2019 6 Hours of The Glen



The 2019 Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen was an endurance race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York, on June 30, 2019. This race was the sixth round of the 2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as well as the third round of the 2019 Michelin Endurance Cup.

Background
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2019 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2018. It was the sixth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2019 6 Hours of The Glen was the sixth of twelve sports car races of 2019 by IMSA, and it was the third of four rounds held as part of the Michelin Endurance Cup. The race was held at the eleven-turn 3.450 mi Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York on June 30, 2019.

IMSA released two separate technical bulletins regarding the Balance of Performance for the six-hour race. The first one was released on May 23, 2019, for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. This was done to allow IMSA teams who were preparing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in three weeks time, notably Corvette Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing, to have the beforehand knowledge of the Balance of Performance for the race so they could prepare better. In this bulletin, the BMW M8 GTE received a 12 horsepower increase, as well as a six liter increase in fuel capacity and turbo boost increase. The second technical bulletin was released on June 19, 2019, which regarded the Balance of Performance for the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes. In DPi, after winning the previous two events, Team Penske's Acura ARX-05 was given a 15-kilogram weight increase, giving it the same weight as the Nissan DPi. The Cadillac DPi-V.R was given a 1-liter reduction in fuel capacity. In GT Daytona, despite no McLarens participating in the 6 Hour event, the McLaren 720S was given a power increase of 15 horsepower and made 25 kilograms lighter, in addition to a 12-liter fuel capacity increase. These adjustments made the McLaren 720S the lightest car in the class, as well as having the largest fuel capacity.

Before the race, Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 152 points, ahead of Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya in second with 147 points. In LMP2, Cameron Cassels and Kyle Masson led the Drivers' Championship with 99 points; the duo held a four-point advantage over Matt McMurry. The GTLM Drivers' Championship was led by Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor with 126 points, 7 points ahead of Antonio García and Jan Magnussen in second followed by Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy with 117 points in third. With 84 points, Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman led the Drivers' Championship, 4 points clear of Frankie Montecalvo and Townsend Bell. Cadillac, Porsche, and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Whelen Engineering Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Porsche GT Team, and Meyer Shank Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries
A total of 37 cars took part in the event split across four classes. There were 11 entries in Daytona Prototype international, eight cars in GT Le Mans, 16 in GT Daytona, and just two entrants in the Le Mans Prototype (LMP2) class. In GT Daytona, Sprint-race-only entrants Compass Racing and Lone Star Racing would not be taking part, while endurance-event-only entrants such as Land-Motorsport made their return. Black Swan Racing also returned to the grid after missing the 12 Hours of Sebring due to their team owner Tim Pappas sustaining an injury. As he was still recovering, Marc Miller took his place for The Glen. Joey Hand made a full recovery from suffering symptoms of the flu, and returned to the Chip Ganassi Racing team after being replaced by Sebastien Bourdais for the previous two rounds.

Practice
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session on Friday morning lasted 75 minutes while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted one hour. The third on Saturday morning lasted one hour.

Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 10:25 am ET on Friday and ended with Harry Tincknell topping the charts for Mazda Team Joest, with a lap time of 1:30.690. Hélio Castroneves was second fastest in the No. 7 Acura followed by Dane Cameron in the sister No. 6 Acura Team Penske entry. Gabriel Aubry set the fastest time in LMP2. The GTLM class was topped by the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Richard Westbrook with a time of 1:42.673. Dirk Müller was second fastest in the No. 66 Ford GT followed by Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette. The GTD class was topped by the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Andy Lally with a time of 1:45.406. Bill Auberlen in the No. 96 BMW was second fastest followed by Dirk Werner in the No. 540 Black Swan Racing Porsche. The session was red flagged two times. 20 minutes into the session, Chris Miller's No. 84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac stopped at the inner loop. The final stoppage came when Will Hardeman crashed the No. 19 Moorespeed Audi at the barrier at turn five and caught fire. Hardeman suffered a concussion and the session ended early. After practice, Moorespeed withdrew the No. 19 Audi due to the extensive damage the car received.

