Honda Racing

Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen Watkins Glen International Raceway, Watkins Glen, NY

Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen
Watkins Glen International Raceway, Watkins Glen, NY
9:45 a.m. EDT Sunday, June 30, 2019
Same Day Television at 7 p.m. EDT NBC Sports Network
Live Coverage on Radio Le Mans and IMSA.com

ACURA At WATKINS GLEN
• Sunday’s six-hour contest on the fast, flowing Watkins Glen circuit marks the return of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to a traditional road course and endurance-length event, following IMSA’s visit last month to the tight confines and short (100-minute) race distance of the Belle Isle Park temporary street circuit.

• Acura Motorsports has recorded four previous victories at Watkins Glen, including three consecutive Camel Lights class wins (1991-93) and a GTD win in 2017. Acura’s initial Watkins Glen success came in 1991, with Parker Johnstone taking the Comptech Acura Spice SE90P to the Lights class victory in a three-hour IMSA Camel GT race.

• After the race was expanded to six hours in 1992, Johnstone teamed with Dan Marvin to repeat as Camel Lights class winner. Acura’s third consecutive class win came in 1993, as Bob Earl and Bob Schader paired up for the victory in their Brix Racing Acura Spice SE91P.

• Katherine Legge and Andy Lally took their Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 to the GTD victory in 2017, marking the second consecutive race win for the pair that season and the second-win worldwide for the then-new NSX GT3 race program.

ACURA TEAM PENSKE
• Acura Team Penske comes to Watkins Glen seeking a third consecutive victory this season, following wins for the Acura ARX-05 prototype at both the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in May, and at the Detroit Grand Prix on June 1.

• Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron combined to bring the Team Penske Acura ARX-05 prototype home first at Mid-Ohio, the first win of the 2019 season for Acura. In Detroit, Montoya started from the pole and maintained his advantage throughout the opening stint before handing off to co-driver Cameron. The two combined to lead all but seven laps of the 58-lap distance to score their second consecutive win of the year.

• The back-to-back wins for Montoya and Cameron moved them within five points of the drivers’ championship lead after five of ten races; and advanced Acura to within a single point of the Manufacturers’ Championship lead.

• After a third-place finish in Detroit, Penske Racing teammates Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves currently stand third in the championship, a single point behind Montoya and Cameron.

• The Acura ARX-05 is the latest in a line of endurance prototypes to be fielded by the company, dating to 1991, just five years after the launch of the Acura brand. Based on the successful ORECA 07 chassis, the ARX-05 DPi features Acura-specific bodywork and utilizes the race-proven, production-based Acura AR35TT twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine.

• To celebrate IMSA’s 50th year of endurance sports car racing, both Acura Team Penske entries this year feature “throwback” orange and white liveries commemorating the consecutive IMSA Camel Lights Comptech Acura championship seasons of 1991-93.

MEYER SHANK RACING
• In the GTD category, Meyer Shank Racing returns to the site of the second win for the Acura NSX GT3 in 2017, and a fighting second-place result for Acura and the team in last year’s race at Watkins Glen.

• Folllowing a second-place finish earlier in May at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman, drivers of the #86 MSR Acura NSX GT3 Evo, lead the GTD Drivers’ Championship with 84 points, four points ahead of their nearest competitors.

• For 2019, MSR has entered into a partnership with businesswoman/racer Jackie Heinricher and sponsor Caterpillar to field the #57 Acura NSX GT3 Evo for an all-female driver lineup anchored by the four-time Acura race winner Katherine Legge. Two-time IMSA GTD champion Christina Nielsen will co-drive with Legge in Detroit. Legge and Nielsen are currently eighth in the GTD Drivers’ Championship with 63 points each.

• After three of 10 GTD rounds, Acura is fourth in the GTD Manufacturers’ Championship with 85 points, 15 points out of first place.

• Competing in the GTD class of the sports car racing championship, the NSX GT3s race against eight other premium automotive brands, including Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

• Based on information generated from the global NSX GT3 Customer Racing Program, the Acura NSX GT3 Evo features performance gains, improved drivability, a 25 percent increase in engine life and greater component durability. The result is a racing platform designed to appeal to a wide range of professional and amateur drivers.

WHERE TO WATCH
• Same-day television coverage from Watkins Glen begins at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 30, on the NBC Sports network. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App with NBCSN authentication.

• Fans can listen in to audio commentary via IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and Sirius XM Radio; and follow the race live via in-car cameras, IMSA Radio and timing & scoring available worldwide on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile device App.

• Video recaps from this weekend’s Acura Motorsports activities at Watkins Glen will be posted on the “Honda Racing/HPD” YouTube channel. Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found in the HPD Trackside Video Playlist at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.