail a little further away, in a racing event similar to what happened recently in 24 Hours of Le Mans between François Perrodo and Alexander Sims' Corvette. A spectacular accident from which Westphal emerged unscathed.

The final sprint for Albuquerque

After a long uncertainty, the race finally started again for 35 minutes. The Meyer Shank Racing of Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis then led the race ahead of the Wayne Taylor Racing of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor. Sébastien’s Cadillac No. 01 Bourdais and Renger van der Zande was lying in wait in third. The wild beasts were released 21 minutes from the checkered flag after a phase under Safety Car, on a track that had been refreshed and made partially wet by the passage of rain. Albuquerque attacked Blomqvist and took control of an authoritarian overtake on the outside! The Portuguese maintained his advantage until the checkered flag despite the pressure from the British-Swede to achieve his third success on the New York circuit.

For DragonSpeed ​​and the Montoyas, this race restart was a disaster. While the American team was leading the LM P2 category, Juan Pablo had to stop to give way to his son Sebastian, who had not completed enough driving time during the race. The No. 07 Oreca 81 suffered a penalty immediately, provoking the anger of the former driver of Formula 1 in the stands. This gave first place and victory to the #52 of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports (Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, Scott Hufaker) by a whisker ahead of the #8 of Tower Motorsport (John Farano, Louis Delétraz, Rui Andrade). Racing Team Nederland n°29 (Frits van Eerd, Giedo van der Garde, Dylan Murry) completed the podium.

The No. 320 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P74 (Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga, Kay van Berlo) won the LM P3 category ahead of the No. 54 of CORE Autosport (Jon Bennett, Colin Braun, George Kurtz) and the No. 36 of Riley Motorsports. 'Andretti Autosport (Jarett Andreti, Gabby Chaves, Josh Burdon) for a hat-trick for the French manufacturer.

BMW and Mercedes win in Grand Touring

In GTD Pro, while the Ferrari No. 62 of Risi Competizione was in the lead, Daniel Serra had to go to the pits five minutes from time, followed by the Porsche n°9 of Pfaff Motorsport of Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, short-lived leader. This favored the #25 BMW of Team RLL (Connor de Phillippi, John Edwards, Augusto Farfus), taking advantage of its offbeat strategy. L'Aston Martin Heart of Racing Team's #3 Vantage GT23 (Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas) and the unfortunate #62 Ferrari finished on the podium.

On the GTD side, it was Winward Racing which hit the jackpot with the No. 57 of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Marvin Dienst. La Mercedes-AMG GT3 beat the No. 3 Aston Martin Vantage GT27 of the Heart of Racing Team (Roman De Angelis, Maxime Martin, Ian James) and the McLaren 720S GT3 n°70 from inception racing (Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy, Jordan Pepper).

At least, on the track. Post-race checks ultimately led to the downgrades of the two victorious cars in Grand Touring, handing both victories to Heart of Racing's Aston Martins. 

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Discover the 6H rankings. from Watkins Glen HERE