Grid and Go has taken another iRacing special event success with victory in the 6 Hours at The Glen this afternoon (20th June).
While it dominated the GTP race, at least for the final four hours, battles for the victory in LMP2 and GT3 behind excited fans right to the end of the tremendously unpredictable event.
In qualifying, ever important at this race, Bleu Mercure Esport took pole in both prototype classes (GTP and LMP2), while Grid and Go’s familiarly strong GT3 effort earned it a one-two in that class.
It would be the prototype categories that saw big drama at the start, though, with multiple taken out of the race, and BME taking a one-two at the front of the field.
After the initial drama, the early laps were clean, with the first round of traffic passing without incident, but second time round, lseveral small accidents took place. This culminated just after the first pitstops for the race leaders, as the BME teammates crashed into each other coming towards turn seven.
Grid and Go, who had made a short first stop to avoid exactly that sort of incident, led by around seven seconds over Owen Caryl of Mahle Racing Team. That was, until an incident of his own for Caryl, who overcorrected a small slide into the final corner and smacked the wall, ending their day.
With two hours gone, the LMP2 and GT3 classes had been quiet, but that was about to change. Corentin Millerou was catching the Bleu Mercure Esports team for the lead until he was taken out by another GNG GTP at turn one, before BME themselves had an incident, which allowed the GNG LMP2 to catch them further.
It was tense for more than two hours between the pair, that was until Yoann Rouyer made an unintelligent move on a GT3 into the bus stop, ending their race. While that was going on, GT3 was getting much closer.
GNG had been sleepwalking into a terrible fuel situation, consistently unable to make the all-important hour mark, and with less than two hours to go, went into ultra-fuel-save mode. Teams behind, who had been running in tandem all race, caught the helpless race leaders at the same time with around 90 mins to go.
Falken Simracing and Nova Legio (made up of Yohann Harth and Kevin Ellis Jr. after Drago Racing ceased operations) were the only ones who made it through and also had their strategy in order, which allowed them to fight hard for the win.
In the end, it would be rainfall which decided the winner, as sprinkles of moisture fell with just 30 minutes to go.
As the track got slicker, Harth struggled more, while Kody Deith for Falken was able to cope better with the conditions. In fact, Vasilios Beletsiotis and Jarno Koch were able to catch and almost deny Nova Legio a debut podium, but a spin from Koch meant only the former was able to pass, while Falken Simracing went on to win.
In LMP2, there’d be late drama as well, as on the last lap, Tristan Cabrera in the Bleu Mercure Esports car crashed at the inner loop, but luckily, he had enough of a gap to lead his teammates home for a one-two anyway.
Meanwhile, out front, all Sean Campbell and Jake Denehan had to do was keep it clean, and they’d win the 6 Hours at Watkins Glen by nearly 15 seconds, which they comfortably did.
A chaotic and drama-filled race that was only supercharged by a little bit of rain in the final half an hour, as the endurance summer on iRacing continues. The next big event is at Spa, for the final of the big 24-hour race this season.