A late-race restart with 24 minutes remaining resulted in a thrilling finish to the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
In Prototype. Joao Barbosa, in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi for Action Express, outdueled a game Stephen Simpson in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca LMP2 for the overall win.
Simpson managed to jump around Barbosa with an aggressive move up the inside on the restart, but Barbosa regrouped and closed back in as the two worked through traffic. Barbosa was able to retake the lead with an incredible outside pass between turn 1 and the run up to the esses.
The victory is the first of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season for the No. 5 machine, with co-drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque joining Barbosa in Victory Lane, while second is a season-best for the No. 85 entry, in the hands of Simpson, Chris Miller, and Misha Goikhberg this weekend. Behind them, the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda DPi finished third, with Tristan Nunez, Jonathan Bomarito, and Spencer Pigot sharing driving duties.
In GTLM, the No. 25 BMW Team RLL entry, in the hands of Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims, claimed their first victory of the year. Sims needed to save fuel in the final stint to make it to the finish, but a caution period with 36 minutes remaining put him in position to make it to the end. He outlasted late charges from Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R for the victory.
In GT Daytona, Andy Lally and Katherine Legge made it two-in-a-row in a dominant performance for Michael Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian in the Acura NSX GT3. However, they endured a late challenge from Alessandro Balzan in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3, who closed to within a few car lengths but could not make a move for the win. The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 in the hands of Justin Marks and Jens Klingmann was third in class. Also, the No. 86 entry from Michael Shank’s squad was in position to finish second and complete a 1-2 finish for the team, but a mechanical issue forced driver Jeff Segal off the track with 36 minutes remaining.
In Prototype Challenge, the perfect season for the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 continued, with James French, Pato O’Ward, and Kyle Masson winning over the No. 20 and 26 entries from BAR1 Motorsports. Don Yount, Buddy Rice, and Daniel Burkett came home second in the No. 20 ahead of teammates Brian Alder, Derek Jones, and Gustavo Yacaman in the No. 26.
Meanwhile, the perfect season for the Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R came to a crashing halt in turn 1, lap 1. Contact with Olivier Pla, in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier LMP2, broke the right-front suspension of the No. 10 car, in the hands of Ricky Taylor at the time. Taylor then drifted across the track and pounded the outside wall in the esses, which sent cars behind him scattering in avoidance.
The older Taylor brother managed to bring the car back to the pits, but the team lost several laps making repairs to the right-front suspension as well as the right-rear suspension, which sustained damage after the wall contact. They ended the day in sixth place overall and in the Prototype class, three laps off the lead.
Elsewhere, Tequila Patrón ESM endured a difficult race after an uptick in pace saw them score pole position with the No. 2 Nissan DPi. That No. 2 entry, with Pipo Derani at the helm to start, rocketed off into the lead and dominated most of the opening two hours.
However, shortly after Scott Sharp took the helm, he made contact with the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Boris Said behind the wheel, in turn 5. The contact sent Sharp spinning into the runoff area, where he eventually backed into the tire barrier. Although the damage was cosmetic, repairs saw the team lose a handful of laps.
The No. 2 machine also incurred several drive-through penalties for a series of infractions before it eventually came to a stop in the final minutes, with throttle problems ultimately ending their day just shy of the checkered flag.
Their teammates in the No. 22 entry also saw their day end early with mechanical troubles, as Bruno Senna slowed and pulled off the track entering turn one with about one hour remaining.
Also, while their teammates were celebrating in Victory Lane, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing entry from Action Express saw their day unravel shortly before the halfway point, when a mechanical issue saw the right-rear tire come off following a pit stop. The car came to a halt just before the bus stop chicane and was towed back to the pits for repairs. It eventually rejoined the fight and finished seventh in class, 16th overall, with Dane Cameron and Eric Curran sharing driving duties with Filipe Albuquerque, who was entered in both Action Express cars this weekend.
Full results can be found here.