Paul Miller Racing on Podium at Watkins Glen, BMW M Team WRT Fourth

The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship (IWSC) and Michelin Pilot Challenge series were back in action at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York this past weekend. The main event was the Six Hours of The Glen, which was also round three of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup championship. Overall, it was a challenging weekend for the BMW teams, but Paul Miller Racing had a podium finish in GTD Pro and BMW M Team WRT were just off the GTP podium in fourth.

The Six Hours of The Glen was the first race since the 12 Hours of Sebring in March that all four classes raced together (GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro, GTD). BMW was represented in the GTP class by the pair of M Hybrid V8s (#24, #25), in GTD Pro by the Paul Miller Racing #1 M4 GT3 EVO and in GTD by the #96 Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 EVO. There were 54 total cars entered among the four classes.

Neil Verhagen qualified third in GTD Pro in the Paul Miller BMW.

The Paul Miller Racing #1 M4 GT3 EVO had a strong qualifying run, with Neil Verhagen putting the car third on the grid, with the #14 Lexus on pole. In GTD, the grid order was set by points after a crash by a Mercedes-AMG led to a red flag cancelation of their qualifying session. This put the Turner Motorsport #96 M4 GT3 EVO into second for the race start, since drivers Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher were second in points before the race. In GTP, Dries Vanthoor qualified the #24 M Hybrid V8 in sixth, around a half-second off the pole time of the #31 Cadillac. Marco Wittmann qualified the #25 M Hybrid V8 in eleventh.

Watkins Glen had beautiful weather for the main race on Sunday, which turned out to be crash-fest with nine full-course cautions, most of them the result of accidents and not mechanical issues. None of the BMWs were damaged or impacted by the accidents, but it made it hard for drivers to get into a rhythm in the race. The Paul Miller Racing BMW was strong from the start. Neil Verhagen was running second in the GTD Pro class for his stint in the #1 M4 GT3 EVO and the team put in a strong pit stop to put Connor De Phillippi in the lead when he took over.

Connor De Phillippi (left) and Neil Verhagen celebrate on the podium.

De Phillippi had “a moment” in the bus stop chicane where he got sideways and went off the track but managed to get the car back on the asphalt. With good strategy and driving, the team managed to get back into second by the end with Verhagen at the wheel, finishing behind the winning #14 Lexus that started from pole. The strong result put De Phillippi and Verhagen into the lead in GTD Pro driver points. “We got the maximum out of today,” said De Phillippi. “The strategy was spot on, and we executed our plan perfectly. We knew we didn’t have the fastest car, but we also knew that with a smart strategy and fuel efficiency, we could stay at the front. In the end, it worked out, and we’re leaving Watkins Glen with the championship lead. I’m very happy about that.”

In GTD, Turner Motorsport had a solid run in the top five for much of the race with Patrick Gallagher, Francis Selldorff and Robby Foley behind the wheel. Foley put in a triple stint to drive the last three hours of the race to finish in seventh, with the class win going to the #912 Porsche. Foley and Gallagher are now third in driver points (Selldorff is the third driver for the longer races). “I don’t know if we truly had the speed to win, but it seemed to be all about energy saving and track position,” said Gallagher. “The team did a great job on pit lane with no mistakes. We kept it clean all day with all the attrition, so overall, it was an okay day. We didn’t lose too much in the championship fight, and we’re still in the hunt in the top three and separated ourselves from fourth, fifth, and sixth.”

Turner Motorsport finished seventh in GTD.

In the top GTP class, BMW M Team WRT had momentum coming into Watkins Glen, having four consecutive podium finishes between the IMSA and FIA WEC programs, most recently finishing second at Le Mans. The team struggled with the setup on the cars at Watkins Glen. Both cars managed to stay out of the wrecks that happened during the race, but the #25 of Phillipp Eng and Marco Wittmann had a tire puncture and a penalty which set them back, ultimately finishing ninth in class.

Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor finished fourth in GTP after running third late in the race.

The #24 M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor had a better day. The car was running in third late in the race with van der Linde behind the wheel, but despite a valiant effort, the car didn’t have the pace needed for him to hold off a hard charging Laurin Heinrich in the #5 Porsche 963. Vanthoor and van der Linde ended up a solid fourth in GTP, with the win going to the #31 Cadillac that started from pole. “It’s a pity that we lost the podium in the last 10 minutes, but to be honest, a podium finish would have been a bonus today,” said Vanthoor. “We didn’t have the pace in the race to really fight at the front. Hats off to Sheldon. He drove a great race. Thanks also to the team, who made no mistakes at all. It was a smooth race, but our package just wasn’t fast enough here.”

Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann had a tire puncture and a penalty set them back.

This year was the 40th anniversary of the overall win in the Six Hours of The Glen for the short-lived GTP program with drivers Davy Jones and John Andretti. There’s a great video on that program and that race on the IMSA Official YouTube channel.

Rough Day for BMW Teams in Michelin Pilot Challenge

The Michelin Pilot Challenge series was in action on Saturday as a support race for the IWSC, with a two-hour contest. There were seven M4 GT4 EVO entries and Turner Motorsport drivers Dillon Machavern and Luca Mars were leading the championship coming into the weekend. BMW had momentum coming into Watkins Glen as well. BMWs finished second, third and fourth in the most recent round at Mid-Ohio, and the #95 car of Machavern and Mars won the race before that at Laguna Seca.

In qualifying, the #39 Carbahn with Peregrine Racing M4 GT4 EVO driven by Sean McAlister was the fastest BMW in fourth and was the only BMW in the top ten. The top eleven cars were within a second of each other.

Jeff Westphal and Sean McAlister had a win in sight until getting a flat tire late in the race.

Michelin Pilot Challenge races are known to have a lot of contact between cars which brings out cautions, but the Watkins Glen race ran trouble free until nearly the end, when IMSA initiated a caution period to fix some curbing that was coming up on the right-hand turn into the “Bus Stop” chicane. Unfortunately, that broken curb led to some flat tires throughout the race, including the #39 BMW of McAlister and Westphal, who seemed to have the race in hand before the flat tire, presumably from the broken curbing.

The #95 Turner Motorsport BMW of Machavern and Mars also had a flat tire on the last lap while running in the top four, which dropped them back to 17th. That was a major setback for Mars and Machavern in the championship battle that they were leading, as some of their primary competitors ended up in front of them, including the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG that won the race and the #13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang that finished second. Mars and Machavern are still in the lead, but the gap to second place dropped from 200 points to 60.

Steve Wetterau and Cameron Shields were the top-finishing BMW in Michelin Pilot Challenge in ninth.

If it weren’t for the flat tire issues, BMWs would have likely finished first and third in the race, but the best BMW finish was the #37 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing M4 GT4 EVO of Steve Wetterau and Cameron Shields in ninth, followed by the #27 Auto Technic Racing BMW of Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz in eleventh. McAleer and Krainz were third in the championship before Watkins Glen.