Acura Win A Wet And Wild Sahlen’s 6 Hours Of The Glen
Watkins Glen, New York(June 22nd, 2025)
With just less than an hour to go in the Sahlen’s 6 Hours Of The Glen strategists and drivers were beginning to think how to manage dwindling energy supplies in what would either be a mad dash to the checkered flag or what could be a master class in how to stretch fuel mileage.
Earl Bamber and the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R had a commanding ten second lead over Nick Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 going into the final hour. The pressing question would be who would blink first to grab that final splash of fuel, but at the expense of track position with time running out, especially if the race were to run caution free till the end.
First to blink was Louis Delatraz in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R with forty nine minutes to go. A few laps later Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R came in for their final stop as well. As Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 came into the pits, the No. 36 DXDT Corvette GTD stopped at the exit of turn one with suspension failure.
With the Corvette stopped on track the final caution flag of the race was flown and the pits were now closed. This locked the race leading No. 31 Cadillac out of the pits and ability to take on desperately needed energy to get to the checkered flag.
When the stricken Corvette was finally cleared from the track and the field was lined up for the restart, Bamber and the No. 31 Cadillac sped away from the field. Instead of taking the green flag at the restart, he made the turn onto pit road to grab just enough energy to finish the race and effectively give up a near assured win.
This now gave Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 the lead with just three minutes left in the race. Blomqvist and his strategists placed him in the perfect position, picking up track position instead of of taking energy in the last hour. The question would be could the Acura fend off the Cadillac’s that didn’t have to worry about energy management.
Two laps later Blomqvist would grab the checkered flag over the No. 40 Cadillac by a scant 1.88 seconds for the overall win of the race. According to IMSA telemetry he finished the race with 1 percent energy.
After the race Blomqvist would say “That was part of the plan, We committed to that, and we were going to be able to go to the end, regardless of the yellow. The yellow made things a little less stressful. I was getting a good vibe over the radio, but it was certainly nice to see those other cars go into the pits. Just a masterful job by our strategists. Ultimately, that’s what won us the race today, but also the car really came along last two stints and that allowed me to have such good pace while hitting an aggressive fuel target.”
The LMP2 class wasn’t affected by the fuel drama and the last minute caution flag. Instead it was an intense battle over the final hour between the Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona winning No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 and the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07 known as Spike.
Paul Di Resta Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh who teamed to drive the No. 22 nabbed the class lead with just under an hour in the race. But the team was never able to pull away and extend things. Instead it turned into a nip and tuck battle.
The AO squad with Dane Cameron, PJ Hyett and Jonny Edgar as drivers fought hard. The two cars were nose to tail with the pole winning squad trying to convert the start advantage into the win. Unfortunately for the team a slow pit spot gave the United Autosports a little breathing room. With Dane Cameron behind the wheel of the AO car, he reeled them back in, but the late yellow flag neutralized his momentum and ultimately gave Di Resta and United Autosports the win, albeit by a scant .627 second.
The action in the race wasn’t just limited to the last hour. Much earlier in the race when the heavy rain was falling, a freak accident took out two of the LMP2 cars. The PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports car spun coming out of turn nine and wound up facing oncoming traffic. Moments later a pack of GTD and LMP2 cars rounded the turn. As drivers scattered to avoid the stopped car TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas had no where to go and hit the stopped car head on. Thankfully both drivers were unhurt in the heavy collision.
When Dan Harper, who was piloting the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO in the GTD Pro class, ran a red light at the end on pit lane during a full course yellow he thought he blew the teams chance at getting on the podium. That penalty earned him and the team a sixty second stop penalty, which normally is the death knell for a win.
Between inspired driving by teammate Max Hesse and the copious amount of yellow flags, the squad clawed their way back into contention. Ultimately the team lead the final thirty five laps of the race to grab the win.
After the race Harper said “Unfortunately I got a penalty for crossing the red light on the exit of the pit lane, and at that point I sort of thought I had blew it. Yeah, then it was on to Max to bring us back up the order. He did a great job, also the team with the strategy. And we got fortunate with the amount of safety cars today that gave us the opportunity to come forward, and then they put me in the position to bring it home. It was a nice feeling.”
Coming in second was Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. With this being the teams fourth podium in the last five races this moved them into the points lead for the class over AO Racing by sixty two points. On the road the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 came in third, but the car failed post-race technical inspection. This moved the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 into the final spot on the podium.
With three consecutive second places the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth, Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo were looking to finally break into the win column. Leading 83 of 159 laps the team looked dominant.
As the Hawksworth was a half lap away from the checkered flag and coming out of turn seven, the car slowed and came to a stop having ran out of fuel. This allowed the pole winning No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Casper Stevenson, Tom Gamble and Zacharie Robichon to retake the lead and the class win. Tom Gamble said. “I think when it was looking like second at the end, I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to pay them back with a win with the car they gave us.”
In second place was Inception Racing No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy. Rounding out the top three was the Korthoff Competition Motors No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Kenton Koch, Daniel Morad and Mikey Taylor
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