Endurance Weekly: 19th - 25th June
- DIVEBOMB Endurance Team
- Jun 25
- 6 min read
Written by the DIVEBOMB Endurance Team, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
This week on Endurance Weekly, the DIVEBOMB endurance team look back at the IMSA round in Watkins Glen and the Nürburgring 24h, as well as looking forward to the upcoming Spa 24h race, reporting on all of the breaking news stories you may have missed.
6 Hours of Glen Review
The 6 Hours of the Glen was a race defined by safety cars, full-course yellows and plenty of carnage. The No.93 Acura from Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) took the green flag at the beginning of the six-hour event, with spits of rain falling in places around the Watkins Glen International circuit.
Everyone found the conditions tricky, none more so than Rodrigo Sales in the No.52 LMP2 car. He spun around at turn two, but avoided the barriers and continued on his way.
At the front, the No.93 was battling with Jack Aitken in the No.31 Cadillac for the lead when Felipe Nasr in the No.7 Porsche came from behind, launching it around the outside of both and taking the lead of the race. It wouldn’t last too long, though, as Aitken and Renger van der Zande soon repassed the Porsche.
The No.45 Lamborghini had a similar incident to Sales, but this time the GTD car found the wall, bringing out the first FCY of the race. Only half a minute later, the rain began to pour down, with cars spinning off under the safety car. The rain eased as the green flag flew, but the track was still very wet.
About a lap later, the No.52 was involved in another incident, with Sales spun around by the No.1 BMW, and then collected by a blinded No.11 TDS LMP2. The massive hit sprayed debris all over the track, with the No.11 limping back to the pits with no windshield.
The green flag flew again for a couple of laps, before another FCY for debris on the track. It was during this interruption that all of the cars pitted for slick tyres, as the track dried quickly.
A crash for the No.9 GTD PRO Lamborghini brought out another FCY, which meant more pit stops for the leaders. The No.63 Lamborghini SC63 of Romain Grosjean emerged out of the pits in the lead, an extremely surprising leader.
The former Formula One driver led on merit for the next stint, before a collision between the No.80 GTD Mercedes and the No.5 Proton Porsche 963 brought about another interruption. The Mercedes would be given a drive-through penalty for causing the crash.
After the green flag, more trouble for the No.9 car brought out the sixth FCY of the race. The seventh would come soon after, too, with Sheldon Van Der Linde in the No.25 BMW spinning and tagging the barriers in his M Hybrid V8. An eighth would be caused by the No.19 Aston Martin GTD finding itself in the wall.
Meanwhile, the lead battle was between the No.31 Cadillac, No.10 Cadillac and both Porsche Penske cars, with the two Acuras not far behind. The No.7 Porsche took the eighth restart in second place, and by the exit of turn 4, the car was down in fifth. The Cadillacs and Acuras surrounding it clearly had better straight-line pace.
Tandy in the No.7 would cause the ninth interruption, hitting the barriers hard in the first sector. Coming out of the pits during this FCY, with just over an hour to go, teams knew fuel saving would be crucial. Cars could make the finish with no more stops, but a lot of lifting and coasting would be needed.
Tom Blomqvist did exactly that in the No.93 Acura. He crossed the line with 1% of virtual energy left to win the 6 Hours of the Glen. The No.22 won in LMP2, the No.48 in GTD PRO and the No.27 in GTD, after the No.12 ran out of fuel on the final lap.
Nürburgring 24h Review
Nicknamed the 72 hours of June, this month hosts three major 24 hour races in consecutive weeks. The Nürburgring 24h was the middle of the races - it had a lot to live up to after Le Mans last week, and it didn’t disappoint.
The drama began before the race did, Laurens Vanthoor had a massive shunt at Aremberg in qualifying. The damage was so severe, the Scherer Sport crew had to withdraw their Porsche from the race as repairs would take too long.
While one Porsche had its weekend before it started, another put it on pole.
