Lightning in the area of Watkins Glen International Raceway caused the feature 6-hour endurance race to be red-flagged with just over 90 minutes remaining. As a result, racing against the clock took on new meaning as the minimum one-hour, 30-minute drive time applied for each driver in every class except DPi. When the stewards sorted it all out, the clock was adjusted to one hour, 17 minutes over what became five-plus hours. This nullified the pit stop strategy for several teams and meant some drivers were short of the 90-minute drive time.
The upshot: BMW M Team RLL and Winward Racing lost IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO and GTD class victories, respectively. Andretti Autosport team finished third in Le Mans Prototype 3.
In DPI, where 90-minutes didn’t apply, the Acuras of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque (No. 10 Konica Minolta) and Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis (No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian) put on quite a race. Blomqvist and Jarvis were fastest in every practice session and claimed the Motul Pole Award with a track-record lap, but their white and pink Acura ARX-05 lost to the identical black and blue one fielded by Wayne Taylor Racing.
When the race was restarted after the one-hour delay, Albuquerque took the lead from Blomqvist with a brilliant and risky pass in the Watkins Glen’s “inner loop” sequence. “I just put my foot down, we ended up side-by-side, and I just sent the car into the corner. It went over the curb, but it ended up working,” said Albuquerque.
His No. 60 won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, but Blomqvist and Jarvis have been stymied since with four straight second-place finishes. Three of those has No. 10 Acura finish first. The DPi championship lead changed hands – again at The Glen, from a 13-point advantage for the No. 60 to a 17-point cushion for the No. 10.
The No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R withstood an incident-filled first half and a dash to the finish following a second-half red flag to take third place in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. Co-driven by Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, the Cadillac Racing entry followed its win at Detroit with another decent performance.
Corvette Racing also feel victim to the 90-minute rule. The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R finished sixth in GT Daytona (GTD) PRO after the class’s fifth round in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It was the first GTD PRO race since early May for Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, who were coming off a similarly disappointing result at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Corvette had crossed the line Sunday seventh in class but the class-winning car was sent to the back of GTD PRO due to a post-race drivetime violation.
The 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season continues next weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario for one of the final sprint races of the year. Practice 1 begins on Friday, July 1st at 2:40 p.m. ET. Green flag for the two hour and 40-minute sprint race will wave at 3:05 p.m. ET. Full coverage will be available on NBC and Peacock beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Watkins Glen: Rain, Red Flag, Busted Rules Cloud Results
Lightning in the area of Watkins Glen International Raceway caused the feature 6-hour endurance race to be red-flagged with just over 90 minutes remaining. As a result, racing against the clock took on new meaning as the minimum one-hour, 30-minute drive time applied for each driver in every class except DPi. When the stewards sorted it all out, the clock was adjusted to one hour, 17 minutes over what became five-plus hours. This nullified the pit stop strategy for several teams and meant some drivers were short of the 90-minute drive time.
The upshot: BMW M Team RLL and Winward Racing lost IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO and GTD class victories, respectively. Andretti Autosport team finished third in Le Mans Prototype 3.
In DPI, where 90-minutes didn’t apply, the Acuras of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque (No. 10 Konica Minolta) and Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis (No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian) put on quite a race. Blomqvist and Jarvis were fastest in every practice session and claimed the Motul Pole Award with a track-record lap, but their white and pink Acura ARX-05 lost to the identical black and blue one fielded by Wayne Taylor Racing.
When the race was restarted after the one-hour delay, Albuquerque took the lead from Blomqvist with a brilliant and risky pass in the Watkins Glen’s “inner loop” sequence. “I just put my foot down, we ended up side-by-side, and I just sent the car into the corner. It went over the curb, but it ended up working,” said Albuquerque.
His No. 60 won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, but Blomqvist and Jarvis have been stymied since with four straight second-place finishes. Three of those has No. 10 Acura finish first. The DPi championship lead changed hands – again at The Glen, from a 13-point advantage for the No. 60 to a 17-point cushion for the No. 10.
The No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R withstood an incident-filled first half and a dash to the finish following a second-half red flag to take third place in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. Co-driven by Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, the Cadillac Racing entry followed its win at Detroit with another decent performance.
Corvette Racing also feel victim to the 90-minute rule. The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R finished sixth in GT Daytona (GTD) PRO after the class’s fifth round in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It was the first GTD PRO race since early May for Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, who were coming off a similarly disappointing result at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Corvette had crossed the line Sunday seventh in class but the class-winning car was sent to the back of GTD PRO due to a post-race drivetime violation.
The 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season continues next weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario for one of the final sprint races of the year. Practice 1 begins on Friday, July 1st at 2:40 p.m. ET. Green flag for the two hour and 40-minute sprint race will wave at 3:05 p.m. ET. Full coverage will be available on NBC and Peacock beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.