The 2024 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen was a sports car race held at

Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track in the Northeastern United States, northeastern United States, located in Dix, New York, just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, Watkins Glen, at the ...

in Dix, New York, on June 23, 2024. It was the sixth round of the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship, and the third round of the Michelin Endurance Cup.

Background

Preview

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive dir ...

(IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2023. It was the tenth time the IMSA SCC hosted a race at Watkins Glen. The 2024 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen was the sixth of eleven scheduled sports car races of 2024 by IMSA. The race was held at the eleven-turn

on June 23, 2024.

Standings before the race

Before the race, the GTP Drivers' Championship was led by

Dane Cameron Dane Richard Cameron (born October 18, 1988) is an American racing driver from Glen Ellen, California. He won the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship overall in 2016 and 2019, and also in the GTD class in 2014. Early career After karting, Ca ...

and

Felipe Nasr Luiz Felipe de Oliveira Nasr (born 21 August 1992) is a Brazilian racing driver, who competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Porsche. Nasr competed in Formula One from to . In endurance racing, Nasr has won three IMSA SportsCar Cham ...

with 1669 points, 70 ahead of second-placed

Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (; born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver who currently races in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Cadillac Hertz Team Jota in the Hypercar category. He is one of the most successful dr ...

and

Renger van der Zande Renger is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Annemarie Renger (1919–2008), German politician * Thomas Renger (born 1972), German sitting volleyball player * Renger van der Zande (born 1986), Dutch racing driv ...

Mathieu Jaminet Mathieu Jaminet (born 24 October 1994) is a French racing driver. He is currently employed by Porsche as a factory driver and participates primarily in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Career Jaminet originally began pursuing a career in ...

and

Nick Tandy Nicholas Tandy (born 5 November 1984) is a professional British racing driver currently racing for Porsche Motorsport as a factory driver in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Tandy is the only person to have completed the Grand Slam of overal ...

were 83 points behind Cameron and Nasr in third place.

Ryan Dalziel Ryan Dalziel ( ; born 12 April 1982) is a Scottish professional racing driver. Dalziel has seen the most success in his career in the United States, racing in the American Le Mans Series GT1 class and the Champ Car World Series, and winning t ...

Dwight Merriman Dwight Merriman (born August 5, 1968) is an American Internet executive, racing driver, and entrepreneur in New York City's Silicon Alley. Best known for co-founding DoubleClick with Kevin O'Connor and serving as its CTO for 10 years, Merrima ...

, and Connor Zilisch were leading the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 741 points, 127 points ahead of

Josh Burdon Josh Burdon (born September 5, 1992) is an Australians, Australian Auto racing, racing driver. He currently drives the No. 74 Oreca LMP2 for Riley Technologies, Riley Motorsports in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar C ...

, Felipe Fraga, and

Gar Robinson Gar Robinson (born January 17, 1996) is an American Auto racing, racing driver. He is the 2021 and 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP3 Champion and currently drives the No. 74 Oreca 07 for Riley Motorsports i ...

in second.

Laurin Heinrich Laurin Heinrich (born 26 September 2001) is a German racing driver who competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for AO Racing driving the No. 77 "Rexy" Porsche 911 GT3.R. He was selected as the 2022 Porsche Junior following the sh ...

and Sebastian Priaulx were on top in the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship with 1359 points, 84 ahead of

Ben Barnicoat Ben George Barnicoat (born 20 December 1996) is a British racing driver, who competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Vasser Sullivan and in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Akkodis ASP; he serves as a factory driver for Lexus. ...

and

Jack Hawksworth Jack W. Hawksworth (born 28 February 1991) is a British professional racing driver from Bradford, West Yorkshire. , he competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for AIM Vasser Sullivan. He has also raced in the Star Mazda Championsh ...

in second.

Ross Gunn Ross Gunn (May 12, 1897 – October 15, 1966) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. The New York Times described him as "one of the true fathers of the nuclear submarine program". From 1927 to 1947, ...

was a further 83 points behind in third place. The GTD Drivers' Championship was topped by Philip Ellis and Russell Ward with 1367 points, 213 ahead of second-placed

Robby Foley Robby Foley (born July 20, 1996) is an American racing driver who currently competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Career Raised in Randolph, New Jersey, Foley's motorsports career was kickstarted in 2010 by a severe injury sustain ...

and Patrick Gallagher.

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

were leading the GTP and GTD Pro Manufacturers' Championships, whilst

Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG GmbH, commonly known as AMG (Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach), is the high-performance subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz AG. AMG independently hires engineers and contracts with manufacturers to customize Mercedes-Benz AMG v ...

were leading the GTD Manufacturers' Championship. Porsche Penske Motorsport, Era Motorsport,

AO Racing Autumn Oaks Racing, doing business as AO Racing, is an American sports car racing team that currently competes in the LMP2 and the GTD Pro classes of the IMSA SportsCar Championship and in LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series. The team was found ...

, and

Winward Racing HTP Winward Motorsport also known as HTP Motorsport and Winward Racing is a German-American-based auto racing team. The team mainly competes in GT3 based series such as the GT World Challenge Europe. The team was founded after HTP Investment BV ...

were leading their Teams' Championships.

Entry list

The entry list was revealed on June 12, 2024, and features 56 entries: 11 entries in GTP, 13 entries in LMP2, 11 entries in GTD Pro, and 21 entries in GTD.

Practice

There were two practice sessions scheduled preceding the start of the race on Sunday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes on Friday afternoon while the second session lasted 90 minutes on Saturday morning.

Qualifying

Saturday's afternoon qualifying session was broken into three sessions, with one session for the GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes, which lasted 15 minutes each. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am LMP2 class requiring a Bronze rated driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put GTPs ahead of the LMP2, GTD Pro, and GTD cars.

Qualifying results

Pole positions In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

in each class are indicated in bold and with . * The No. 83 Iron Dames entry was moved to the back of the GTD class as per Article 40.5 of the Sporting regulations (Engine change). * The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL entry did not participate in qualifying after

Connor De Phillippi Connor De Phillippi (born December 25, 1992) is an American professional racing driver and gold rated BMW Motorsport works driver. Racing career Early career De Phillippi began karting at the age of 5 years old and by the time he was 14 years o ...

crashed the car during the second practice session. By IMSA rules, the car started from the rear of the GTP class on the starting grid.

Race

Post-race

Cameron and Nasr's victory allowed them to extend their advantage to 95 points over Bourdais and van der Zande in the GTP Drivers' Championship. By finishing in second-place, Burdon, Fraga, and Robinson took the lead of the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 958 points. The final results kept Heinrich and Priaulx atop the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship with 1632 points, 49 ahead of fourth-place finishers Barnicoat and Hawksworth, who in turn were 11 points in front of Gunn. Ellis and Ward's victory allowed them to extend their advantage to 305 points over fifth-place finishers Foley and Gallagher in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Porsche and Mercedes-AMG continued to top their respective Manufactures' Championships. Porsche Penske Motorsport, AO Racing, and Winward Racing kept their respective advantages in their of Teams' Championships while Riley became the leader of the LMP2 Teams' Championship with five rounds remaining.

Race results

Class winners are denoted in bold and with .

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.

References

{{6 Hours of Watkins Glen Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen 6 Hours of Watkins Glen