The 2019 IMSA 6 Hours of Watkins Glen Live Blog

5:35 Remaining: Back to green.

Four different manufacturers now hold the top four spots in GTLM, with a Ford leading a BMW, a Corvette, and a Porsche. With Risi Competizione’s Ferrari now a part-time program, every manufacturer in today’s field is represented in that incredibly close lead group.

5:38 Remaining, Safety Car: Repairs for the #31 Cadillac are minor, but some issues with the bodywork have made them particularly slow, so that car is now two full laps down.

5:45 Remaining, Safety Car: Cadillacs #5 and #31, teammates from the rebranded Action Express Racing, have collided with one another from fourth overall and in class. The #5 rejoins without issue, but the #31 is beached in the gravel. seemingly having begun the incident when braking in front of its with a punctured tire.

That car, the one driven by Pipo Derani and former Formula 1 driver Felipe Nasr, is leading the championship in DPi. That would be difficult to describe as an ideal result for that team.

5:50 Remaining: Back to green. Dane Cameron was granted a nice bit of relief by the timing of this safety car, with the by-class grid sorting done during even short periods of slowdown allowing his #6 Acura to move in front of the entire GT field and closer to the DPi leaders.

5:59 Remaining, Safety Car: The race begins and, for the second straight weekend of IMSA racing, is under yellow by the end of lap 1.

It’s a collision between two GTLM contenders, the #912 Porsche and the #4 Corvette C7.R, beginning the incident, with the #4 Corvette, the same car that ran as #64 at Le Mans, suitably destroyed for the second time this month.

Porsche #912 escapes without major damage, but the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 of Ben Keating is less lucky. That Riley Motorsports team ran the Keating Ford GT in GTE-Am at Le Mans, the car that had its win vacated on a penalty. The #48 Lamborghini Huracan joins it s a GTD car to collect damage, but that Paul Miller Racing car seems to have suffered little more than a flat left-rear tire.

The #6 Acura DPi started from the rear of the field, surrendering its front row starting position. Antonio Garcia had a poor start in the #3 Corvette and dropped from the lead to third in GTLM, handing that class lead to Richard Westbrook and the #67 Ford GT. Pole sitters lead in all other classes, including the two-car LMP2 category that will go scarcely mentioned today.

6:00 Remaining: The Six Hours of the Glen, one if IMSA’s oldest and most famous races, is about to begin. Mazda, which has shown impressive speed for the past two seasons but has been plagued by significant reliability issues since the program began, has its #55 on pole in DPi, ahead of Penske’s two Acuras and its sister #77 Mazda on the front two rows. Antonio Garcia put the #3 Corvette on pole in GTLM, sharing that class front row with the #67 Ford GT, while Trent Hindman leads an Acura NSX front row lockout in GTD.

The race begins shortly and will last the track’s traditional six hours. It can be streamed on NBC Sports streaming services and IMSA.com in the U.S., airing on American television later today.

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