The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen saw nine cautions and nearly 1/5th of the field fall out of race contention due to incidents, including the #60 Acura and #23 Aston Martin in GTP class. Cadillac Whelen Racing dominated the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti.

From pole to victory with Cadillac Whelen

Cadillac Racing dominated at Watkins Glen International with Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti winning from the pole in the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

Bamber, Aitken and Vesti led 143 of 182 laps to score their second victory of the season and their record-extending eighth podium finish. The streak is the longest in IMSA GTP history since 2023. They also won last month in Detroit.

#31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R — 📷 © Luc Warnotte at The Glen 2026. #31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac

It’s the 35th victory for Cadillac since 2017 and the fifth career IMSA win for Aitken, the 12th win for Bamber and the third win for Vesti.

Aitken also leads the point standings by 203 points over Laurin Heinrich while the Whelen Cadillac team has a 245 point lead over the No. 93 Acura. Cadillac leads the manufacturer standings by 80 points over Porsche.

Jack Aitken: “Amazing. It was a real tough one today. Had a lot of stuff thrown at us and had to battle our way through it. But it was a really, really fast ride, that I had with the 31 Cadillac. All the guys continue to do an awesome job and I can't believe how long we're keeping this going.”

What was thrown at you that was the biggest challenge?

“Having the strategy split a little bit, a couple of stops from the end. We had to work our way through a couple of guys and just wait for the stops to play out. We had the fuel advantage. A couple of guys managed to dive early under a yellow, we managed to keep the pace, keep the fuel advantage and jump them at the last stop. So, awesome work on the strategy.”

Earl Bamber: “It was super tight. We had some really ferocious battles all throughout the race. It looked easy, but the whole time it wasn’t. here were a few cars that really showed up there for a while, the BMW, the Acura was on our toes all day, and the No. 5 there at the end. So, there was some really great hard racing, but what set that up all day was Jack's pole position. We got track position and then the guys in the pit lane, this whole bunch here is the reason why we keep staying out front. So ,thanks to these guys behind us. It was amazing to win here at Watkins Glen, and I managed to get another endurance cup win and extend that streak to, what is it, 9 now? I don't know. It's just amazing momentum, a great organization to be part of, and let's roll on to Road America, where it’s a new format. It's going to be something interesting with 6 hours there, everyone can't wait.”

Frederik Vesti: “Yeah, I'm so happy to actually make it to Watkins (Glen). Obviously not all teams are using three drivers, so it just means we have a little bit less time in practice. But in the race, we think we can share the drive time a bit better, keep Jack in this case fresh for the end, which is an advantage. It was actually a pretty hard day today, so it worked out really well. And for myself, it's just so cool to be a part of this team. We all started the beginning of last year, had a bit of a rough start to the season, but since then, we have done some incredible things. And it's not only us, it's the team, it's everyone in Cadillac as well who are just pushing so hard for these results to come. We are not taking it for granted. We're putting in the hours, and it's just very cool to have these kind of results.” Source: Cadillac Racing

Acura #93 finishes second

It was a second-place result for Acura today at the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, with the #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian team of Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly and Kaku Ohta scoring a podium finish aboard their Acura ARX-06.

The trio started in the fourth place, with van der Zande aggressively moving into third on the start. A good pit stop under caution moved the Dutchman into second in his #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing machine, where he remained until handing over to Super Formula championship leader, Ohta.

Ohta got into the car under caution following van der Zande's opening stints, continuing in second as the field went back green. The Japanese driver ran a solid double stint, collecting second-place Michelin Endurance Cup points at the halfway mark and setting a fastest race lap of 1:35.327—the best lap amongst the three drivers. The Acura MSR team then managed to call Ohta into the pits moments before another caution, switching to Nick Yelloly with just over 90 minutes left to run.

