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The third annual HSR Watkins Glen Classic 6 Hour presented by Mission Foods raced through the halfway mark and into the early evening Friday at Watkins Glen International where a mix of potential first-time and repeat race winners emerged to lead their respective Run Groups.
The Watkins Glen Classic 6 Hour sets the stage for the annual Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen IMSA race next weekend and is Round 2 of the inaugural season of the HSR Classic Endurance Championship presented by Mission Foods. 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.
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. One final round for each Run Group Saturday afternoon will determine this year’s HSR Classic 6 Hour winners.
More than appropriate the week before the Sahlen’s Six Hour IMSA race – and on the eve of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – a pair of Cadillac DPi teams and a similar modern-era Acura ARX-05 DPi entry have stepped up to steal the spotlight in the ultra-competitive Run Group C division.
Defending Classic 6 Hour Run Group C race winners Pierce Marshall and Eric Foss returned to The Glen in their Matador Motorsports 2017 No. 02 Cadillac DPi in a renewed rivalry with their friends and fellow competitors Bob Neapole and Guy Cosmo in the RBN Motorsports with Cosmo-Sport 2020 No. 60 Acura ARX-05 prepared by Hudson Historics
Both teams are former Mission Foods HSR Classic race winners, but another entry from Europe that has also seen winning success in HSR’s endurance tribute races has spoiled the party so far at The Glen.
While Neapole and Cosmo won Friday afternoon’s opening segment in the Acura ARX, Iconic Racing and team co-drivers Gérard Lopez and former professional sports car racing World Endurance Champion Marcel Fässler took control of the race with victories in the second and third segments. Lopez and Fassler – a three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner with the powerhouse Audi LMP1 team – co-drive an ex-JDC Motorsports 2019 No. 5 Cadillac DPi similar to the Matador machine. They first won together in the car at the 2023 HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hour presented by Mission Foods.
Lopez and Fässler bring a comfortable lead into Saturday’s final round. If they hold on for the victory, it will be the first HSR Classic win for both drivers in an event other than the HSR Classic 24. Lopez has four career HSR Classic 24 wins at Daytona while Fassler is a three-time HSR endurance race winner at the “World Center of Racing.”
Run Groups A and B take to The Glen circuit at the same time and a pair of solid race-leading competitors has moved to the forefront in both divisions.
Dan Ammann and his coach and pro co-driver Owen Trinkler have taken the Run Group B and combined overall victories in all three Friday segments in the Vintage Racing Co. No. 91 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport. Retaining the Group B lead through tomorrow’s final round will deliver first-time HSR Classic victories for both Vintage Racing and team drivers Ammann and Trinkler.
David Agretelis had been trying for an HSR Classic victory for eight years before winning in Run Group A in March in the season-opening HSR Sebring Classic 12 Hour presented by Mission. Now he is on the brink of a second-straight HSR Classic win just over 80 days since his breakout Sebring victory.
Similar to Ammann and Trinkler in Run Group B, Agretelis has swept all three opening rounds in Run Group A to hold the overnight lead into Saturday’s final round in his 901 Shop 1972 No. 66 Porsche 911 S/T.
For more information on the HSR Watkins Glen Classic 6 Hour presented by Mission Foods, including the event schedule, current entry list, Run Group and HSR Class structure and more, please visit the Official Event page at www.HSRRace.com.
