SportsCars

Westbrook, Valiante take Watkins Glen

Valiante leads
Valiante leads

A fast, rainy, IMSA Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen ended under the caution flag, as a late-race crash couldn't be cleared in time to allow for a green flag finish.

But it's still a win for the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype, driven by Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante – the first repeat winner of the six-race season in the Prototype class. The team also won this race last year, and has moved into the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship points lead, five points ahead of Barbosa and Fittipaldi.

The path to the No. 90 team's win was cleared when leader Joey Hand, in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost Riley he shares with Scott Pruett, had to make a quick pit stop for fuel. And an hour earlier, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, driven by Ricky Taylor, spun on the soggy track and hit the tire wall, causing enough damage to end their day, dropping them to 28th overall in the 34-car field.

Second in Prototype was Hand and Pruett in the Ganassi Ford, followed by Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP, co-driven by Christian Fittipaldi.

"I don't know if we had the pace the other leaders had today," said Valiante, "but we tried to keep our heads down and stay out of trouble."

Pruett and Hand matched their season-best result with a second-place finish after the late pit stop.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]"It would be nice to finish one position higher, and we were certainly capable of that today," said Pruett. "But with the changing conditions and the yellow flags, it was almost anyone's race at the end."

"It was crazy and it was hectic, but that's what I live for," said Hand, "That's why I race."

Fourth overall and first in class was the No. 8 Starworks Prototype Challenge car of Renger van der Zande, Alex Popow and Mike Hedlund. The Starworks team and van der Zande also won last time out in Detroit. Second in Prototype Challenge was the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Cuttwood entry of Mike Guasch, Tom Kimber-Smith and Andrew Palmer. Third in the PC class was the No. 16 BAR1 Motorsports entry of Martin Plowman, Matt McMurry and Daniel Burkett.

In GT Le Mans, Wolf Henzler nursed the No. 17 Team Falken Porsche 911 RSR home on fumes, counting on the fuel-saving caution period to give him enough gas to complete the race. Behind Henzler and co-driver Bryan Sellers was 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans overall winner Earl Bamber in the No. 912 Porsche North America 911 RSR, which he shared with Patrick Pilet.

The win is especially sweet for Team Falken, since the one-car privateer will lose Falken as its sponsor and tire provider at the end of the season.

"Wolf and I have been together for almost seven years," Sellers said, "so to be able to win with my best friend in perhaps the last season we'll be driving together – emotionally, it's a huge win."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Winning the GT Daytona class was the No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R, driven by Al Carter, Cameron Lawrence and Marc Goossens. They were followed by the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America of John Potter, Marco Seefried and Andy Lally. Third were Christopher Haase, Bryce Miller and Dion von Moltke in the Paul Miller Racing Castrol Audi R8 LMS.

"Everyone today executed exactly as we planned, and things just fell together," Lawrence said. It was his third race in the TUDOR Championship, and his second win. "Two out of three isn't bad," he said.

The six-hour endurance race started under damp conditions, but the track soon dried, making it tough for teams to decide whether to use rain or slick tires. The rain fell lightly and intermittently through the day, until the last 90 minutes, when it began to pour, and low clouds hampered visibility.

Conditions were so bad the race was red-flagged to allow track workers to try and sweep the standing water off the track, and then racing resumed. Drivers almost unanimously praised the IMSA race officials and the track crew for timely caution periods, and hard work in brushing standing water off the track.

The ninth, and final, caution flag flew with nine minutes to go, when Kuno Wittmer, in the No. 007 Aston Martin, hit the wall across from the pit entrance. The wreck could not be cleared in time for racing to resume, so it ended under caution.

The Sahlen's Six Hours at The Glen was the third race in the four-race Tequila Patr¢n North American Endurance Cup, a championship points battle that parallels the regular TUDOR Championship points race. Only the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, the Sahlen's Six Hours and the season finale, Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta, are counted.

The No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP is leading the Patr¢n Endurance Cup points in Prototype, with the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R in GTLM, the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA leading in Prototype Challenge, and the No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R in GTD.

