Gowin Racing continued its GT PRO surge Saturday at Watkins Glen, taking victory in the Abruzzi Six Hours of the Glen with the #18 Ferrari 296 GT3 after a race shaped by cautions, strategy swings and repeated lead changes.
Jack Hedgcoxe and Josh Gowin completed 165 laps and won by 12.389 seconds over the #183 Blocco Motore Simsport Aston Martin. The #71 Sim City Racing Porsche finished third, followed by the #151 World Of SimRacing Team Chevrolet and the #112 Rusty Spatulas Racing McLaren.
Hedgcoxe Converts Pole Into Early Control
Hedgcoxe put the #18 Ferrari on pole with a 1:42.536, giving Gowin Racing its second GT PRO pole and Hedgcoxe his fourth career VSCA pole. It was also the second time this season he had turned a GT PRO pole into a race win, after doing the same at VIR.
The opening phase was interrupted almost immediately. Two full-course yellows came inside the first 17 minutes, setting the tone for a six-hour race that featured ten cautions and two hours and 50 minutes under yellow.
Gowin Racing still stayed central to the fight. The #18 Ferrari led the most laps in class with 57, but the path to victory was rarely straightforward. Fourteen GT PRO lead changes moved the race between Gowin Racing, Sim City Racing, Rusty Spatulas Racing, Vulture Motorsports, Ric Team Racing and Double Stint Racing.
Cautions Turn The Race Into A Strategy Fight
The first major reshuffle came during the third caution, when the #18 pitted from the lead and Sim City Racing’s #71 Porsche cycled to the front. Carson Allen, Peter Spijkman and Jason Allen all spent time in control for Sim City, which recovered from tenth on the grid to finish third.
Rusty Spatulas Racing also had a turn at the front with Hena Häkkänen and Jan Zilliacus, while the #65 Vulture Motorsports Porsche led with both Erol Ureksoy and Sean Hatfield. Ric Team Racing’s #88 BMW was another serious contender, leading with José Barbosa and later Rodrigo A. Marreiros before finishing seventh.
World Of SimRacing Team produced one of the drives of the day. The #151 Chevrolet started 15th and finished fourth, gaining eleven positions through fuel saving, caution timing and a cleaner run than many of its rivals.
Late Penalties Hurt Several Contenders
The final third of the race became increasingly messy. Vulture Motorsports looked capable of a podium before contact, penalties and a late drive-through for incident points dropped the #65 Porsche to twelfth. Double Stint Racing also fell away after the #57 BMW received a 95-second post-race penalty for contact with the #44 Fischer Motorsport Porsche.
Virtual Power Sim Racing’s #77 Porsche finished eleventh after a difficult race that included multiple Race Control decisions, including a 95-second post-race penalty for contact with the #65 Porsche. The team appealed that decision, but the Incident Review Panel upheld the original ruling.
Ric Team Racing’s #88 BMW was involved in one of the more detailed post-race reviews. The team appealed a warning for a full-course-yellow pacing violation, arguing that it had followed Race Control’s speed instructions. The Stewards upheld the warning, citing the driver’s responsibility to maintain situational awareness and avoid creating excessive gaps before the restart.
Gowin Racing Completes A Three-Race Run
Gowin Racing’s victory was its third straight GT PRO class win after VIR and Homestead-Miami. The run has moved the #18 Ferrari from an emerging threat to a serious championship player heading into the summer break.
Blocco Motore Simsport still leaves Watkins Glen leading the SportsCar Championship GT PRO standings with 3130 points. Sim City Racing moved up to second, 250 points behind, while Gowin Racing climbed to third, 275 points off the lead.
The Endurance Cup fight tightened as well. TwoLemmaTree Racing’s #68 McLaren remains first with 29 points, but Blocco Motore Simsport is only one point back and Gowin Racing is just two points behind after its Watkins Glen win.
Post-Race Reactions
Josh Gowin, #18 Gowin Racing Ferrari: What a race. Jack did an incredible job in qualifying to put us on pole, and that gave us clean air at the front of the GT field while also keeping us ahead of a lot of the trouble. Going into my stint, we got caught out by a full-course yellow and shuffled back into the pack, but the Ferrari felt great here. We just stayed calm and waited for chances to move back forward.
We knew we had strong pace after practice and qualifying, but the caution timing kept going against us. Luckily, those cautions were long enough that the frustration had time to settle before each restart.
Jack and I have really found our stride in the Ferrari, and the results are following. Winning in a field like this takes hard work and a bit of luck, so we’ll keep controlling what we can and let the rest play out one race at a time.
Marco A Pereira, #151 World Of SimRacing Team Chevrolet: Our strongest point was fuel saving. We were doing one lap more per stint than our rivals, and we tried to pit under every full-course yellow so we could go longer. In the end, it paid off. A fast stop under yellow with about two hours left let us restart third.
I made a mistake in the esses on cold tires and we lost a lap, but the last full-course yellow brought us back to the lead lap with the car repaired. From there, we went back to the original plan: pass when the car ahead did not defend too hard, save as much fuel as possible and minimize time in the pits.
Rodrigo A. Marreiros, #88 Ric Team Racing BMW: We had strong pace and managed to lead the race at different points. Our strategy needed the race to stay green, or at least two Full Course Yellows, so we could add fuel without losing positions. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and that’s why we ended up finishing seventh.
This race was special because we were all together for a physical event and worked really hard on our preparation. Having the pace to fight at the front gives us confidence for the second half of the season.
José P Barbosa, #88 Ric Team Racing BMW: We had a really strong car throughout the race and spent a good amount of time fighting at the front. That was not only because of pace, but also because we had a great strategy that brought us to the lead. Unfortunately, the full-course-yellow situation cost us the chance to fight for the win. In a GT PRO field this competitive, that is very hard to recover from, so seventh definitely does not show the speed we had.
Sean Hatfield, #65 Vulture Motorsports Porsche: I knew that when I went around the outside of the #88 on that late restart, I would probably be looking at a penalty. But after our incident with the #77 earlier in the race, I was not too trusting that it would not happen again. Would I do it again? Absolutely. And just like this time, I will accept the Stewards’ decision if one is warranted.
Road America Comes After The Summer Break
Teams now head into the VSCA summer break before returning on August 15 for the Advanced Sim Racing Endurance Grand Prix at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The race will be Round 9 of 11 of the SportsCar Championship and will be broadcast live on GreenFlag TV from 16:00 GMT.
Blocco Motore Simsport still has the championship lead, but Gowin Racing’s three-race winning streak has changed the tone of the fight. Sim City Racing is back up to second, Gowin Racing is now third, and the Endurance Cup remains close enough that Road America could matter heavily in both title races.