In one of the closest finishes in event history, Joao Barbosa and Darren Law won the 31st running of Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen driving their Action Express Racing Corvette DP, beating out Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty in the GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP by a scant 0.238 seconds. Barbosa caught Gurney in traffic with 20 minutes remaining and used lapped cars to his advantage throughout the final run to the checkered flag.
Of the winning move, Barbosa said, “I went for the move and it was really clean racing. The Corvette was awesome during the whole race.” Alex Gurney, who had led the race for 29 laps before the decisive pass, commented, “That was pretty disappointing. We caught a GT car at just the wrong point. We really had a quick car today.”
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In his first appearance at Watkins Glen International, Sebastien Bourdais, with teammates Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio, brought their Starworks Motorsport Ford Riley home in third place ahead of the pole-sitting BMW Riley piloted by Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas.
The GT class also went down to the wire, with Robin Liddell holding off Bill Auberlen by 1.340 seconds to give the No. 57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro co-driven by John Edwards its first victory of the season. Liddell was thrilled with the win since the team was able to overcome a stop-and-go penalty during the race and said, “I’m so proud of the guys. We finished with half a gallon of fuel. The Camaro was awesome today.”
Barbosa and Law in DP as well as Liddell and Edwards in the GT class now both sit atop the North American Endurance Championship presented by VISITFLORIDA.com (NAEC) point standings.
All weekend drivers commented that, with the robust construction of the racecars, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen was a race where drivers had to give maximum effort from start to finish; no cruising in the middle of the event to preserve equipment as in the old days. The top five cars in both DP and GT categories were separated by less than three seconds with less than 30 minutes remaining in the second segment of the North American Endurance Championship.
The victory gave Action Express Racing the lead in the inaugural North American Endurance Championship presented by VISITFLORIDA.com by two points over Starworks Motorsport, 28-26. TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates is third with 25 points. Rolex 24 winner Michael Shank Racing and GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing are tied for fourth with 24 points with only the July 27 Brickyard Grand Prix remaining for the $100,000 prize. Stevenson took over the lead in GT with 29 points, five ahead of Rolex 24 winner Magnus Racing.
