The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing DPi-V.R will carry a new and unique look tied to the 4th of July celebrations as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is set to stage a pair of back to back events, starting with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen this Sunday. The Watkins Glen International race will be quickly followed by a trip north of the border for the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park round of IMSA WeatherTech action on July 8th.
Heading to upstate New York with the winning momentum of the most-recent round run to victory for Whelen Engineering Racing drivers Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr, the Detroit-winning duo will be joined by Mike Conway in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing DPi-V.R.
Fresh from a runner-up result in the Le Mans 24 Hour, Conway was part of the driver strength that earned the No. 31 a podium finish at both the Rolex 24 as well as Sebring 12 Hour events earlier this season. Conway has previous experience at Watkins Glen in IndyCar competition as he prepares to make his first-ever Sahlen’s 6 Hour race start.
“I’m really looking forward to this weekend at Watkins Glen, it’s a circuit I haven’t driven on since 2009 in Indycar so I’m excited to try the track in the Cadillac!” said Conway. “The team has had a great season so far, with both cars sharing the lead of the full championship and the No. 31 leading the Endurance, so I need to be at my best so the team can pick up maximum points.”
The Detroit victory, as well as robust performances in Long Beach and Mid-Ohio, have seen the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing entry move into a tie with the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac atop the IMSA Prototype standings. The strong team performance in the opening two rounds also saw the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing entry holding the advantage in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup (TPNAEC) standings heading into the Watkins Glen weekend.
The team will take on a 42 car field with three classes in action on the 3.4-mile circuit. The track, which has long been a staple of the North American road racing history books, features a high average speed as drivers navigate the climbing esses, inner loop, and the Boot sections of the track.
“I grew up in New England so I’ve been racing at Watkins Glen for a long time, and I love racing there,” said Curran. “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 race is another first for Nasr as he navigates through his rookie season of IMSA WeatherTech competition.
“It has been fun to learn all the new tracks this year, and Watkins Glen is one that I’ve really been looking forward to,” said Nasr. “I’ve been doing laps on Forza to learn the layout and it looks like a fast place. It was great to get that first IMSA win in Detroit with Eric (Curran) and hopefully, we can continue that with another big race at the Glen. This team does an awesome job with the preparation of the Whelen Cadillac, and they are fast on pit lane. With a 6 hour race, just like we saw at Sebring, that will be really important to have good race pace and teamwork for a big result. So with this team behind us, that gives me a lot of confidence for this weekend.”
Source. Sunday Group
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