Porsche power put in a strong performance at IMSA’s Six Hours of the Glen, with the JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 securing third place.
The #5 car, driven by Porsche factory driver
Heinrich, who is also driving with
The podium comes just a month after the team took a
Porsche Penske Motorsport was fifth and sixth, with the #7 car shared by
There was also success for Porsche in the GTD category, with the Manthey 1st Phorm #912 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick taking the team's first IMSA class win.
The Wright Motorsports #120 car, driven by Adam Adelson, Callum Ilott and Tom Sargeant, was close behind in second.
Story of the race
The #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche was the highest-placed starter of the 963 on Sunday, with the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry in eighth and the #7 car in 10th.
The #6 car immediately made up two places to run sixth, close behind the customer entry, while the #7 also made up a place.
The first full course yellow came early on, before a second followed for debris. The biggest incident came at the 45-minute mark, with a huge shunt involving two of the GTP cars and a GT entry.
Racing resumed 20 minutes later, after a fast pitstop from the Porsche Penske Motorsport crew had helped the #6 gain places to run second, with the sister car in seventh ahead of the JDC entry.
Though the #6 did drop back, it was fighting in the podium places throughout hour two, before dropping to fourth after its next pitstop, with the #7 car in sixth and the #5 car in ninth.
Hour four brought more incidents, bringing the field back closer together, and with another round of stops, the #6 car ran third directly ahead of the #5 car, with the #7 car in seventh after a driver change.
There was just 0.5s separating the two in the battle for third, with less than a second ahead of the #6 car with Estre at the wheel to the leader.
The #5 jumped the #6 car out of the pits after a full course yellow with 90 minutes remaining to run in fifth, and quickly set about making further progress.
Behind, the #7 car jumped the #40 Cadillac on the restart to run directly behind the sister car.
Heinrich attempted a bold move on the #24 BMW which he was forced to abort due to traffic, but he finally made it through on the run up to the Inner Loop with 57 minutes remaining for fourth place.
The final round of pitstops reshuffled the order once more, boosting the #7 car to fourth, with the #5 car in sixth ahead of the #6.
Heinrich had strong pace, and passed the car directly ahead before making a move on the #7 car with Nasr at the wheel with 38 minutes to go.
A bold move for third came at the Inner Loop, passing the #24 BMW around the outside to close the gap to second place to just one second, though he was unable to make further progress.
The #7 car held on to finish fifth, with the #6 car close behind in sixth for a strong points haul for both cars.
GTD Pro
The #77 AO Racing Porsche, driven by Harry King and Nick Tandy, lined up second in the GTD Pro class in the famous Rexy car.
They were immediately fighting to defend second-place off the line, and were able to stay in the top three throughout the opening stages.
Though they dropped to fourth heading into the second hour, the pair were close to the action throughout the interrupted first half of the race.
Heading into the final hour, the pair were running second in the class before they were handed a drive-through penalty for breaching track limits with just 19 minutes remaining.
This dropped them to seventh in the class.
The #911 Manthey Porsche, shared by Klaus Bachler, Michael Christensen and Loek Hartog lined up 11th.
Despite dropping one place on the opening lap, they were soon up to eighth as there were several incidents ahead.
Sadly, shortly before the four-hour mark, Hartog hit the wall at Turn 6, losing the rear right tyre and ending the team’s race, bringing out a full course yellow.
GTD
The #912 Manthey 1st Phorm car delivered their strongest result of the season so far with a class win in GTD, charging from the back of the field to victory.
Staying out of trouble during the chaotic first hour, they were up five places in the first 20 laps to run in 14th.
Running a clean race amid other incidents in their class, the trio were inside the top six by hour four, and continued their progress to benefit in the final round of pitstops to lead to the end.
The #120 Wright Motorsport car was close behind them in second, having followed a similarly clean strategy.
Starting ninth, the team were consistently amid the top runners, and despite losing two places on the second restart, stayed in the top 10.
Though they had to stop for an emergency service amid one of the stoppages, the team battled on and were running fourth heading into the final two hours before moving into second with an hour to go.
The #28 RS1 Porsche of Jan Heylen, Eric Lux and Dillon Machavern started 18th, and was fortunate to avoid an early end to its race during the big incident at the 45-minute mark.
Stopping just metres shy of the wreckage, the #28 crew were able to avoid any damage, though they lost time.
Despite this, they continued to climb up the order, running consistently inside the top 10 before finishing in 10th place.
Coming next
Though IMSA will race at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in July, the next round for the GTP class is at Road America from July 30 - August 2.
The Elkhart Lake race joins the Michelin Endurance Cup this season, with another six-hour event following on from Watkins Glen.
