2022 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen

The 2022 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen was a sports car race held at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York on June 26, 2022. It was the seventh round of the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship and the third round of the 2022 Michelin Endurance Cup. The No. 10 WTR - Konica Minolta Acura piloted by Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque took the victory in DPi. In LMP2, the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports No. 52 piloted by Ben Keating, Scott Huffaker, and Mikkel Jensen took the victory, while the No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry driven by Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga, and Kay van Berlo took the victory in LMP3. In GTD Pro, the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 piloted by Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas claimed victory after the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M4 GT3 were penalized post-race. In GTD, the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 took the victory with Maxime Martin and Ian James.

Background

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2021. It was the eighth year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2022 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen was the seventh of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2022 by IMSA, and it was the third of four rounds held as part of the Michelin Endurance Cup (MEC). The race was held at the eleven-turn Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York on June 26, 2022.

On June 16, 2022, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event. In DPi, the Acura ARX-05 received a 10 kilogram weight increase while the Cadillac DPi-V.R received a 15 kilogram weight break. In GTD Pro and GTD, the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 received a 10 kilogram weight increase and a fuel capacity increase of 3 liters. The Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 got a fuel capacity increase of 1 liter while the McLaren 720S GT3 got a fuel capacity reduction of 2 liters.

Before the race, Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 2027 points, 10 ahead of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor. With 972 points, Juan Pablo Montoya and Henrik Hedman led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship by 9 points over Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman followed by Steven Thomas and Jonathan Bomarito with 950 points in third. In LMP3, Garett Grist and Ari Balogh led the Drivers' Championship with 688 points, 27 points clear of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun. With 1345 points, GTD Pro was led by Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet with a 50 point advantage over Antonio García and Jordan Taylor. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Stevan McAleer with 1520 points; 34 points ahead of Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen. Cadillac, Porsche, and BMW were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Meyer Shank Racing, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Jr III Motorsports, Pfaff Motorsports, and Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries

A total of 48 cars took part in the event, split across five classes. 7 were entered in DPi, 7 in LMP2, 11 in LMP3, 7 in GT Daytona Pro, and 17 in GTD. DPi featured the expected addition of the Ally Cadillac Racing No. 48 alongside the six full-season entries in the class. In LMP2, United Autosports were absent due to Jim McGuire having a medical procedure. Sebastián Montoya joined Juan Pablo Montoya, and Hendrick Hedman in the DragonSpeed entry. Racing Team Nederland returned as part of their Endurance Cup campaign. In LMP3, Kyle Marceli replaced Kuno Wittmer in the AWA entry. Nolan Siegel joined Ari Balogh, and Garett Grist in the Jr III Motorsports entry. In GTD Pro, Risi Competizione returned as part of their Endurance Cup campaign. Kyle Kirkwood subbed Jack Hawksworth who was injured, in the Vasser Sullivan Racing No. 14. In GTD, AF Corse, Cetilar Racing, Gradient Racing, Crucial Motorsports, Inception Racing, Team Hardpoint, Magnus Racing, and NTE Sport returned. Winward Racing withdrew its No. 56 entry after the cars steer-by-wire technology did not meet unanimous approval by multiple manufactures competing despite IMSA approving the entry.

Practice There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday; one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session on Friday afternoon ran for 90 minutes while the second session on Saturday morning lasted 105 minutes.

Qualifying Saturday's afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the DPi and LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (LMP2/LMP3/GTD) classes requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put DPis ahead of the LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro, and GTD cars.

