Saturday, July 15, 2017

Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen 2017


News:  You can now purchase my photos or electronic images at paulziegler.smugmug.com 

Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen June 30 - Jul 2, 2017 was another action  filled weekend at picturesque Watkins Glen, New York.  If you have not been there it is worth a trip that offers beautiful scenery, cool mornings and if luck is with you, beautiful blue skies over a park like setting on the top of the 'hill' with vistas that include farm fields complete with cows grazing above Seneca Lake miles in the background.   God's country, punctuated by the blatt blatt of  four, six and eight cylinder motors reverberating off maple and pine trees.


The following two pictures taken Labor Day weekend 2016 at the Indycar races show the rural, farm setting described above.


       This picture gives you a view from the grandstand at the '90' looking East towards Seneca Lake




With Seneca Lake in the background 5 miles away from 'the hill'.


The gathering included such greats as Scott Pruett, Joey Hand, Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Bill Auberlen and Alex Sims, Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner, Andy Lally and Joao Barbosa to name just a few.  Of note, Scott Pruett was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America a few days before the race.  But along with the veterans, there were new faces as well and we welcome the likes of Sage Karam to the Glen who drove for Lexus along with Scott Pruitt.

And we welcome back to the States 25 drivers who competed at Le Mans less than 2 weeks ago representing the likes of Corvette Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, Porsche GT Team, Risi Competizone and Scuderia Corsa.

The big news of the weekend was that the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac driven by Ricky and Jordon Taylor did not win the Prototype class; instead the class was taken by Jao Barbosa, Christian Fitipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque for Mustang Sampling Racing.  See video and story here:

Must see video- sights and sounds of Watkins Glen!

Mustang Sampling Wins At The Glen

And in other news, BMW's new M6 got its first win at the Glen.  See story here:

BMW M6 Wins For BMW Team RLL

As usual there were great performances by Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari , Ford and the newest manufacturers racing in IMSA -Lexus and Acura.  IMSA racing just keeps getting bigger and better.

This is not all, there was plenty of action in the build up to Sunday's 6 hour race shown in the Prototype Challenge,  Continential Tire 120 , Lamborghini Trofeo, and Porsche GT3 Cup races on Friday and Saturday.  So here's a photo gallery of the action:


From Saturday's Porcshe's GT Cup Race


The Corvette Train

New- Scott Pruett & Sage Karam in the Lexus

BMW Team RLL- winner in GTLM Class

Downhill into the'Boot'

                           Beautiful livery on this GT3 Cup Porsche including rain!
                                   



Yac Attack in PC Challenge


Ferrari 488 GTE

                                                                 Visit Florida Racing
                                      

Sage Karam and Lexus

                                     On Saturday Sage spun on oil coming out of turn 9.
                                               
Sage's Teammate Scott Pruett

The Winner- Prototype Class- Mustang Sampling

#5 Driver Joao Barbosa

At the toe of the 'boot'.

The Taylor Brothers

Konica Minolta Racing- a 1st lap shunt affected their race.

Series sponsor- the WeatherTech #50 Mercedes going through the 'Bus Stop'

Team RLL Racing BMW M6- view through the trees.

And on the grid before the race

And up the hill out of turn 9

A BMW brother from another mother- Turner Motorsport GT Daytona Class


            Charging up the hill out of the 'boot'- The winner, Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R.
   

GT Daytona class Porsche 911 GT3 R  Park Place Motorsports

Saturday rains dampened Saturday's PC Challenge Class race

Tight competition going downhill into the 'boot'.

A beautiful machine- the Ford GT of Chip Ganassi Racing driven by Joey Hand and Dirk Muller

GT Daytona entry by Core Autosport  Porsche GT3 R

Factory Entry in GTLM, the Porsche 911 RSR


This is only a sample of the pictures I have available for a modest charge.  If you'd like more, contact me at ppziegler@yahoo.com.  Hope you enjoyed the gallery from Paul Ziegler, www.carcamerastory.com.


Sunday, July 9, 2017

Watkins Glen Photo Teaser

I'm late getting my stories and pictures of Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen posted due to an assortment of issues back home- like AC not working and a pool pump timer that decided to go on vacation while I was at the races. So after driving 21 hours south to Florida, I spent the last 3 days fixing things.

But before I turn in for the night I have to give you these photos of a great race weekend at the Glen.  The on and off showers Friday and Saturday did not dampen the spirits of the record number of fans on hand to see some of the best racing anywhere.

So here you go -  I'll follow up with an in depth report from the garages to the starting grid to the toe of the 'boot' coming soon.














There's more to come - Stories and Captions Too!

Paul Ziegler, Publisher 
CarCameraStory.com LLC