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A trio of overnight Run Group leaders continued to roll through Saturday’s fourth and final race segments to secure the overall victories in the third annual HSR Watkins Glen Classic 6 Hour presented by Mission Foods at Watkins Glen International. All were first time HSR Classic 6 Hour race winners but two of three have been victorious in the recent past in HSR Classic Mission Foods races at Daytona and Sebring.
Friday featured a symbolic six hours of racing with each of the race’s featured Run Groups – A, B and C – taking to the 3.377-mile Grand Prix circuit three different times throughout the day. Saturday’s final rounds put the crowning touch on all three convincing victories to bring Round 2 of the inaugural season of the HSR Classic Endurance Championship presented by Mission Foods to a competitive close.
Stealing the show and the Run Group C win was the European-based team Iconic Racing and co-drivers Gérard Lopez and former World Endurance Champion Marcel Fässler in an ex-JDC Motorsports 2019 No. 5 Cadillac DPi. Iconic and its driver duo won in the Cadillac in the 2023 HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hour presented by Mission Foods and secured similar success in what was the Watkins Glen debut for the team and Lopez and Fassler.
The Iconic team edged the similar Cadillac DPi entries of Matador Motorsports and Mission Foods GMT Racing.
Defending Classic 6 Hour Run Group C race winners Pierce Marshall and Eric Foss in the Matador Motorsports 2017 No. 02 Cadillac DPi battled again with 2024 Group C runner-ups Juan Gonzalez and three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona race winner Butch Leitzinger in their 2017 No. 81 Mission Foods GMT Racing Cadillac DPi. This year, however, the duo fought it out for second place in Group C with the Matador squad prevailing ahead of the Mission Foods team’s third-place showing.
Run Groups A and B took to The Glen circuit at the same time and the mix produced a pair of convincing and controlled victories in each division.
David Agretelis came into the HSR Classic 6 as one of three possible Mission Foods Endurance Championship repeat winners this season after earning his first HSR Classic victory in eight years of trying in March’s season-opening HSR Sebring Classic 12 Hour presented by Mission Foods. He was the only one of the trio to get the job done at The Glen, leading all four segments Friday and Saturday for his second-straight Run Group A win this year in his 901 Shop 1972 No. 66 Porsche 911 S/T.
A similar four-segment sweep was turned in by Run Group B winners Dan Ammann and his coach and co-driver Owen Trinkler with a solid run in the Vintage Racing Co. No. 91 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport. Ammann, Trinkler and Vintage Racing are all first time HSR Classic race winners.
The first major endurance race championship in the U.S. for vintage and historic sports cars, the HSR Classic Endurance Championship presented by Mission Foods features a year-long schedule of four “tribute events” celebrating the biggest and longest-running sports car endurance races in the United States.
Next up on the calendar is the inaugural HSR Road Atlanta Classic 10 Hour presented by Mission Foods at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Sept. 25-28. Please visit www.HSRRace.com for more information.
Meanwhile, the full-season of HSR sprint, endurance and feature race championships continues at VIRginia International Raceway at the HSR VIR Historics Weekend, Sept.4-7.
