Nasr Guides Porsche Penske No. 7 to Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen Victory
Words and cover image by Matthew Boyce
After a forty-plus minute red flag due to a heavy rain that swept through the upstate New York road course at Watkins Glen, Felipe Nasr pounced on the restart with 16 minutes to go passing Louis Deletraz in turn one and never looking back. With the win, the No. 7 Porsche Penske 963 of Nasr and Dane Cameron become the first repeat winners of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Nasr finished 0.749 clear of the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais. Completing the podium was the sister No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy while the leading GTP car on the restart, the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura of Deletraz and his teammate Jordan Taylor, fell to fourth.
In a spirited drive after a Saturday morning practice crash for the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly, the BMW GTP machine rallied to a fifth place finish. The No. 25 test car was drove from their Indianapolis, IN headquarters to make it to the track early Sunday morning. After hours of work putting components on the car, the car made it to the grid and saw its first laps at the start of the race.
The No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, which held the lead early in the race, suffered a huge setback after Richard Westbrook hit the Michelin RFID board at pit out. The resulting penalty was a five minute stop and hold for the car, which took them out of competition. The No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 was also eliminated from competition with an unspecified engine issue ending their day. Another car hit with a mechanical issue was the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura. The car lost its right rear wheel under the yellow flag just before the restart, ending their day.
Jake Galstad/LAT
After claiming the LMP2 class win a week ago at Le Mans, the No. 88 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson of Lilou Wadoux, Luis Perez-Companc and Nicklas Nielsen took the class win after many of the top competitors faltered after the final restart. While battling with the No. 88 of Nielsen for the win, the No. 74 Riley Oreca of Felipe Fraga spun his car and collected both the No. 2 United Autosports Oreca of Ben Hanley and the No. 04 CrowdStrike with APR Oreca of Colin Braun.
While Braun recovered to cross the finish line in second, the car was assessed a post race penalty due to a drive time infringement. This promoted the No. 74 Riley Oreca to second, even after the issues on the restart, to second place on the podium. The No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of Jakub Smiechowski, Nick Boulle and Tom Dillman rounded out the LMP2 podium.
Fuel Costs Corvette GTD Pro Win, Heart of Racing Capitalizes for Class Victory
Jake Galstad/LAT
After the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R battled with the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for the class win for the final fifteen minutes of the race, a fuel issue for the No. 3 handed the class win to the No. 23. Tommy Milner was forced to pit as the white flag fell after their fuel gamble did not pay off, which dropped them out contention for the victory.
The No. 23, piloted by Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas, finished 1.340 seconds clear of the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Marvin Kirchhofer and Oliver Jarvis. The No. 3 Corvette Rounded out the GTD Pro podium driven by Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims.
Matthew Boyce/Prescott Motorsports
With their fourth win in five races this year, the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis continues their 2024 season hot streak claiming the GTD class victory. Indy Dontje also shared the class win with Ellis and Ward. Ellis, who drove the car to win after the final restart, held off the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen who crossed the finish line in second. However, like the No. 04 CrowdStrike LMP2 entry, the No. 120 was assessed a post race drive time infringement penalty which dropped them off the podium.
This handed the second position to the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa Balboa, Manny Franco and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli while the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin of John Potter, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly rounded out the GTD podium. After leading the class at the red flag, the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Harry Tincknell dropped to fifth in class after a slow final pit stop.
