IMSA’s Le Mans racers eager to get back to WeatherTech work at Watkins Glen

Unlike last year, the drivers, engineers, mechanics, and staff that went from the 24 Hours of Le Mans to the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen will have had a week off to rest, recharge and/or spend time with their families and loved ones.

Watkins Glen kicks off the second half of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season: Four races remain for the premier GTP class, and five for both GTD Pro and GTD. It’s also the end of a long three-month layoff for the LMP2s, back for the first time since Sebring.

And a handful of drivers are looking to continue the good feeling of productive outings at Le Mans, and channel that energy into a strong start to the stretch run.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg is only two weeks removed from his second GT class win at Le Mans, joined by Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar. Catsburg returns stateside as the leader in a very close battle for the GTD Pro points lead alongside co-driver Tommy Milner.

“It was obviously very cool to come away with the win there (at Le Mans), for sure. But I just hope I can carry that momentum into Watkins Glen,” said Catsburg. “I’m happy to have that week off. Le Mans is always a very long time away from home, so it’s great to be able to recover from that. You don’t sleep a lot during the Le Mans 24 Hours, so I must be honest – I had a couple of daytime naps this week!”

Victory at Le Mans with Edgar and Keating helped Catsburg (at left) get over his Detroit miscue. Julien Delfosse/DPPI

The margins are razor-thin at the very top of the GTD Pro table after five races: Milner and Catsburg are only 18 points ahead of Paul Miller Racing’s Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, 20 points ahead of Ford Racing’s Christopher Mies and Frédéric Vervisch, and 31 points ahead of Corvette Racing teammates Antonio García and Alexander Sims – who, by the way, are the reigning series champions. Remember, in IMSA’s points currency, 30 points is the difference between finishing first and second in class.

Their lead may well have been bigger were it not for a mistake by Catsburg late in the running in Detroit, when he moved under braking at the end of Jefferson Avenue, putting the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus of Aaron Telitz in the path of an imminent collision.

“Turn 3 (at Detroit) is kind of becoming my nemesis there,” admitted Catsburg, who tangled with fellow VSR driver Ben Barnicoat in 2024 and AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich in 2025 at the same hot spot. “I feel like out of those three times, it’s probably been three times mostly down to me. As much as I hate admitting that, it’s the way it is.

“Unfortunately the defensive move was purely an instinctive one, as soon as I did it, I was like, ‘Oh my god, why did you do that?’ Because two corners after, I know I was going to get a penalty."

Catsburg can be thankful that his mistake and subsequent penalty wasn’t the only major blunder for any GTD Pro driver that race, or even that weekend.

“I feel like in Detroit, and pretty much the whole season, the No. 4 car has been performing quite well," he noted. "I really hope now in Watkins, we can finally get that win that I feel that we deserve."

Catsburg and the No. 4 Corvette Racing/Pratt Miller crew can break away from the pack with a win, one they’ve been seeking for a long time. Catsburg’s last IMSA race win came back at the 2022 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and the No. 4 Corvette hasn’t won since the 2021 GT Challenge at VIR, nearly five years ago.

“That’s a disaster!” Catsburg exclaimed about the winless drought. “So hopefully we can soon add a win to that list.”

Up in the premier GTP class, BMW M Team WRT have strung together three podium finishes to start the team’s first full season in IMSA, including back-to-back podiums for the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann.

Both observed from outside the cockpit as reserve drivers when WRT took second place at Le Mans. Eng took many valuable insights from his reserve duties earlier this month, even after turning laps during Test Day the week before the race.

“I was also on standby, working with the engineers,” said Eng. “Always looking at the timing, at all the data, and I was there for the drivers, for the performance engineers. I was just using my experience with the car, with the program, and I really hope I could help I could help the whole team. It was a great experience to see the other side of the fence, not driving, but listening to all the intercom and to all the strategy in the background.

“Obviously the momentum has been on our side,” Eng said about BMW M Team WRT’s recent form. “I think our car has been performing really well recently. The P2 finish in Le Mans was great for the whole team.

“And I'm really looking forward to Watkins Glen: I think the last two race events, Laguna Seca and Detroit, have been very good for us. I just hope we can continue our podium streak, but we're also aware that the competition is extremely strong, especially our friends from Cadillac. The No. 31 (Cadillac Whelen) was very fast all weekend in Detroit, but also the No. 10 and the No. 40 (Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing).

“So, let's see what we can do. I really like Watkins Glen. It's one of my favorite weekends of the season.”

The Joker in the deck for BMW has strengthened the hand of Eng and Wittmann in IMSA. Geoff Miller/Lumen via Getty Images

Eng, like his fellow BMW Hypercar/GTP co-drivers, have enjoyed the wider operating window given to them by the M Hybrid V8’s 2026 "Joker" upgrades.

“In general, I would say that the Evo has been very positive as a driver,” Eng said. “We’ve probably lost a little bit of qualifying pace, but it's definitely easier to drive and easier to get through the stint, and that's exactly what you need from a car like we're racing: You always want to have consistency, you want to have predictability, and that's exactly what we achieved.

“We now have a race car where, lap after lap, we can really rely on it, and it's just easier to extract the lap time. So, we’re very happy about that.”

And after placing last in three of the first four rounds this season, some good luck finally went the way of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque when they finished third in Detroit. They then took that momentum to Le Mans and put together a much stronger second effort in the race than their first, finishing ninth overall despite a few procedural penalties in the back half.

“That was really the defining factor of the race,” admitted the older of the Taylor brothers. “Unfortunately, I had one right off the bat in the first FCY, which was just a mistake by me. And then Filipe had one, and then there were two more that were nothing that he did wrong…but we’re still kind of looking at how to prevent that in the future. Obviously, for us on the IMSA side, we don't experience that very much, but it was something unrelated that wasn't the fault of anyone on the team.”

A couple of glitches slowed their roll at Le Mans, but Taylor and Albuquerque like the way things are trending for them in IMSA.

A title run is all but impossible now after the woeful start to the season, but the drivers of the No. 10 WTR Cadillac feel like the team is closer than it’s ever been to ending its frustrating two-year winless drought, going back to before WTR’s switch from Acura to Cadillac in 2025.

“I think we're gaining a bit of momentum with the car,” Taylor said. “After the podium in Detroit, some strong pace in Le Mans, a couple of issues got in the way of a result. But I think the momentum of the team is there. I feel like all the drivers are sort of on their game, so we’re excited to go to the Glen. It's always a great event.

“Action Express Racing is super strong. They had a good test, I think it was a lot earlier in the month or last month. And hopefully we will learn from our Cadillac teammates there.

The two years since WTR’s last win in Detroit 2024 have certainly weighed a bit on Taylor, by his own admission.

“Honestly, it was a bit of a weird feeling to be fighting at the front again. It’s been so long since we've been consistently at the front,” he admitted. “It has been really hard. It's been a trying time.

“I don't think the motivation has ever gone away. I think, being used to being in that situation again, we just have to get back to that being a usual occurrence, and I think having a taste of it in Le Mans definitely made us hungry in that respect. But the motivation was never lost. It's just been a bit of a frustrating couple years.”