Thomas Preining was the first to take the green flag, in the No.911 Manthey EMA Porsche (otherwise known as Grello). Only 90 minutes into the race, the red flag came out, caused by a power outage in the pit lane. As trackside fans received PTSD from last year, the Nürburgring electricians sorted the problem and the race was restarted.
Throughout the whole night, the Grello car led the race in commanding fashion. Meanwhile its competitors were running into trouble behind.
Some of this trouble was with traffic, such as the No.33 Falken Motorsport Porsche, which looked comfortable in second place, until it came around turn two and found another car parked on the exit. The No.33’s day turned from great to awful in under a second as the Porsche smashed into the stationary car, retiring them both.
Other misfortunes amongst Grello's rivals were for the Team GetSpeed Mercedes. Both the No.14 and No.17 had to drop out from top five positions with drivetrain issues.
By the morning, the No.911 Porsche still led, now from the No.98 Rowe Racing BMW who started 17th on the grid. Although it was 90 seconds behind the Porsche at one point, the BMW started catching and was eventually within a second of Kévin Estre in the Porsche.
Determined not to be held up and risk getting overtaken by the BMW, Estre went for a risky move on a back marker into the miss-hit-miss corner. Contact was made and the back marker ended up on its roof, and as a consequence the Grello received a 100 second penalty.
Manthey refused to serve this penalty in the pits as they believed it was unjust, in their eyes, the door firmly open and the back marker at fault. An appeal to get the penalty revoked was rejected, so despite the fact the Porsche held the lead for the remainder of the race, it was the No.98 Rowe Racing BMW that took the spoils when the penalty was applied on the line.
It was a shame to see the race decided by a penalty, but according to the regulations, the Porsche was at fault, so it is unfortunately the way sport goes sometimes. Regardless of how the race was decided, it was a brilliant battle and a great performance from 17th to first for the Rowe Racing team with the sole BMW in the GT3 class.
24 Hours of Spa Preview
The final race in the 72 Hours of June will take place this weekend in the heart of the Ardennes forest around the Circuit du Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. 75 cars will take on the famed endurance event, the race getting underway at 16:30 local time on Saturday.
Charles Weerts, Kelvin van der Linde and Ugo de Wilde come into Spa as the Endurance Cup championship leaders, as Weerts and Van Der Linde lead the overall championship too. Van der Linde also leads the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) championship, alongside Augusto Farfus.
Points will be awarded at the end of the race for both championships, while the GTWC entries will receive points at the six and 12 hour mark too.
In unlikely conditions for Spa, there is forecast to be no rain on Saturday or Sunday, but this should be taken with a pinch of salt due to the unpredictable nature of the climate in the Ardennes.
The grid will be decided in four 15-minute qualifying sessions, where the average time of each driver in each car will determine the standings. The PRO category is only allowed to have three drivers each, so they will only compete in Q2, Q3 and Q4.
The top 20 cars from that session on Thursday evening will be put through to the Superpole session on Friday afternoon. Here, each team picks their fastest driver who has two chances to set the fastest lap they can. The top 20 cars on the grid are ordered from this session, with the remaining 55 ordered by Thursday’s session.
Another interesting quirk about the Spa 24 Hours is that the start is not taken at the start/finish line. Instead, the cars will stay in formation and take what is known as the ‘ceremonial start’ at the bottom of Eau Rouge and Radillion, instead of in between La Source and the final chicane.
With 75 cars spread across the seven-kilometre circuit, there is bound to be action everywhere you look. If each car were to be spread out evenly on the circuit, there would be a car every 100 metres on the circuit. Traffic management will be crucial for the monumental GT3 field.
You can watch both qualifying sessions and the race for free on the GT World YouTube channel.
Breaking News
WEC
Toyota No.8 driver Sebastian Buemi will miss the upcoming WEC (World Endurance Championship) round in Brazil, due to the race clashing with the Berlin E-Prix.
Buemi will miss his first WEC since he joined the championship in its inaugural season. He has simultaneously competed in Formula E since 2016. He is currently driving in the all-electric championship for Envision Racing, sitting 12th in the standings in 2025.
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