Henzler, Sellers Win Sahlen’s Six Hours Of The Glen in No. 17 Falken Porsche
Team Falken Tire rolled the dice and came up a winner in Sunday’s rain-plagued Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, taking the checkered flag in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class with virtually no fuel in the tank as Round 6 of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship finished under caution.
The No. 17 Porsche 911 RSR of Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers went to the lead at Watkins Glen International as the other contenders in the GTLM class pitted following a 14-minute red flag delay.
When racing resumed with one hour remaining, Henzler managed to keep the advantage while a competitive battle raged for second. Running low on fuel, Henzler was saved by a final caution with eight minutes, 40 seconds remaining that caused the race to finish under the yellow flag. That preserved the team’s first TUDOR Championship triumph of 2015, and also gave them the victory in the third round of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.
Coming off an overall victory in the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans, Earl Bamber rebounded from a pair of spins to finish second in the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR co-driven by Joerg Bergmeister. Bamber passed Auberlen to take second following a final restart with 16 minutes remaining, and closed to within two seconds of Henzler at the final caution.
Auberlen and Dirk Werner took third in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM. It was the third consecutive podium finish, unofficially putting them into a tie for the GTLM points lead with Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, who finished fourth in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. Each team has 157 points.
No. 93 Dodge Viper ‘Double Winner’ In GTD
Running a second car in the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup events, Riley Motorsports approached the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen as two races for the No. 93 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R driven by Al Carter, Cameron Lawrence and Marc Goossens. They won both of them, backing up the team’s victory in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Andy Lally, John Potter and Marco Seefried finished second in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Flex-Box Porsche 911 GT America, giving Lally his third runner-up finish in the event in addition to three victories.
Christopher Haase, Dion von Moltke and Bryce Miller took third in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Castrol Edge Audi R8 LMS. That allowed Haase and von Moltke to extend their lead in the GTD standings to 10 points over Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil, who finished fifth joined by Andrew Davis in the No. 22 Alex Job Racing WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America, 149-139. Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler are another point behind after placing fourth in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.
NEWS AND NOTES
· The 24 Hours of Le Mans class-winning No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner lost a lap in the early going when Gavin spun in wet conditions prior to Turn 8. The team battled back to regain its lap and lead the class, before Gavin was involved in a Turn 1 incident with Bamber on a restart with one hour remaining, ending the race for the No. 4 team.
· Christina Nielsen and Kuno Wittmer were in contention for the GTD victory throughout the first half of the race before losing power with an unknown electrical problem in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions PassTime USA Aston Martin Vantage.
· The No. 911 Porsche North American Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet won the race’s DEKRA Green Challenge Award. The DEKRA Green Challenge Award is presented to the most environmentally clean, fast and efficient GTLM competitor at each TUDOR Championship race.
· The next event for the TUDOR Championship will be the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by Hawk Performance Sunday, July 12, with GTLM joined by the Prototype (P) and Prototype Challenge (PC) classes.
Bryan Sellers, Driver - No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR
"We were out of fuel at the end. We took a chance, staying out after everyone elected to pit following the red flag. I don’t think it was the rain that got us here today, it was all about our team’s execution."
Wolf Henzler, Driver - No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR
"It’s funny, so many people came to us and said it’s raining, it should be Falken weather. But we struggled a bit in the race, a bit behind the pace. It was kind of a gamble, we saved one pit stop and we tried to save fuel at the end. It was very tight. We didn’t know if we could make it. The 912 was close at the end. I was worried, but the last caution period made it less worrisome."
Cameron Lawrence, Driver - No. 93 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R
"This is only my third race in the series. So [winning] two out of three aren’t bad. We probably should have had the other one, too, but it speaks to the team and how well they do their jobs. The rain made things tough, but we all did our job and it all just fell together."
Earl Bamber, No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR
“It was a big team effort. We were one lap down at the start. To come back, then to get turned around in Turn 1 with an hour to go, and then get second was great. We had fantastic speed, but we only needed a five minutes longer race. Winning Le Mans is definitely a big high, and it’s nice to back it up here. We haven’t had the best of seasons, so it’s nice to get the first podium – now let’s hope we get a few more.”
Bill Auberlen, No. 25 BMW Team RLL IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM
“This race was so competitive, with everyone running nose to tail. The race was six hours, and it seemed the conditions changed every 10 minutes. We knew we had a great car in the rain, and we were able to drive to the front. But on the last yellow, my wiper quit working, so it would have been difficult. We’ll take it – we beat everyone we wanted to and we’re moving forward in the points.”
Jan Magnussen, No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R
“I think we got away with a better result than we probably should have. Fourth place isn’t too bad right behind the BMW for the championship. It was probably the least amount of damage that could be done. The start of the race was really scary on slicks when it wasn’t the conditions for slicks. But we made it through.”
Contact:
nsiebens@imsa.com