Next up for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by Hawk Performance at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, outside of Toronto, on July 10-12.

Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen Results

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Results from Sunday's IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen race at the 3.4-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen International, with starting position (in parentheses), finishing position, drivers, car, laps completed and average speed.

  1. (2) Richard Westbrook/Michael Valiante, Corvette DP, 160 laps, 90.418 mph
  2. (5) Joey Hand/Scott Pruett, Riley DP Ford EcoBoost, 160, 90.370
  3. (1) Christian Fittipaldi/Joao Barbosa/Max Papis, Corvette DP, 160, 90.355
  4. y-(15) Mike Hedlund/Alex Popow/Renger van der Zande, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 158, 89.283
  5. (11) Mike Guasch/Tom Kimber-Smith/Andrew Palmer, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 158, 89.258
  6. (16) Daniel Burkett/Matt McMurry/Martin Plowman, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 158, 89.257
  7. (10) Jon Bennett/Colin Braun/James Gue, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 158, 89.251
  8. (3) Dane Cameron/Max Papis/Eric Curran, Corvette DP, 158, 89.245
  9. (12) Mikhail Goikhberg/Rusty Mitchell/Chris Miller, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 158, 89.183
  10. x-(23) Bryan Sellers/Wolf Henzler, Porsche 911 RSR, 157, 88.712
  11. (24) Earl Bamber/Nick Tandy/Jorg Bergmeister, Porsche 911 RSR, 157, 88.707
  12. (18) Bill Auberlen/Dirk Werner, BMW Z4 GTLM, 157, 88.704
  13. (17) Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, 157, 88.699
  14. (20) Pierre Kaffer/Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari F458 Italia, 157, 88.666
  15. (21) Patrick Pilet/Earl Bamber/Nick Tandy, Porsche 911 RSR, 157, 88.648
  16. z-(35) Al Carter/Cameron Lawrence/Marc Goossens, Dodge Viper SRT, 152, 85.835
  17. (31) John Potter/Andy Lally/Marco Seefried, Porsche 911 GT America, 152, 85.835
  18. (25) Christopher Haase/Dion von Moltke/Bryce Miller, Audi R8 LMS, 152, 85.822
  19. (28) Bill Sweedler/Townsend Bell, Ferrari 458 Italia, 152, 85.817
  20. (27) Cooper MacNeil/Leh Keen/Andrew Davis, Porsche 911 GT America, 152, 85.811
  21. (33) Ben Keating/Jeroen Bleekemolen, Dodge Viper SRT, 152, 85.808
  22. (29) Mario Farnbacher/Ian James, Porsche 911 GT America, 152, 85.800
  23. (34) Madison Snow/Jan Heylen, Porsche 911 GT America, 152, 85.784
  24. (32) Michael Marsal/Markus Palttala, BMW Z4, 151, 86.336
  25. (26) Kuno Wittmer/Christina Nielsen, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, 148, 86.655
  26. (30) Patrick Lindsey/Spencer Pumpelly, Porsche 911 GT America, 147, 86.633
  27. (7) Tom Long/Joel Miller/Ben Devlin, Mazda, 144, 81.267
  28. (4) Ricky Taylor/Jordan Taylor/Max Angelelli, Corvette DP, 143, 94.006
  29. (22) Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, 136, 92.687
  30. (13) Bruno Junqueira/Chris Cumming, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 110, 62.068
  31. (14) Conor Daly/James French/Jerome Mee, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 105, 59.244
  32. (6) Oswaldo Negri/John Pew, Ligier JS P2 Honda HPD, 102, 100.978
  33. (9) Memo Rojas/Katherine Legge, DeltaWing DWC13 Elan, 95, 74.332
  34. (19) John Edwards/Lucas Luhr, BMW Z4 GTLM, 77, 100.555

x-GT Le Mans class winner

y-PC class winner

z-GT Daytona class winner

RACE STATISTICS

Time of race: 06:00:59.464

Margin of victory: 11.351 seconds (under caution)

Race Distance: 544 miles

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