Yelloly would resume in the lead as the field went back green, leading 16 laps in the penultimate stint, before falling to second on strategy on the #93 team's final pit stop. Ultimately the Acura trio would come home in second position, scoring Ohta's first-career IMSA podium and catapulting Yelloly and van der Zande into third in the drivers' championship and the #93 into second in the teams' title.

Nick Yelloly (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished second: "I think we maximized everything we could there, that's for sure. Finishing P2 is what we could do and what we needed to do. We executed very well in the pits all day. The boys and girls at Acura Meyer Shank Racing were fantastic and HRC provided us with the best car in the business. We performed and delivered all we could today. We just need to keep grinding, keep being consistent, and we will see where we end up at the end of the season."

Renger van der Zande (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished second: "P2 today and I think it's a good result. Obviously, we would have loved to win in Watkins Glen, but the 31 was strong and congrats to them. We had a good car and we got lucky with that pit stop and then the yellow. It's great to be on the podium and get some good points. Onward to Road America!"

Kaku Ohta (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished second: "Finally got my first podium in IMSA! It took quite a long time; I've been looking forward to this since I first joined this team at Daytona in 2025. I'm so happy with the result, but it's also a bit a shame that we couldn't win the race. We had a chance, but the leader was just rapid. We executed perfectly and we gave it everything. I really enjoyed the race and I'm thrilled to be able to bring this IMSA trophy back to Japan. Big thank you to everyone at HRC US and Acura MSR for all of their hard work this weekend, it feels great to be able to give them a good result. And thank you to Honda for giving me this opportunity to race in such a great championship." Source: Acura

JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Porsche 963 finishes third

Thanks to sound tactics and strong performance from works driver Laurin Heinrich, JDC-Miller MotorSports ultimately secured third place after Tijmen van der Helm and Kaylen Frederick shared the #5 Mustang Sampling black Porsche 963.

Thanks to this result, Laurin Heinrich keeps his second in the MSA drivers’ championship after the sixth race of the season.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at The Glen 2026. JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

Laurin Heinrich (Porsche 963 #5): “What a rollercoaster ride we’ve been on! I made good progress up the field during my first stint, but then we suffered significant setbacks that temporarily set us back a lap. Nevertheless, we stayed calm throughout and got on with the job. That allowed us to fight our way up from last place to third. It was great fun. Thanks to all my colleagues in the GTP class. Together, we thrilled the fans today with some fair battles.” Source: Porsche

BMW M Team WRT narrowly misses another podium

BMW M Team WRT experienced a challenging weekend after their recent successes. Neither car was able to find the optimal set-up for the demanding Watkins Glen circuit. Nevertheless, car #24 managed to qualify in sixth place and even moved up into the top three during the race. Only a few minutes before the end, van der Linde lost the battle for third place and crossed the finish line in fourth.

Dries Vanthoor (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT, 4th place GTP): “It’s a pity that we lost the podium in the last ten minutes, but to be honest, a podium finish would have been a bonus today. 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.” Source: BMW

Both Porsche Penske finished in fifth and sixth places.

The two hybrid prototypes from Weissach fielded by the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory team were also on course for a podium finish at times.

In the IMSA manufacturers’ championship, Porsche remains in second place after the sixth race of the season. In the drivers’ championship, whilst the works driver pairings of Nasr/Andlauer and Estre/Vanthoor occupy fourth and sixth places respectively. In the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, which comprises the endurance races at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America and Road Atlanta, Porsche remains at the top of the standings.

Kévin Estre (Porsche 963 #6): “At times, we were quite far ahead with our car. However, we had one drawback: in order to keep up with the pace at the front, we used more fuel. That meant longer refuelling times during the pit stops. We achieved a good result given our circumstances. Hopefully we’ll be right up there again in the next race.”

Julien Andlauer (Porsche 963 #7): “We’ve had a few frustrating race weekends now. Despite everyone involved doing a very good job, we couldn’t manage better than fifth and sixth place. We’re not going to let it get us down, though. We’ll be back on the attack at Road America next month.” Source: Porsche

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