Yahoo Autos Porsche leads challenging Watkins Glen Six Hour at halfway
What looked to possibly be a dual Porsche runaway is now a Porsche vs. Acura fight with Cadillac and BMW still in the hunt as the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 with Mathieu Jaminet at the wheel effectively, if not officially, leading over Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 at the Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen.
The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R was out front at the halfway point, having gone off sequence with a short stop in order to claim the points awarded for the Michelin Endurance Cup after three hours. AXR were leading the MEC points coming into the Six Hours.
Second place was a bad position to be in the third hour. First Felipe Nasr brought the No. 7 PPM 963 into the pits from second, went straight through and headed toward the paddock. Unfortunately, the safety light indicating that the car was safe to touch was not on, and it was a long time before the crew could get it back to work on it. That put Filipe Albuquerque into second, but with about 30 minutes left in the first half of the race, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura lost a wheel. Albuquerque made it back to the pits, but had to take the NASCAR shortcut that bypasses the Boot, and thus lost a lap. Adding insult to injury, after the crew put a new wheel on without issue, Albuquerque was handed a drive-through penalty for a pit lane speed violation. The No. 10 is two laps down in seventh.
An incident just past the one-hour mark put a damper on a couple of efforts, notably the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Sebastien Bourdais misjudged a corner exit and caught a GTD Porsche more quickly than expected. He balked and juked, losing the rear end in the process. The sudden loss of speed had Connor de Phillippi, who was right behind him in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, making contact, damaging the nose of the BMW. The Cadillac, however, spun and hit the barrier, needing a lot of work to get it race-able again. That came about through a series of pit stops, starting with one for emergency service to get a new nose (the BMW received the same), but the car also needed a new tail section, engine cover and other bits. Renger van der Zande was three laps down in sixth at halfway, while the No. 25, now with Nick Yelloly at the wheel, was on the lead lap in fourth. Four GTPs, one of each make, were on the lead lap at halfway.
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It was Lexus leading both GT classes as the race neared halfway, although in GTD that came about through a bit of luck. Iron Dames had gone for a big overcut, and Michelle Gatting in the No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini was leading Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F. However, as has happened to several cars, the No. 83 received a mechanical black flag for tire requirements. That could be a pressure outside the specified parameters, or more likely a malfunctioning TPMS unit.
Ben Barnicoat was at the head of the GTD PRO field in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, but the top three in the class was the same top three as qualifying and the No. 14 is still in a close battle with the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini with Andrea Caldarelli at the wheel. The polesitting No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 is third, Davide Rigon in the cockpit.
Nolan Siegel led LMP2 in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA at halfway, pursued by Paul-Loup Chatin in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry and Giedo van der Garde in the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA.
In LMP3, it was the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier up front, Josh Burdon at the wheel. Nico Varrone was second in the No. 17 AWA Duqueine, followed by Dakota Dickerson in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier.
After a trio of yellows in the first 70 minutes of the race, it has been green flag running since.