Qualifying results Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by . ClassPosition in classTeamDriverTime1 DPi 1 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Tom Blomqvist 1:29.580 - 1 2 DPi 2 10 WTR - Konica Minolta Acura Filipe Albuquerque 1:29.744 +0.164 23 DPi 3 01 Cadillac Racing Sébastien Bourdais 1:30.048 +0.468 34 DPi 4 02 Cadillac Racing Earl Bamber 1:30.242 +0.662 45 DPi 5 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Olivier Pla 1:30.500 +0.920 56 DPi 6 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Tristan Vautier 1:31.059 +1.479 67 LMP2 1 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ben Keating 1:33.930 +4.350 88 LMP2 2 11 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Steven Thomas 1:33.931 +4.351 99 LMP2 3 20 High Class Racing Dennis Andersen 1:35.448 +5.868 1010 LMP2 4 29 Racing Team Nederland Frits van Eerd 1:35.778 +6.198 1111 LMP2 5 8 Tower Motorsport John Farano 1:35.838 +6.258 1212 LMP2 6 81 DragonSpeed USA Henrik Hedman 1:36.120 +6.540 1313 LMP2 7 18 Era Motorsport Dwight Merriman 1:37.658 +8.078 1414 LMP3 1 40 FastMD Racing Nicolás Varrone 1:40.028 +10.448 1515 LMP3 2 58 MLT Motorsports Josh Sarchet 1:40.590 +11.010 1616 LMP3 3 54 CORE Autosport Jon Bennett 1:41.288 +11.708 1717 LMP3 4 36 Andretti Autosport Jarett Andretti 1:41.360 +11.780 2518 LMP3 5 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Dan Goldburg 1:41.471 +11.891 1819 LMP3 6 74 Riley Motorsports Gar Robinson 1:41.481 +11.901 1920 LMP3 7 7 Forty7 Motorsports Anthony Mantella 1:42.296 +12.716 2021 LMP3 8 30 Jr III Racing Ari Balogh 1:42.392 +12.812 2122 LMP3 9 13 AWA Orey Fidani 1:42.886 +13.306 2223 LMP3 10 6 Mühlner Motorsports America Dillon Machavern 1:43.193 +13.613 2324 GTD Pro 1 25 BMW Team RLL Connor De Phillippi 1:44.755 +15.175 2625 GTD Pro 2 23 Heart of Racing Team Ross Gunn 1:44.803 +15.223 2726 GTD 1 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Stevan McAleer 1:45.077 +15.497 2827 GTD Pro 3 62 Risi Competizione Davide Rigon 1:45.169 +15.589 2928 GTD Pro 4 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Ben Barnicoat 1:45.215 +15.635 3029 GTD 2 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Richard Heistand 1:45.417 +15.837 3130 GTD 3 96 Turner Motorsport Robby Foley 1:45.426 +15.846 3231 GTD Pro 5 9 Pfaff Motorsports Mathieu Jaminet 1:45.548 +15.968 3332 GTD 4 57 Winward Racing Russell Ward 1:45.631 +16.051 3433 GTD 5 1 Paul Miller Racing Madison Snow 1:45.634 +16.054 3534 GTD 6 42 NTE Sport/SSR Jaden Conwright 1:45.756 +16.176 3635 GTD 7 16 Wright Motorsports Zacharie Robichon 1:45.762 +16.182 3736 GTD 8 47 Cetilar Racing Giorgio Sernagiotto 1:45.916 +16.336 3837 GTD Pro 6 3 Corvette Racing Jordan Taylor 1:46.259 +16.679 3938 GTD 9 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Robert Megennis 1:46.264 +16.684 4039 GTD 10 27 Heart of Racing Team Ian James 1:46.309 +16.729 4140 GTD Pro 7 79 WeatherTech Racing Cooper MacNeil 1:46.699 +17.119 4241 GTD 11 70 Inception Racing with Optimum Motorsport Brendan Iribe 1:46.821 +17.241 4342 GTD 12 59 Crucial Motorsports Jon Miller 1:46.936 +17.356 4443 GTD 13 44 Magnus Racing John Potter 1:47.466 +17.886 4544 GTD 14 21 AF Corse Luís Pérez Companc 1:47.497 +17.917 4645 DPi 7 48 Ally Cadillac Racing Kamui Kobayashi 2:17.096 +47.516 746 LMP3 11 33 Sean Creech Motorsport None No time - 2447 GTD 15 66 Gradient Racing None No time - 4748 GTD 16 99 Team Hardpoint None No time - 48 Sources:

The No. 36 Andretti Autosport entry was moved to the back of the LMP3 field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Race

Post-Race Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor retook the lead of the DPi Drivers' Championship while Blomqvist and Jarvis dropped from first to second. The final results of LMP2 meant Farano took the lead of the Drivers' Championship while Hedman and Montoya dropped from first to second. Dalziel and Merriman dropped from second to fourth. The final results of LMP3 meant Bennett and Braun took the lead of theDrivers' Championship while Grist and Balogh dropped from first to second. Robinson and Fraga advanced from sixth to third while Barbosa and Wilsey dropped from third to fourth. The final results of GTD Pro meant Campbell and Jaminet further increased their gap to 98 points as Ben Barnicoat took over second position. The result kept McAleer atop the GTD Drivers' Championship with 1765 points, 5 points ahead of Hardwick and Heylen. Porsche and BMW continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Acura took the lead of the DPi Manufactures' Championship. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Pfaff Motorsports, and Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports kept their respective advantages in the Teams' Championships. Wayne Taylor Racing and CORE Autosport became the leaders of their respective class Teams' Championships with five rounds remaining.

Race results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .