IMSA – Action Express and BMW shine at Watkins Glen

We had to wait until the sixth race of the season, contested on the Watkins Glen track (New York), to see the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-VR defeated in IMSA Sportscar Championship.

The cutting-edge prototype in the North American series will never have been able to rise to the forefront of the third round of the North American Endurance Cup, victim of a steering problem at the start of the race, forcing Ricky Taylor to enter the pits at the end of the first lap. The No. 10 will lose seven laps in the mishap.

Victory was finally decided at the very end of the race between the No. 85 Oreca – JDC-Miller Motorsports of Simpson – Goikhberg – Miller and the Cadillac DPI-VR n°5 – Action Express Racing de Barbosa – Fittipaldi – Albuquerque.

At the last restart a little over 20 minutes from the finish, Simpson took the advantage over Barbosa and widened a gap which was ultimately reduced to nothing by traffic. Barbosa made the decisive overtake in the last ten minutes to finally return to success.

The podium is completed by the No. 24 Mazda RT55-P of Bomarito – Nunez – Pigot, which held up well to the return of Olivier Pla, associated with José Gutiérrez in the No. 52 Ligier – PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. The duo Goossens – van der Zande (Riley/Multimatic n°90 – VisitFlorida Racing) completes the top 5.

Ricky and Jordan Taylor finally placed the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-VR – WTR in sixth position. If the Ligier DPi-Nissan n°2 and n°22 of the Tequila Patron ESM had shone in qualifying and at the start of the race, the two prototypes were forced to abandon, the n°2 due to an accelerator problem, the n°22 °XNUMX after loss of oil pressure.

Dominant since the free practice sessions, the Oreca FLM09 n°38 – Performance Tech Motorsports de French – O’Ward – Masson logically wins the PC category.

BMW returns to the top

In GTLM, the fight was once again very close, and BMW returned to victory in the category, which had seen Ford and Corvette share victories since the 24 Hours of Daytona (Florida). M6 n°25 – Team RLL de Auberlen – Sims won ahead of the No. 67 – Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT from Briscoe – Westbrook and No. 66 – Chip Ganassi Racing from Hand – Müller.

Oliver Gavin et Tommy Milner placent la première Corvette C7.R n°4 au pied du podium devant les deux Porsche 911 RSR n°912 de Vanthoor – Bruni, victime d’une crevaison en fin de course, et n°911 de Pilet – Werner.

In GTD, Acura NSX GT3 n°93 – Michael Shank Racing de Legge – Lally wins ahead of the #488 Ferrari 3 GT63 – Team Corsa of Nielsen – Balzan – Cressoni and the No. 6 BMW M3 GT96 – Turner Motorsport of Marks – Klingmann.

Race ranking

Find the report of the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, in issue 2121 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.