Porsche led a 1-2 with half the race gone in IMSA’s Six Hours of Watkins Glen, with the #6 Porsche of Nick Tandy leading, but it has started raining heavily at the circuit, with the race under full course yellow for a crash in the GTD classes at turn 10.
WTRAndretti’s Jordan Taylor, behind the wheel of the #40 Acura ARX-06, is second. Dane Cameron, in the sister #7 Porsche, was leading under this current safety car period but pitted as soon as the pitlane opened, and rejoined eighth. Currently third is the #63 Lamborghini SC63 of Matteo Cairoli.
Cameron’s teammate Felipe Nasr started the race sixth, with Tandy’s teammate Mathieu Jaminet fifth on the grid. Renger van der Zande, in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, took the lead from polesitter Louis Deletraz, J. Taylor’s teammate in the #40 Acura on the opening lap.
Deletraz slipped further down the field as Phil Hanson, in the #85 JDC Miller Porsche 963, passed him and then passed van der Zande, to take the lead.
Amid full course yellows and safety cars, Philipp Eng in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 took the lead. He soon lost this to Jack Aitken, in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R.
The pit stop cycle and strategy helped the two Porsches to cycle to the front, where Cameron ran behind the safety car in the lead. Cameron recently pitted but stayed on slicks as, under the safety car, it has now stopped raining, or at least eased off significantly. Tandy, now in the lead from J. Taylor and Cairoli, have stopped for wets.
In LMP2, Lucas Seth leads the class in the #20 MDK by High Class Oreca 07-Gibson. His teammate Dennis Andersen started the car eighth and over thew course of the three hours, it has cycled to the front. Lilou Wadoux is second in the #88 Richard Mille AF Corse Oreca 07-Gibson, with Toby Sowery onboard the #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca 07-Gibson third.
The LMP2 polesitter, P.J. Hyett in the #99 AO Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, lead the race for much of the first hour but received a drive through penalty for a false start on a restart from a full course yellow. Hyett’s teammate Paul Loup Chatin currently sits 10th in class.
Meanwhile in the GTD and GTD Pro field, all eyes were on their front row with Daniel Serra in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 and Alexander Sims alongside in the #3 Corvette Z06.
The race start was controlled and smooth with little to no position changes across the GT field.
For GTD pole-sitter Parker Thompson in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, who was sixth in the combined order of both GTD classes, begun his race under calm circumstances albeit surrounded by a fast field of GTD Pros.
Dirk Mueller in the #65 Ford Multimatic Mustang suffered a challenging problem pitted after his rear-left brake unit caught fire, and it needed to be attended to by the team.
The second full-course-caution period was called after the #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 driven by George Kurtz went into the rear of Roberto Lacorte’s #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 which hit the barrier and continued onto the gravel trap.
With Lacorte prompting a slight defence into the Turn 8 braking zone, no further action was declared as barrier repairs commenced, and the #47 was out.
After this caution period, Jack Hawksworth of the #14 GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Lexus took the lead after Serra took on all-four new tyres in his pitstop.
After changing the brake unit in the #65, problems for the #65 prompted a longer job in the garage although it did return to the track before the turn of the second hour.
Meanwhile the #64 Mustang ran positively in fifth place (GTD Pro) in the hands of Mike Rockenfeller.
Another brake-related issue occurred for the #3 Corvette with Sims at the wheel after he complained of long brake travel in the pedal.
In response, the Corvette team changed the front brakes with an efficient and drama-free pit stop.
As Sims pitted from second place, Ross Gunn in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage was tasked with fending off Rockenfeller for third position as both Lexus cars held 1-2 in the GT order.
The two Lexus RC Fs were comfortably in their respective class leads, with the top seven GTD Pros separated from the GTD field behind.
The threat of rain loomed with overcast conditions as a third caution period, deployed for Barbosa’s impact, brought back the GTD and GTD Pro protagonists together upon the restart.
On the restart, a spin by Spencer Pumpelly in the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage at Turn 9 came from minor contact with Simon Mann’s #21 AF Corse Ferrari.
This was costly to GTD leader Aaron Telitz in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus who had to take avoiding action and fell to fifth even though he did not seemingly incur any damage.
Unfortunately, his day was not eased by a drive-through penalty which was awarded for not maintaining pace on the restart for the preceding caution period.
A fourth caution hit before the halfway point when the #55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang of Levorato with significant front end damage after going off into the left-side barrier at the final corner, as Zacharie Robichon also lost his rear behind him in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
Both cars were out, even if Robichon brought it back to the pit lane.
Kenton Koch lead the entire GT field in the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG, followed by Ollie Milroy’s #70 McLaren 720S and Delvin Defrancesco’s #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan.
Telitz was in fourth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, followed by Simon Mann in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296.