Practice 2
The second practice session took place at 3:05 PM ET on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:30.014. Jonathan Bomarito was second fastest in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest entry followed by Hélio Castroneves in the No. 7 Acura. Matt McMurry set the fastest in LMP2. The GTLM class was topped by the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Richard Westbrook with a time of 1:42.321. Antonio García was second fastest in the No. 3 Corvette followed by Joey Hand in the No. 66 Ford GT. The GTD class was topped by the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Spencer Pumpelly with a time of 1:45.835. Scott Hargrove was second fastest in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche followed by Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Lexus. The session saw one stoppage when Simon Trummer's No. 84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac suffered a loss of power and stopped at turn ten.

Practice 3
The third and final practice session took place at 8:00 am ET and ended with Oliver Jarvis topping the charts for Mazda Team Joest, with a lap time of 1:43.279. Will Owen was second fastest in the No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac followed by Renger van der Zande in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac entry. The GTLM class was topped by the No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR of Laurens Vanthoor with a time of 1:54.280. John Edwards was second fastest in the No. 24 BMW followed by Patrick Pilet in the No. 911 Porsche. The GTD class was topped by the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth with a time of 1:57.445. Parker Chase was second fastest in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Audi followed by Aaron Telitz in the No. 12 Lexus. Neither of the LMP2 entries set a lap time.

Qualifying
Saturday's late morning qualification session was broken into three sessions that lasted 15 minutes each. Cars in GTD were sent out first before those grouped in GTLM and DPi/LMP2 had two separate identically timed sessions. All cars were required to be driven by one participant and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest lap. IMSA then arranged the grid so that the DPi, LMP2, and GTLM cars started in front of the GTD field.

The first was for cars in the GTD class. Trent Hindman qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 86 car for Meyer Shank Racing, beating Christina Nielsen in the No. 57 Acura by more than three-tenths of a second. Following in third was Dillon Machavern's No. 96 BMW with the No. 63 Ferrari of Jeff Westphal in fourth. Ricardo Feller completed the top five in the No. 29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi followed by The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Zacharie Robichon in sixth position. The No. 12 AIM Vasser Sullivan entry did not participate in the session due to the team changing the engine.

The second session was for cars in the GTLM class. Antonio García qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 3 car for Corvette Racing, beating Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing by 0.317 seconds. Joey Hand was third fastest, but lost his fastest lap for violating track limits. As a result, Hand would start from fifth position while Tommy Milner's No. 4 Corvette was promoted to third position followed by John Edwards in the No. 24 BMW in fourth. Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL started from sixth place. The Porsche GT Team entries rounded out the GTLM qualifiers.

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the LMP2 and DPi classes. Oliver Jarvis qualified on pole overall driving the No. 77 car for Mazda Team Joest, beating Dane Cameron in the No. 6 Acura by more than two-tenths of a second. Ricky Taylor qualified the No. 7 Acura Team Penske entry in third position followed by Harry Tincknell's No. 55 Mazda in fourth. Renger van der Zande in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac entry started from fifth place. Following in sixth was Filipe Albuquerque's No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing followed by Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac. Gabriel Aubry qualified on pole in LMP2 driving the No. 52 car PR1/ Mathiasen Motorsports, besting Kyle Masson in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports car.

Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.


 * The No. 911 Porsche GT Team entry initially qualified eighth for the GTLM class.However, the team changed engines. By IMSA rules, the entry was moved to the rear of the GTLM field on the starting grid.
 * The No. 12 AIM Vasser Sullivan entry initially qualified fifteenth for the GTD class.However, the team changed engines. By IMSA rules, the entry was moved to the rear of the GTD field on the starting grid.

Post-race
With a total of 177 points, Cameron and Montoya's third place finish allowed them to take the lead of the DPi Drivers' Championship while Derani and Nasr dropped to second. Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande advanced from fourth to third. The final results of LMP2 kept Cassels and Masson atop the Drivers' Championship, but their advantage was reduced to one point by race winner McMurry. Lux advanced from sixth to fourth. Pilet and Tandy took the lead of the GTLM Drivers' Championship while Bamber and Vanthoor dropped to second. Müller jumped to fourth and being fifth coming into Watkins Glen. With a total of 119 points, Farnbacher and Hindman's victory allowed them to extend their advantage to 16 points while Heistand and Hawksworth took over second position in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Porsche and Lamborghini continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Acura took the lead of the DPi Manufactures' Championship. Performance Tech Motorsports, Porsche GT Team, and Meyer Shank Racing kept their respective advantages in their Teams' Championships, while Acura Team Penske took the lead of the DPi Teams Championship with six rounds left in the season.

Race Results
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Standings after the race

 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.