The weekend of June 28th – 30th was the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship at Watkins Glen in New York. One of the three Northeast races followed by the Canadian Tire race and then our local race at Lime Rock.
Watkins Glen is a asphalt 3.4 mile course with 11 turns and elevations changes that are smooth transitions. This course opened in 1956 as since 1948 they were racing in the streets of Watkins Glen. During 1961-1980 they had Formula One races and now have every kind of race from Indy cars to NASCAR, which uses the smaller inner course of 2.45 miles.
On Saturday Morning there were some showers that turned into an occasional steady rain that held up the Michelin Tire race for a while, but cleared up to sunshine for qualifying.
The Porsche team #911 and #912 did not have the fastest cars on Saturday, as they qualified 7th and 8th and would start at the back of the GTLM pack, but that does not concern the Porsche team as this is a 6 hour endurance race.
On Sunday brought some of the best racing conditions I have seen at Watkins Glen and almost any other track. Instead of hot weather we had temperatures around 75 and a constant breeze. Hold onto your hat!
It was interesting that on warmup on Sunday before the grid walk, the #911 found that they had a problem, they would not say what, but the Porsche engineers came in and corrected the problem.
While not qualifying in a great position, the back of the GTLM class in 7th and 8th places, the Porsche team and drivers need to perfectly execute their race plan at the Glen.
At the start of the race, some cars got aggressive and did not make it half way around the track and ended up with a crash at the top of the esses, but that did not deter some as it happened again on the restart. Hey drivers it’s a 6 hour race not a 6 lap race.
Porsche #912 on the restart moved from the back of the pack, up to fourth place. Then it was the usual endurance race with everyone fighting for positions with the occasional loss of air, flat tires and pit stops for most of the race.
Late in the race the #911 with Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet came in for their last stop of the race and the pit crew nailed it with their precision and promptness to get the Porsche out 2.6 seconds faster than the competition to put the #911 in 1st place and the #912 in 2nd place.
During the last 15 minutes of the race it was calculated that the #912 Porsche with Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor, who visited us at Wallingford Porsche last year, could not make it to the end of the race and had to come in for more fuel, which was promptly completed, but put the #912 done to 6th