Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche win GTD
It’s safe to say Jack Hawksworth is a darned good race driver. You can witness his 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) title and also that he moved to the top of the list of modern-era IMSA pole winners in Saturday’s GTD PRO qualifying session.
But it’s fair to say he can add “soothsayer” to his resume in the wake of a victory for the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing with Dreyer & Reinbold Lexus RC F GT3 in today’s Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen.
After all, when discussing the prospects for today’s race after capturing his 17th IMSA pole position he observed, “a lot can happen in this race, so we’re going to try to stay up front and out of (the chaos). There will be laps behind the safety car, there will be decisions made in the pits, there will be decisions made on the racetrack and hopefully we can make good ones and hopefully win the race.”
Stay up front and out of the chaos? Check. Hawksworth and co-driver Ben Barnicoat may not have stayed all the way up front for the full six hours. But they were in the lead or thereabouts throughout the race (83 of 171 laps) and came home ahead of the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen) with the No. 64 Ford Racing Ford Mustang GT3 (Ben Barker, Dennis Olsen) in third spot.
Laps behind the safety car? Check. The race finished under the ninth full course yellow of the day.
Good decisions on the racetrack? Check. The No. 14 Lexus completed what could charitably be called a hurly-burly race with nary a mark on it.
Good decisions on pit lane? Check. The Vasser Sullivan brain trust’s energy strategy enabled Hawksworth to advance from fourth to first without passing a car in the final 15 minutes as competitor after competitor ahead of him headed to pit road for fuel.
“Obviously, we had such a fantastic car all weekend, and we’re really focused on executing. And that’s what we were able to do today, the whole team,” said Hawksworth, who “executed” his 13th IMSA class win. “We were phenomenal all day, made the right calls on the pit stand, right decisions on the racetrack … and there was a lot of decisions to be made throughout the race with all the cautions and accident stuff.”
The win also marked a welcome return to the top step of the podium for Barnicoat, who partnered with Hawksworth in taking the 2023 title but who missed much of last season after injuring his back in a mountain-biking accident.
“We’d be completely lying to you if (we said) we thought it was going to take this long to win again,” he said moments after earning his eighth IMSA class win. “Jack and I had a season apart, not racing together. This year we got the band back together again. The team is in a great place. To be honest, it’s a shame it’s taken this long this year.
“As Jack said, so many hard decisions to make (today). I feel like we got them right, but we didn’t come out of the pits with the lead every time. There was points where we had to overtake cars, and Jack and I both got it done and it was nice to end up in Victory Lane.”
Added satisfaction came from the fact that the Vasser Sullivan Lexus ran out of fuel on the final lap while leading last year’s Six Hours at The Glen, not to mention also missing potential wins earlier this season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Detroit. Either the fuel strategy or full course caution “chips” fell the wrong way for Hawksworth, Barnicoat and Co.
“It was the exact same situation we faced at Laguna Seca,” Hawksworth said, “and at that race we ended up on the wrong side of it. It was a situation where with one yellow after that last caution you could make it (on fuel). So, everybody was trying initially to save to get to the end and hope for a yellow. And then a few cars started to pit, the guy in second and a few others.
“At Laguna we stayed out, which was the wrong decision because we didn’t have the fuel to make it. And then we had to splash at the end and guys behind us were able to jump us. This time we boxed early to cover for the car behind and fortunately there were not yellows until the (very) end. So, it was a good decision from the pit wall because had we stayed out we could have potentially lost the race … There’s always an element of rolling the dice whichever way you go. Today, we were on the right side of it.”
GTD: Manthey Makes its Mark
Manthey Racing may not be familiar to some American motorsports fans. This is despite seven overall wins in the 24 hours of the Nürburgring and a host of class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
But that lack of familiarity is quickly changing in this, Manthey’s first season of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition and 30th season as an organization. It’s focusing this year on the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. After all, the team’s signature “Grello” Porsche GT3 R (992) opened the season with a worthy GTD PRO fifth place in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and followed that up with a class win in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Success was more elusive in GTD, however. Manthey 1st Phorm’s No. 912 Porsche came home 12th at Daytona and suffered a DNF at Sebring after crashing in the final hour of the race.
However, the third time proved to be the charm as the No. 912 Manthey Porsche grabbed the win in today’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in the hands of Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz. Although they led just eight laps of the Watkins Glen race, they were the right ones as the baby blue Manthey entry led the similar No. 120 Porsche of Wright Motorsports home ahead of third-place finishing No. 068 Aston Martin of new entrant Car Blanche.
And they did it the hard way, given that the Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche started well down the order today after the grid was set on the basis of championship points in the wake of a red flag that caused yesterday’s qualifying session to be abandoned.
“Starting from the last row nearly, we only had one direction to go with the strategy,” said Hardwick. “But I will say when you’re in the back, there are some different chances you can take.
“The start of the race for me, it’s very difficult to pass on this track,” he continued. “Our car wasn’t the fastest on top speed and acceleration but when we got clean air we were quite fast. We remained calm, and also in the pit box I will say our engineers made some really good strategy calls to get, at one point, all three of us kind of out of traffic and in clean air where we could then run appropriate lap times.
“I know at the end of the race, what took us to the lead, Riccardo was able to undercut the top three cars by pitting a bit early and that’s what put him out in clear air and we were able to sail to the front.”
Although Hardwick and Lietz are no strangers to victory lane in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, with four and five victories respectively, this was Pera’s first win in IMSA competition.
“For me it was very special, the first win in America,” he said. To do it here at Watkins Glen, which is an iconic track … a really challenging track, so I’m really happy.”
And while it wasn’t Manthey’s first win in America, it was its first win in GTD and second win in the WeatherTech Championship in three weekends of racing in two classes. Not a bad start.
“For the team, it’s very important,” said Hardwick. “I mean this is the IMSA championship. I know something that Manthey themselves as an organization has wanted to come and compete in for many years … I can tell you everyone on the team from the owners to management and engineers, all the mechanics, everyone really loves coming here to America and our style of racing and our tracks.
"As you can see, the team is very well prepared for even tracks they haven’t visited before. We always have an exceptional race car and the team makes unbelievable decisions and quick work on pit lane. And that’s what it takes to be successful in these endurance races … we’ve had a lot of success off the last couple of years racing together, and it’s nice to be able to that here in the U.S. and IMSA.”
