Paul Miller Racing duo take maiden IMSA GTD PRO victory at Watkins Glen 6 Hour

Paul Miller Racing's new young duo of Dan Harper and Max Hesse came through to win GTD PRO at the Sahlen's 6 Hours of the Glen in their No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, overcoming a 60s penalty stop during the early hours of the race.

Harper earned the penalty by running the red light at the exit of pit lane after his first pit stop, which happened during a full course yellow. The frequent safety cars helped him and Hesse charge back through the field with their speed, eventually re-taking the lead with two hours to go, then taking their first career IMSA victories.

"At that point, I sort of thought I had blew it," Harper recalled after taking the early penalty just over an hour into the race. "Then it was on to Max to bring us back up the order, and he did a great job.

"Also, the team with the strategy, and we got fortunate with the amount of safety cars today that gave us the opportunity to come forward, and then they gave me the position to bring it home. It was a nice feeling."

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports' Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims finished second in the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, taking the lead in the GTD PRO standings by 62 points after the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche (Laurin Heinrich/Klaus Bachler) dropped to sixth after suffering damage in a collision during the final hour, finishing behind the No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette (Tommy Milner/Nicky Catsburg).

"Rexy" swung up and down the running order, even leading during the mixed-weather opening phase from ninth on the grid. Harper and Hesse moved up to third in the table, ahead of the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 (Christopher Mies/Frederic Vervisch) which rounded out the  GTD PRO podium, ahead of the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 (Albert Costa/Davide Rigon).

Watkins Glen was a race of woe for the polesitting No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 (Andrea Caldarelli/Sandy Mitchell) which broke down twice and retired just before half-distance.

In GTD, the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage of Casper Stevenson, Tom Gamble, and Zacharie Robichon scored a stunning last-lap victory, after the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus ran out of fuel on the final lap while leading.

Robichon came so close to disaster when he narrowly avoided getting swept up in the collision between Sales and Thomas.

"I don't think I ever hit the brake pedal so hard in my life, and it was a matter of inches," Robichon explained.

"The P2 cars were right in front of us. Quite literally I was standing on the brake for all I could and I was like, 'If he does hit the brake, I'm definitely in him. Luckily, he kind of just rolled off. We definitely got lucky on that one."

One car that wasn't so lucky was the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis/Indy Dontje) which took collateral damage and went to the garage for extensive repairs, putting the GTD Championship leaders out of contention for the win and trimmed their points lead.

Jack Hawksworth, Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo led most of the race in their No. 12 Lexus but were left stranded in 11th after Hawksworth ran out of fuel with about half a lap to go.

Second in class went to the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (Brendon Iribe/Frederik Schandorff/Ollie Millroy), and after a tumultuous week for the team, the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Mikey Taylor/Kenton Koch/Daniel Morad) finished third.

IMSA's GTP class will take a quick vacation, as LMP2 and GT cars head north of the border to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the Chevrolet Grand Prix on July 13th.

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