We are starting the third hour of this race. At the end of this one, we'll be halfway home. Trent Hindman says he and MSR have been guessing on setups, but the Acura NSX GT3 is running well at the moment. Mario Farnbacher is going to be next into the car, possibly. Our leader at Mazda has run 70 laps, 238 miles. Pipo Derani and Mike Conway are ahead of the Mazda's, but, not for position. The AXR cars may be holding up the Mazda. There's still almost four hours remaining in the race. The Acura's are third and fourth, Castroneves in #7, Montoya in #6. Timo Bernhard now hits the pit lane. He will stay in the car, for a second stint or so it appears. New tires ready for Mazda. He is getting a fresh drink bottle and there is a new data card going into the car.
A quick, efficient pit stop for Mazda Team Joest. Mike Conway is back on the lead lap, and the #31 car is still a lap down to the leaders. Dumas, Owen, and Derani are all a lap down, but Conway is on the lead lap for the moment. Justin Marks and Aaron Telitz are scrapping for third in GT Daytona, and Toni Vilander is in the pound seats as well. Corey Lewis is laps down in the Army tank Lamborghini. Justin Marks may get dusted by Lewis here. Lewis wants the place. The leading Mazda comes through this pack. That's the second place Mazda, Timo Bernhard still driving. Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya are catching the Mazda's steadily.
Bea Figueredo is next up in GTD and Lars Kern is coming fast as well. Cory Lewis wants a lap back and has to pass all of these aforementioned cars and drivers. Lewis is being harried by Vilander who goes around Aaron Telitz. Wow. The Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini has a lot of pace! Last of the late brakers, and nearly contact between Telitz and Lewis! Lars Kern drops a wheel in avoidance. Kern is a brave driver, who holds the road car record around the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Figueredo may have gotten by, but no, this is the wrong Acura. That's Justin Marks who passed Aaron Telitz, but has since dropped down the order a bit in GTD. The #31 Cadillac has been passed by Jonathan Bomarito, and Mike Conway is next. He just turned his car's fastest lap of the race.
The Ford's have pace in GTLM. It's mega close for all the cars. All eight cars are separated by 11 seconds on track, but nothing in terms of their competitiveness. Corey Lewis has a problem. Side by side stuff for Penske Acura! Castroneves just hangs on over Montoya! Jonathan Bomarito has not been able to make the same kind of a gap over the rest of the field. #77 pitted out of sequence half a dozen laps ago. The Paul Miller Lamborghini is in the lane, the car has been fueled, and they are looking at the telemetry and the engine. Engine trouble could be imminent for this automobile. There's another race, next weekend, next Sunday. In comes the #31 Cadillac, and he runs over something heading into the lane.
Lamborghini #48 is heading back to the garage, with just over three and a half hours left in this motor race. Everyone except Corvette #4 is in contention in GT Le Mans at this point. Richard Westbrook had an issue with a loose steering column a little earlier. Bomarito leads the motor race over Helio Castroneves and Juan Montoya. Mike Conway in the lane for service. New tires for the #5 Cadillac. The #55 Mazda isn't as quick as it was earlier. Don't overextend the pace. We're half a hour short of the halfway mark in this motor race. The Acura's are carving their way through the GTLM scrum, and both Penske Acura's hit the pit lane. They almost ran into each other! Yikes! The #6 car has a far quicker stop than does #7. The Land Motorsport Audi is in the lane. Daniel Morad, out, and Ricardo "Ricky" Feller, is in the car. New tires, fuel, and a clean windscreen. Ricardo Feller gets his first taste of competition at Watkins Glen.
Jonathan Bomarito has pitted and so has Jordan Taylor, allowing Timo Bernhard to cycle back to the lead of the motor race. Mazda has made a very quick, efficient stop. Watkins Glen is a very smooth, very high grip circuit. There's a big scrap now in DPi at the head of the field as Jonathan Bomarito is just barely ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya. Helio Castroneves is keeping a watching brief at the moment. There's smoke on the downshifts into the Inner Loop from the Mazda, and Jan Magnussen leads GTLM over both BMW's, now with Earl Bamber in the Porsche 911 RSR in fourth in class. BMW leads GT Daytona by three seconds over Ferrari and Lexus. Acura is next again. Cameron Cassels still leads LMP2.
But of course, there are just two LMP2 cars in the motor race, and the Corvette goes outside of the #25 BMW M8 GT. Jan Magnussen pulls off a good pass into the Inner Loop. Magnussen leads in class in GT Le Mans. Blomqvist and Jesse Krohn are 3/10ths apart. Colin Braun has the CORE Autosport Nissan seventh overall. Acura #6 is trying to get past the #5 Cadillac, who is between that car and the Mazda. Mike Conway is down a lap another time, and the #31 car is now three laps down. We've had just one safety car, nearly halfway through this race. We'll be half done here in another 20 minutes. BMW pits from third in class in GTLM, for Jesse Krohn. New tires going on the car. Jesse Krohn will stay in the car.
The #12 Lexus pits. Aaron Telitz out, and Townsend Bell into the car. Connor De Philippi did the drinks bottle on the BMW, but did not get into the car. Tom Blomqvist is still in the car. This is the 37th running of the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. Bruno Giacomelli in the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car was running 1:32-1:33 in the final Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1981. The Scheckter chicane is not here anymore, and the Bus Stop chicane was only introduced in 1992. IndyCar raced here in 2016 and 2017, and the lap times exceeded Formula 1 by ten seconds, and the DPi cars are even faster, and the sports cars of course are a lot heavier and have a lot more downforce.
The original character of this track, after it was first rebuilt in 1971, hasn't diminished. There is no room at Watkins Glen for modern paved runoff areas. There's Armco barriers and sod. IndyCar, IMSA, and other championships have been here. Circuit of the Americas is the same distance as WGIR, 3.4 miles. Bill Auberlen has had some argy bargy, and a left rear tire puncture. The tire popped, but there's no damage to the suspension. Tristan Nunez is now driving the #77 Mazda. Toni Vilander and Justin Marks pitted. Mario Farnbacher took over the #86 Acura, and more pit work for Corvette #3 and Porsche #912.
Reinhold Joest, Jo Siffert, and Brian Redman, won here in a Porsche 908, 50 years ago. Could Joest hang on to win a race here again, half a century later? There was sure contact between Bill Auberlen and the JDC-Miller "Banana Boat" Cadillac, one of them. Could there be a doubleheader with IndyCar and IMSA here at Watkins Glen? We'll find out. Juan Pablo Montoya has pitted the #6 Acura. He stayed on the road for 14 laps between his pit stops, while Mazda ran a 25 lap stint. Fuel and tires, and no driver change, for both Ford GT's. Ryan Briscoe moves first. Nick Tandy is going to take the lead in GTLM. Tandy leads Vanthoor in GTLM over Magnussen, Blomqvist, and Krohn, followed by the Ford boys.
100 laps, 340 miles run in this motor race so far by the two Mazda's leading. Corvette #4 is being worked on, with the backup car, fixing the car to go up to Canada next weekend. In a couple weeks, we will find out the announcement of the new C-8-R- race car for Corvette. It will be unveiled in Bowling Green, Kentucky, at the museum, next to the factory. Cadillac #5 is in the pit lane. Mike Conway gets out, and the car will be taken over by Joao Barbosa.
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