2018 6 Hours of The Glen

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2017.^[1] It was the fifth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2018 Sahlen's 6 Hours of the Glen was the sixth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2018 by IMSA, and was the third round of the Patron North American Endurance Cup.^[1] The race was held at the eleven-turn 3.450 mi (5.552 km) Watkins Glen International on July 1, 2018.^[1]

After the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic 4 weeks earlier, Filipe Albuquerque and João Barbosa led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 144 points, ahead of Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr who were tied with them on 144 points, and Hélio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor with 130 points.^[2] With 121 points, the GTLM Drivers' Championship was led by Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook with a seven-point advantage over Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor.^[2] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow with 125 points ahead of Katherine Legge with 122 points.^[2]

IMSA released two separate technical bulletins regarding the Balance of Performance for the six-hour race. The first one was released on May 25, 2018, for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.^[3] This was done to allow IMSA teams who were preparing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in three weeks time, notably Corvette Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing, to have the beforehand knowledge of the Balance of Performance for the race so they could prepare better. In this Bulletin, the BMW M8 GTE received a reduction of turbo boost, as well as a 4-liter fuel capacity reduction. The second technical bulletin was released on June 21, 2018, which regarded the Balance of Performance in the Prototype (P) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes for the event.^[4] In P, The Acura ARX-05 and Cadillac DPi-V.R received fuel capacity reductions of 2 liters. In GTD, Acura NSX GT3 received a 10 kilogram weight increase while the BMW M6 GT3 received a fuel capacity of reduction 2 liters.

A total of 42 cars took part in the event split across 3 classes. 16 cars were entered in P, 8 in GTLM, and 18 in GTD.^[5] In P, United Autosports made their first appearance since Sebring. Performance Tech Motorsports returned after skipping the Belle Isle round.Gabby Chaves subbed for João Barbosa, who was injured, in the Mustang Sampling Racing #5.^[6][7] Will Owen joined Sebastián Saavedra and Gustavo Yacamán in the AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry.^[8] In GTLM, Tom Blomqvist joined John Edwards and Jesse Krohn in the BMW Team RLL #24 entry.^[9] Bill Auberlen returned to the BMW Team RLL #25 entry after contesting the 2 previous rounds in GTD with Turner Motorsport. In GTD, HART, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, CJ Wilson Racing, P1 Motorsports, and Squadra Corse Garage Italia made their first appearances since Sebring. Scuderia Corsa added a second entry while Wright Motorsports scaled down to one entry. Daniel Morad substituted for in the Adam Christodoulou P1 Motorsports entry due to visa issues.^[10] Oswaldo Negri Jr. joined Francesco Piovanetti and Daniel Serra in the Squadra Corse Garage Italia entry.^[11] Markus Palttala, Don Yount, and Dillon Machavern returned to the Turner Motorsport entry for the first time since Sebring.^[12] Mario Farnbacher joined David Heinemeier Hansson and Jack Hawksworth in the #15 3GT Racing entry.^[13]

There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.^[14]

The first practice session took place at 10:25 am ET on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:33.562.^[15]

The second practice session took place at 2:50 pm ET on Friday and ended with Romain Dumas topping the charts for CORE Autosport, with a lap time of 1:33.481.^[17]

The third and final practice session took place at 8:00 am ET on Saturday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:32.975.^[19]

Saturday afternoon's 65-minute qualifying session was divided into three groups.^[14] All three categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries.^[21]

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	P	54	CORE Autosport	Colin Braun	1:32.350	_	161
2	P	32	United Autosports	Paul di Resta	1:32.356	+0.006	1‡
3	P	7	Acura Team Penske	Ricky Taylor	1:32.638	+0.288	2
4	P	6	Acura Team Penske	Dane Cameron	1:32.782	+0.432	3
5	P	85	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Simon Trummer	1:33.016	+0.666	4
6	P	22	Tequila Patrón ESM	Pipo Derani	1:33.092	+0.742	152
7	P	52	AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports	Gustavo Yacamán	1:33.447	+1.097	5
8	P	10	Wayne Taylor Racing	Renger van der Zande	1:33.528	+1.178	6
9	P	99	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Stephen Simpson	1:33.574	+1.224	7
10	P	38	Performance Tech Motorsports	James French	1:33.624	+1.274	8
11	P	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Felipe Nasr	1:33.716	+1.366	9
12	P	90	Spirit of Daytona Racing	Tristan Vautier	1:33.761	+1.411	10
13	P	55	Mazda Team Joest	Harry Tincknell	1:33.902	+1.552	11
14	P	5	Mustang Sampling Racing	Filipe Albuquerque	1:33.971	+1.621	12
15	P	2	Tequila Patrón ESM	Scott Sharp	1:34.526	+2.176	13
16	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Richard Westbrook	1:41.948	+9.598	17‡
17	GTLM	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Joey Hand	1:42.059	+9.709	18
18	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner	1:42.365	+10.015	19
19	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Antonio García	1:42.497	+10.147	20
20	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Earl Bamber	1:42.507	+10.157	21
21	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Patrick Pilet	1:42.615	+10.265	22
22	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	Tom Blomqvist	1:43.277	+10.927	23
23	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Connor De Phillippi	1:43.539	+11.189	24
24	GTD	15	3GT Racing	Jack Hawksworth	1:44.499	+12.149	25‡
25	GTD	29	Montaplast by Land-Motorsport	Christopher Mies	1:44.611	+12.261	25
26	GTD	14	3GT Racing	Kyle Marcelli	1:44.712	+12.362	26
27	GTD	86	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin	Álvaro Parente	1:44.742	+12.392	27
28	GTD	93	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin	Lawson Aschenbach	1:44.778	+12.428	28
29	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Jeff Segal	1:44.812	+12.462	29
30	GTD	48	Paul Miller Racing	Madison Snow	1:45.429	+13.079	30
31	GTD	58	Wright Motorsports	Patrick Long	1:45.429	+13.079	31
32	GTD	71	P1 Motorsports	Daniel Morad	1:45.724	+13.374	423
33	GTD	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Kenny Habul	1:45.802	+13.452	33
34	GTD	33	Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsport	Ben Keating	1:45.803	+13.453	34
35	GTD	69	HART	Tom Dyer	1:45.891	+13.541	35
36	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Don Yount	1:46.966	+14.616	36
37	GTD	44	Magnus Racing	John Potter	1:47.076	+14.726	37
38	GTD	64	Scuderia Corsa	Bill Sweedler	1:47.360	+15.010	38
39	GTD	51	Squadra Corse Garage Italia	Francesco Piovanetti	1:47.481	+15.131	39
40	GTD	36	CJ Wilson Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer	1:48.165	+15.815	40
41	GTD	73	Park Place Motorsports	did not participate			414
42	GTD	77	Mazda Team Joest	did not participate			145
Sources:[22][23]

• ¹ The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the P field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.
• ² The No. 22 Tequila Patrón ESM entry initially qualified sixth for the P class. However, the team changed engines after qualifying. By IMSA rules, the entry was moved to the rear of the P field on the starting grid.
• ³ The No. 71 P1 Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.
• ⁴ The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports moved to the back of the GTD field for failing to submit a starting driver for the race.^[21]
• ⁵ The No. 77 Mazda Team Joest entry moved to the back of the P field for failing to submit a starting driver for the race.^[21]