IMSA: Watkins Glen to showcase Patrón North American Endurance Cup

The Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup returns to running with the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday, June 28.

The event at Watkins Glen International is the third round of the competition, which features the four classic endurance races on the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship schedule.

The Patrón Endurance Cup encompasses 52 hours of racing for $300,000 in post-season awards. The competition began with the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida in March, and closing with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 3.

Points in the Patrón Endurance Cup are awarded at specific intervals throughout each race – at the three-hour mark and finish at The Glen – with the leader at the end of each segment scoring five points, four points for second, three points for third, and fourth place on back receiving two points. Points will be scored at four hours, eight hours and 10 hours at Petit Le Mans.

Chevrolet Corvette teams hold the points lead in both the Prototype (P) and GT Le Mans (GTLM) classes entering the Sahlen's Six Hours.

Action Express Racing used its victory by the No. 5 Mustang Sampling/Cider Tree Corvette DP to capture the lead in the Prototype class, while Corvette Racing's No. 3 Corvette C7.R won both of the Florida classics to lead in GTLM.

Action Express led two of the three segments at Sebring – coming up one point shy of a perfect 15 – to take over the Prototype lead with 27 points. Wayne Taylor Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates are tied for second with 21 points each, with VisitFlorida.com Racing fourth with 20. On the drivers' ledger, Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais hold a two-point lead over Ganassi's Scott Dixon (27-25).

The No. 3 Corvette Racing team also holds a six-point lead in GTLM. Jan Magnussen, Ryan Briscoe and Antonio Garcia won the Sebring race to extend the gap over the team's No. 4 Corvette C7.R driven by Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Simon Pagenaud in the team and driver standings, 29-23. Team Falken Tire and the No. 911 Porsche North America entrants are tied for third with 19 points each.

The Daytona-winning No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT held on to a three-point lead in GT Daytona (GTD) over the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia, 27-24. Viper drivers Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence lead Ferrari pilots Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell and Anthony Lazzaro by the same margin.

The closest battle is in Prototype Challenge (PC), where the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team with drivers Mike Guasch, Tom Kimber-Smith and Andrew Palmer took a one-point lead over the No. 54 CORE autosport team of Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and James Gue, 30-29. After taking the lead in the closing half-hour en route to winning the Rolex 24, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ran the table at Sebring, scoring a perfect 15 points. A year ago, CORE autosport won the three opening races and captured the title.

The Patrón Endurance Cup round winners at each endurance event receive a limited edition bottle of Gran Patrón Platinum, numbered and signed by Francisco Alcaraz, the creator of the Gran Patrón Platinum recipe and Tequila Patrón's master distiller and blender.

Source: IMSA