Cadillac V-Performance Racing teams Mustang Sampling Cadillac, Whelen Engineering Cadillac, Konica Minolta Cadillac and Spirit of Daytona Cadillac are headed to upstate New York for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, June 29-July 1.
– Mustang Sampling and Whelen Engineering lead prototype points
– Mustang Sampling Cadillac defending Glen winners
– Cadillac teams one and two in Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup
The legendary Watkins Glen International Raceway measuring 3.4-miles and 11-turns located in the Finger Lakes region of New York plays host to the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship. So far this season Cadillac powered teams have posted wins at Daytona, Long Beach and Detroit. The Mustang Sampling Cadillac team sits atop the IMSA Prototype Championship standings with 144, tied with Whelen Engineering Cadillac and the Konica Minolta Cadillac team is tied for third with 130 points.
The Glen is a Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup round and Whelen Engineering Cadillac leads that championship with 27 points, followed closely by Mustang Sampling Cadillac with 21 points.
The Mustang Sampling Cadillac team is bringing in IndyCar driver Gabby Chaves to sub for Joao Barbosa who was injured in a cycling accident following the round in Detroit. Veteran Christian Fittipaldi rounds out the car with Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel of the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R.
“I love Watkins Glen, it is a great track and I am looking forward to racing the Cadillac Prototype there,” Chaves said. “I’m excited to be going back to endurance racing. With different classes all racing at the same time, there is a lot for the driver to deal with as you work through traffic. So I am looking forward to racing at the Glen again, and I really appreciate this opportunity with Mustang Sampling Cadillac.”
In the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac, Mike Conway, coming off of a second place overall run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans joins Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran at The Glen this weekend. The team won the last race at Detroit and are hungry for another.
“I grew up in New England so I’ve been racing at Watkins Glen for a long time and I love racing there,” Curran said. “I won my first race there, I’ve run NASCAR Xfinity, Rolex GT, and pretty much everything else under the sun there so I am really looking forward to being back in the Whelen Engineering Cadillac this weekend. It was awesome to crack into the win column in Detroit and now we want to put everything together for that same kind of result on Sunday.”
The No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac team with Jordan Taylor and Renger Van Der Zande are still looking for their first win of 2018. By this time last year the Wayne Taylor led team had posted five wins.
“I always enjoy going back to Watkins Glen for the six hour,” Taylor said. “It’s one of the coolest races we have on the schedule because it’s a good blend of sprint and endurance racing. It’s hard to know where we will line up on pace but, with it being six hours, I think it suits our team’s strengths with the added pit stops and strategy options. We are still very much in the championship hunt. We are tied for third heading into the second half of the season. We have had a very consistent season up to this point with the exception of Daytona. We haven’t done anything flashy. There’s a long way to go in the championship.”
The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Cadillac team is back with drivers Matt McMurry and Tristan Vautier and looking for a strong run this weekend at The Glen.
“I raced at The Glen for the first time in 2014 for Mazda in the Diesel Prototype, then in 2017 in the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG,” Vautier said. “We want to complete a solid, well-executed race. We had bad luck on our return in Detroit, with a gearbox failure, so we really want to see the checkered flag this weekend. Obviously, we are focused on performance as always and will push 100 percent, but we’re going to be putting a lot of emphasis on having a solid, trouble-free race. We need it as a team.”
Source. Kyle Chura/Cadillac Racing
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