The 2017 Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen was an endurance race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York on the July 2nd, 2017. This race was the sixth round of the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Background

IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the 6 Hours of The Glen was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016. It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2017 Sahlen's 6 Hours of the Glen was the sixth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, and was the third round of the Patron North American Endurance Cup. The race was held at the eleven-turn Watkins Glen International circuit on July 2, 2017. After the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic four weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 177 points, ahead of João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 147 points, and Dane Cameron and Eric Curran with 143 points. With 144 points, was led by James French and Patricio O'Ward with a twenty six-point advantage over Don Yount. Antonio García and Jan Magnussen led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 124 points, ahead of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller with 118 points. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen with 150 points, ahead of Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 141 points. Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Riley Motorsports Team AMG each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries

A total of 38 cars took part in the event split across 4 classes. 10 cars were entered in P, 3 in PC, 8 in GTLM, and 17 in GTD. In P, Rebellion Racing missed the event due to logistical issues. Olivier Pla joined José Gutiérrez in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry. Ed Brown missed the event due to injury and retired from prototype racing. In PC, Starworks Motorsport were absent. Buddy Rice and Daniel Burkett returned to the #20 BAR1 Motorsports entry. Brian Alder and Derek Jones joined Gustavo Yacamán in the #26 BAR1 Motorsports entry. In GTLM, Risi Competizione were forced to miss the event due to budgetary issues following the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the team's Ferrari 488 GTE was severely damaged in an accident. Gianmaria Bruni made his debut for Porsche joining Laurens Vanthoor in the #912 Porsche GT Team entry. In GTD, Alex Job Racing, and Dream Racing Motorsport made their first appearances since the 12 Hours of Sebring. Michael Christensen and Michael de Quesada returned to Alegra Motorsports.

Practice There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1 The first practice session took place at 11:05 am ET on Friday and ended with Stephen Simpson topping the charts for JDC-Miller MotorSports, with a lap time of 1:35.491. ClassTeamDriverTime1P85JDC-Miller MotorSportsStephen Simpson1:35.491_2P2Tequila Patrón ESMRyan Dalziel1:35.530 +0.0393P5Mustang Sampling RacingJoão Barbosa1:36.813 +1.322Source:

Practice 2 The second practice session took place at 3:30 pm ET on Friday and ended with Pipo Derani topping the charts for Tequila Patrón ESM, with a lap time of 1:34.696. ClassTeamDriverTime1P2Tequila Patrón ESMPipo Derani1:34.696_2P22Tequila Patrón ESMBruno Senna1:35.293 +0.5973P52PR1/Mathiasen MotorsportsOlivier Pla1:35.377 +0.681Source:

Practice 3 The third and final practice session took place at 8:00 am ET on Saturday and ended with Olivier Pla topping the charts for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, with a lap time of 1:48.566. ClassTeamDriverTime1P52PR1/Mathiasen MotorsportsOlivier Pla1:48.566_2P5Mustang Sampling RacingChristian Fittipaldi1:49.281 +0.7153P90VisitFlorida RacingRenger van der Zande1:50.769 +2.203Source:

Qualifying In Saturday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.

The first was for cars in GTD class. Andy Lally qualified on pole for the class driving the #93 Meyer-Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian, beating Lawson Aschenbach in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports entry.

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Joey Hand qualified on pole driving the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry, besting Alexander Sims in the #25 BMW Team RLL entry by just over three tenths of a second.

The third session of qualifying was for cars in the PC class. James French set the fastest time driving the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Pipo Derani qualified on pole, besting Olivier Pla in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry.

