No.31 Cadillac leads after 3 hours in Watkins Glen

Credit: Lumen Digital Agency

At the halfway mark, the No.31 Whelen Cadillac is currently leading the 6 hours of the Glen by almost six seconds from the No.93 Meyer Shank Acura, and the No.40 Cadillac is a couple seconds behind the Acura in third.

Leading in LMP2 is the AO Racing No.99 car, which is due for a pit stop. The No.14 Lexus is leading in GTD Pro, and the No.27 Aston Martin leads GTD.

As it happened

The race started with Jack Aitken leading the field to green, and he got a good getaway ahead of the pair of Acuras. The No.31 Whelen Cadillac driver ended up pacing most of the first stint of the race.

The LMP2s got away on lap one cleanly as well, with Jeremy Clarke in the No.43 Inter Europol leading away. On the second lap though there was a few scuffles down at turn one between the No.8 Tower Motorsports machine and the No.37 Intersport Racing car. Both cars were able to rejoin safely though.

Not too long after, Jon Field in that No.37 car was involved in another incident, this time with the No.18 Era Motorsport car of Naveen Rao. Rao clipped Field at the bus stop, who went around and backwards into the barrier, doing a lot of damage to the rear bodywork.

A short yellow followed to clear up the debris from the incident, and Field got it back to the pits and back out on track.

Once we went green again, Aitken led away again for a clean restart in all four classes. We wouldn't last very long before the next yellow though, with a car hitting some advertising boarding which came to a rest on the track.

This was a full yellow, so the entire field came in for pit stops. That included the No.60 Acura of Colin Braun and the No.23 Aston Martin of Roman De Angelis, but both cars pit again after all the GTs had pit.

Upon their release together from pit lane, a GT Aston Martin got in between them up the hill, so De Angelis behind was unsighted. Braun slowed suddenly because the GT pack ahead was almost at a standstill, and the blind Aston Martin driver didn't seem him and ran straight into the back of the Acura.

The pair also collected the No.81 Dragonspeed Corvette, with the three cars races ended there and then.

With three cars to recover, and quite a bit of debris, the yellow was extended for quite a bit of time. It was during this time that Field found himself backwards once again, damaging the rear bodywork the same way he did before, only this time he did not return to racing.

We finally got going again with a green flag led by the No.31 Cadillac, now with Frederick Vesti at the wheel, ahead of Laurens Vanthoor in the No.6 Porsche and Renger van der Zande in the No.93 Acura third.

Jeremy Clarke in the No.43 Inter Europol LMP2 led their class with the No.99 AO Racing machine in second. GTD Pro was headed by Neil Verhagen in the No.1 BMW, and GTD was led by Zachaire Robichon in the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.

While the leaders in each category started pulling away from those behind them, the No.1 BMW was unable to create a gap between itself and the No.77 AO Racing Porsche, Harry King in the car being a constant presence in the American's rear view mirrors.

The top four GTD Pro cars were separated by less than two seconds, but overtaking was pretty much non-existent.

Further ahead in GTP, cutting through traffic proved as crucial as ever as the leading No.31 Whelen Cadillac driven by Fred Vesti lost the three second buffer to the No.93 Acura with Renger van der Zande in second and found itself going on the defensive. The No.6 Porsche Penske of Laurens Vanthoor was less than a second away behind this battle for the lead.

The racing didn't go on for long as just past the 2 hour mark, the No.911 Manthey Porsche of Loek Hartog slammed into the wall exiting turn six and after sustaining heavy damage on its right rear, and had stopped on track. The incident brought out the Full Course Yellow, and the pit lane was closed, not before some of the cars came in for their stops, most notably the GTP leader, the No.1 and the No.14 Lexus that was second.

The pit lane was opened once the safety car came out, and everyone came in to pit. The biggest loser was the No.77, dropping down to seventh behind the six cars who pit before the FCY. Similarly, in LMP2, the No.73 and the No.22 jumped up to first and second in class. In GTP, the No.40 Cadillac jumped the No.6 Porsche in the pits for third.

The No.31 Cadillac led GTP at the end of the Safety Car, the No.73 lead LMP2 with the No.1 and the No.27 leading GTD and GTD Pro, respectively.

When the race went green, in a similar fashion to last time the leaders in each category started pulling away except for the GTD leader, the No.1 BMW.

The green flag did not last long as the No.5 JDC Miller Porsche of Kaylen Frederick lost its rear left tyre with one of the Corvettes, bringing out the FCY and the Safety Car soon after.

When the race went green again, just a few minutes later, the No.43 Inter Europol LMP2 dropped from third to fifth after a start to forget. In GTD Pro, the leading No.1 BMW put two wheels into the grass entering the Bus Stop and lost two positions to the No.14 Lexus and the No.65 Ford.

The No.31 Whelen Cadillac driven by Earl Bamber extended their lead to just shy of six seconds of Kaku Ohta driving the No.93 Meyer Shank Acura. The No.99 AO Racing car leads LMP2 from the No.04 Crowdstrike Racing machine.

Ben Barnicoat in the No.14 Lexus is fending off the No.65 Mustang of Fred Vervisch for the lead of GTD Pro. In GTD, its Dudu Barichello for the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin leading by over a second from the No.12 Lexus.