No. 31 Cadillac team drives to IMSA win at Watkins Glen

Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, and Frederik Vesti drove their No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R to the win at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen on Sunday, the second straight IMSA win of 2026 for the Action Express Racing team, and one that extends the team and Aitken’s respective leads in the GTP championship.

To get there, the Cadillac Whelen trio held onto the top spot through an accident-strewn first four hours of the race, then came back from third to first in the final hour and 12 minutes to retake the lead thanks to timely tactics and a great final pit stop.

Polesitter Aitken led the field to the green flag and maintained the lead through the first 30 minutes of the race. Aitken built up a four-second lead over the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande before an incident for Intersport Racing’s Jon Field brought out the first full course yellow of the race.

While under the second full course yellow for debris in Turn 6, the No. 60 MSR Acura of Colin Braun, the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie of Roman de Angelis, and the No. 81 DragonSpeed Corvette of Henrik Hedman were all involved in a bizarre crash at the Esses.

Hedman checked up as other GTD class cars slowed to a stop in front of him, as did Braun. De Angelis was the last on the scene and could not slow down in time, hitting Braun, who then hit Hedman from behind. All three drivers were thankfully okay, but both the No. 23 Aston Martin and No. 60 Acura retired due to terminal damage, and the No. 81 Corvette went nearly 40 laps down after extensive repairs.

Once racing resumed, though, the No. 31 Cadillac maintained its advantage in the hands of Vesti, and then Bamber, who built up a six-second lead once the race reached halftime.

The No. 37 Intersport ORECA retired after Field spun and crashed at turn seven, inflicting terminal damage to his wounded car. The same fate also befell the No. 911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R after rookie Loek Hartog crashed against the guardrail in turn six.

And with three hours and 30 minutes to go, contact between the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 of Kaylen Frederick and the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette of Mason Filippi brought out the yellow for a fifth time. Frederick’s co-driver Laurin Heinrich appeared to take a huge hit to his title hopes, but the No. 5 Porsche was able to eventually regain the lead lap as the carnage continued into the second half.

Turn 1 contact between the No. 22 United Autosports USA and No. 11 TDS Racing ORECAs in LMP2 brought the No. 11’s charge to a halt with a broken left-front suspension.

And only seconds after the race went green again after that incident was cleared, the two leading cars in the GTD Bob Akin Award race, the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari (Ollie Millroy) and 13 Autosport Corvette (Matthew Bell) made side-by-side contact into the esses and triggered another multi-car accident, also involving the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage (Spencer Pumpelly) and the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG (Russell Ward).

The carnage gave way long enough for Earl Bamber’s Cadillac, Sheldon van der Linde’s BMW, and the Porsches of Kévin Estre and Heinrich to have a fantastic battle within the top four: Bamber and van der Linde in hot pursuit for the lead, Estre and Heinrich battling for third.

But with 94 minutes left in the race, Bamber was caught in traffic at the esses, then inadvertently sideswiped the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari and sent Simon Mann into the wall at Turn 4. The No. 93 Acura and No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac had made routine pit stops before the safety car was deployed again, putting them in prime position to take the win.

The No. 31 Cadillac was not investigated for the collision, a lucky break for Aitken as he relieved Bamber for the final stints.

Aitken took the final restart from third place, but with Filipe Albuquerque’s pace fading and Aitken at top pace, both Cadillac teams encouraged Aitken to make the move for second with minimal resistance from the No. 10 WTR Cadillac. On the last round of green flag pit stops, Cadillac Whelen jumped to the lead thinks to a quick final stop, and Aitken would tick through the laps until the white flag.

Christopher Mies’ violent final lap accident in the No. 65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3, after getting turned by the No. 4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, brought out the ninth and final full course yellow of the race. That brought the race to an end, with the No. 31 Cadillac taking the checkered flag ahead of the No. 93 MSR Acura of van der Zande, Nick Yelloly, and Kakunoshin Ohta in second.

Yelloly withstood pressure from Heinrich in the final minutes as the German powered the No. 5 JDC-Miller Porsche to a sensational third place alongside co-drivers Frederick and Tijmen van der Helm.

The No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 (Dries Vanthoor/Sheldon van der Linde) came home fourth, followed by the No. 7 (Felipe Nasr/Julien Andlauer) and No. 6 (Kévin Estre/Laurens Vanthoor) Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s and the No. 10 (Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque) and No. 40 (Jordan Taylor/Louis Delétraz) WTR Cadillacs.

After frustrating results in Daytona and Sebring, PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron, and Jonny Edgar finally got their first win of the LMP2 season in their No. 99 AO Racing ORECA 07-Gibson.

Cameron executed a textbook bump-and-run on the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR (George Kurtz/Alex Quinn/Toby Sowery) to take the lead with less than two hours to go.

The No. 04 took second place in LMP2, followed by the No. 18 Era Motorsport (Naveen Rao/Ferdinand Habsburg/Jacob Abel) car in third, and the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition (Jeremy Clarke/Tom Dillmann/Bijoy Garg) car in fourth.

Vasser Sullivan Racing added the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing name to its entry this weekend to pay tribute to stalwart IndyCar Series team owner Dennis Reinbold, and after a difficult first half to the season, the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth finally broke through for its first GTD Pro class win in over two years.

The No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth finally broke through for its first GTD Pro class win in over two years. Jake Galstad/IMSA

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen took a valuable second place, and although their fuel strategy gamble at the end didn’t net them a win, the No. 64 Ford Mustang of Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen were able to consolidate a third place finish.

The No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R (Antonio García/Alexander Sims) finished fourth, but Catsburg’s drive-through penalty for the accident with Mies dropped him and Tommy Milner’s No. 4 Corvette down from fifth to eighth after the finish.

And although Manthey’s GTD Pro entry crashed out early, this time the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz, and Riccardo Pera avenged their late-race accident at Sebring and won the GTD class.

The No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R led a Porsche 1-2 finish. Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

They headed up a Porsche 1-2 finish, completed by the second-place No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Adam Adelson/Callum Ilott/Tom Sargent), which avoided a big wreck to its benefit.

And rounding out the podium was the new-look No. 068 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo (Trenton Estep/Valentin Hasse-Clot/Marius Fossard) in its first race since new ownership purchased the former van der Steur Racing entry. The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus (Benjamin Pedersen/Aaron Telitz/Frankie Montecalvo) came home fourth.

IMSA’s LMP2, GTD Pro, and GTD classes will be in the spotlight in two weeks when they head to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the Chevrolet Grand Prix on July 12th.

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