Qualifying Results Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by . ClassTeamDriverTime1 DPi 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Pipo Derani 1:34.405 _ 1 2 DPi 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Olivier Pla 1:34.567 +0.162 23 DPi 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Christian Fittipaldi 1:35.306 +0.901 34 DPi 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Ricky Taylor 1:35.496 +1.091 45 DPi 22 Tequila Patrón ESM Johannes van Overbeek 1:35.637 +1.119 56 DPi 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Eric Curran 1:36.103 +1.698 67 DPi 90 VisitFlorida Racing Renger van der Zande 1:36.129 +1.724 78 DPi 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Misha Goikhberg 1:36.799 +2.394 8 9 DPi 55 Mazda Motorsports Tristan Nunez 1:36.886 +2.481 910 DPi 70 Mazda Motorsports Joel Miller 1:36.981 +2.576 1011 PC 38 Performance Tech Motorsports James French 1:40.049 +5.644 11 12 PC 20 BAR1 Motorsports Don Yount 1:42.125 +7.720 1213 GTLM 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Joey Hand 1:42.507 +8.102 14 14 GTLM 25 BMW Team RLL Alexander Sims 1:42.813 +8.408 1515 GTLM 24 BMW Team RLL Martin Tomczyk 1:42.881 +8.476 1616 GTLM 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Richard Westbrook 1:42.884 +8.479 1717 GTLM 911 Porsche GT Team Patrick Pilet 1:43.140 +8.735 1818 GTLM 4 Corvette Racing Tommy Milner 1:43.189 +8.784 1919 GTLM 912 Porsche GT Team Laurens Vanthoor 1:43.192 +8.787 2020 GTLM 3 Corvette Racing Antonio García 1:43.243 +8.838 2121 PC 26 BAR1 Motorsports Brian Alder 1:43.575 +9.170 1322 GTD 93 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Andy Lally 1:46.051 +11.646 22 23 GTD 57 Stevenson Motorsports Lawson Aschenbach 1:46.271 +11.866 2324 GTD 15 3GT Racing Jack Hawksworth 1:46.724 +12.319 2425 GTD 86 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Jeff Segal 1:46.816 +12.411 2526 GTD 27 Dream Racing Motorsport Paolo Ruberti 1:47.490 +13.085 2627 GTD 96 Turner Motorsport Justin Marks 1:47.551 +13.146 2728 GTD 16 Change Racing Corey Lewis 1:47.774 +13.369 2829 GTD 48 Paul Miller Racing Madison Snow 1:47.826 +13.421 2930 GTD 14 3GT Racing Sage Karam 1:48.058 +13.653 3831 GTD 63 Scuderia Corsa Christina Nielsen 1:48.098 +13.693 3032 GTD 33 Riley Motorsports – Team AMG Ben Keating 1:48.282 +13.877 3133 GTD 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Boris Said 1:48.778 +14.373 3234 GTD 73 Park Place Motorsports Matt McMurry 1:48.895 +14.490 3335 GTD 28 Alegra Motorsports Michael de Quesada 1:49.131 +14.726 3436 GTD 50 Riley Motorsports – WeatherTech Racing Cooper MacNeil 1:49.878 +15.474 3537 GTD 23 Alex Job Racing Townsend Bell 1:50.647 +16.242 3638 GTD 54 CORE Autosport Jon Bennett 1:50.973 +16.568 37Sources:

The No. 26 BAR1 Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the PC field as per Articles 43.5 and 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver) and (Change of starting tires). The No. 14 3GT Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires). The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Race

Post-race The result kept Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor atop the Prototype Drivers' Championship. Goikhberg and Simpson moved to third after being fourth coming into Watkins Glen. In the PC Drivers' Championship, French and O'Ward extended their points lead to thirty points over Yount, while Yacamán advanced from seventh to fifth. In the GTLM Drivers' Championship, Garcia and Magnussen further increased their gap to eighteen points ahead of Müller and Hand. Auberlen and Sims advanced from fourth to third while Pilet and Werner dropped to fifth. By finishing second in GTD, Balzan and Nielsen took the lead of the GTD Drivers' Championship while Lally and Legge moved from sixth to third. Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, and Corvette Racing kept their respective advantages in the Teams' Championships with six rounds remaining. Scuderia Corsa took the lead of the GTD Teams' Championship going into the next race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

Results Class winners are denoted in bold and .

+Final race classificationClassTeamDriversChassisTireTime/Retired Engine 1 P 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Christian Fittipaldi João Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque Cadillac DPi-V.R 200 6:01:18.592 Cadillac 6.2 L V8 2 P 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Misha Goikhberg Stephen Simpson Chris Miller Oreca 07 200 +1.183s Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 3 P 55 Mazda Motorsports Tristan Nunez Jonathan Bomarito Spencer Pigot Mazda RT24-P 200 +8.546s Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0 L Turbo I4 4 P 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Olivier Pla José Gutiérrez Ligier JS P217 200 +17.583s Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 5 P 90 VisitFlorida Racing Marc Goossens Renger van der Zande Riley Mk. 30 198 +2 laps Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 6 P 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Ricky Taylor Jordan Taylor Cadillac DPi-V.R 197 +3 laps Cadillac 6.2 L V8 7 PC 38 Performance Tech Motorsports James French Patricio O'Ward Kyle Masson Oreca FLM09 195 +5 laps Chevrolet 6.2 L V8 8 GTLM 25 BMW RLL Racing Alexander Sims Bill Auberlen BMW M6 GTLM 192 +8 laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 9 GTLM 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Richard Westbrook Ryan Briscoe Ford GT 192 +8 laps Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Twin-turbo V6 10 GTLM 3 Corvette Racing Antonio García Jan Magnussen Chevrolet Corvette C7.R 192 +8 laps Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8 11 PC 20 BAR1 Motorsports Don Yount Daniel Burkett Buddy Rice Oreca FLM09 192 +8 laps Chevrolet 6.2 L V8 12 GTLM 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Joey Hand Dirk Müller Ford GT 192 +8 laps Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Twin-turbo V6 13 GTLM 4 Corvette Racing Tommy Milner Oliver Gavin Chevrolet Corvette C7.R 192 +8 laps Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8 14 GTLM 912 Porsche GT Team Laurens Vanthoor Gianmaria Bruni Porsche 911 RSR 192 +8 laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 15 GTLM 911 Porsche GT Team Patrick Pilet Dirk Werner Porsche 911 RSR 191 +9 laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 16