Capturing Chaos and Community at the Six Hours of The Glen

Covering January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona was all about capturing the biggest endurance race in North America—the lights, the atmosphere, the glamour, and the nonstop action that comes with a 24-hour event. The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen was a completely different experience. Instead of fighting sleep and shooting under stadium lights, it was all about the speed, elevation changes, and intensity that make Watkins Glen one of the best road courses in the country, if not the world.

Going from the flat banking of Daytona to the rolling hills of upstate New York meant changing more than just camera settings. The Glen has a completely different feel. Campers line the circuit, fans are right up against the fences, and the track flows through the landscape in a way that makes every corner feel unique.

The View from the Lens

Photographing a race at Watkins Glen is almost as demanding as walking the track itself. You cover a lot of ground throughout the day, and every corner offers a completely different perspective. Unlike Daytona, where you’re often shooting across large runoff areas or catch fencing, the action at the Glen feels much closer. In a lot of places, you’re right up against the guardrail with the cars flying by at incredible speed. 

My 70-200mm stayed on the camera for a good portion of the day because it let me capture the cars in their surroundings, especially through sections like the Boot and the Esses. When I needed that extra reach, I opted for my 200-500mm. The extra focal length made it much easier to isolate the GTP cars or catch tight battles in GTD without having to crop heavily later.

The best light of the weekend came by complete accident. Qualifying on Saturday got pushed back because of delays earlier in the day, so the GTP session ended up finishing right around golden hour. Instead of shooting in the harsh afternoon sun, the cars were lit by warm evening light that made the paint, carbon fiber, and body lines really pop. It was one of those rare moments where everything came together. I ended up taking way more photos than I expected because every lap seemed to look better than the last before the sun finally dropped behind the hills and the last GTP car came roaring into the pit lane.

Infield Immersion

To really understand the Sahlen’s Six Hours at Watkins Glen, you have to get out of the press boxes and spend the weekend in the infield. We’ve been coming here as a group of family and friends for about five years now, and it’s become just as much about the camping as it is the racing.

Every year, we set up camp and settle in for the weekend—trailers, tents, coolers, and everything in between. It’s a mix of race noise all day and campfires all night. By the time the track goes quiet in the evening, the whole infield shifts. Fires start popping up everywhere, grills get going, and you end up talking to people you’ve never met before like you’ve known them for years.

One of the things that’s become a tradition for us is cooking amazing food. This year was actually the first time I made lamb kabobs myself, using my grandma’s recipe, and they were a hit. Skewers straight over the coals, everyone hanging around the fire, and not a single one left by the end of the night.

As avid soccer and sports fans, we even had nights where we’re sitting around the fire watching the World Cup on the RV’s outdoor TV. It’s a weird mix, soccer + racing, but it works. You’ll have strangers stop by, grab a plate, talk racing, talk life, and suddenly they’re part of the group. That’s what makes Watkins Glen different. It’s not just what happens on track—it’s the whole environment around it. The racing is world-class, but the infield community is what keeps you coming back every year.

GTP: Cadillac’s Survival

When the green flag dropped on Sunday, the race immediately settled into chaos. Any sense of rhythm disappeared quickly under nine full-course cautions, turning what could have been a long strategic run into a constant reset.

At the front, the No. 31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R had the pace to beat the field, but nothing about the win came easy. After securing pole, Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, and Frederik Vesti controlled much of the race and led 143 of 182 laps, yet were never truly out of danger. High-speed traffic through the Esses and constant restarts kept them under pressure for the full six hours.

With roughly 90 minutes to go, Earl Bamber had one of the defining moments of the race—heavy contact with a GTD Ferrari through the Esses, a section that had already seen trouble earlier in the weekend. The car survived, but it summed up how thin the margin was all afternoon.

The final hour turned into a straight fight on pit strategy. The No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura briefly took control after timing its stop just before the eighth caution, putting Nick Yelloly, Renger van der Zande, and Kaku Ohta in position to challenge. But Action Express responded with a cleaner final stop and regained track position in the closing cycle. From there, Jack Aitken pulled away in the final stint, building a gap of just over seven seconds to secure back-to-back IMSA wins and extend the championship lead.

Behind them, the No. 5 JDC-Miller Porsche 963 quietly put together one of the drives of the day. After going a lap down earlier, Laurin Heinrich clawed the car back into contention and eventually passed Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 24 BMW with just 13 minutes remaining to lock in third.

LMP2: AO Racing Breaks Through

LMP2 delivered its usual late-race scramble after a long break in the schedule. AO Racing finally converted pace into a season-first win, with Dane Cameron building a small buffer late in the race in the No. 99 ORECA. That gap almost disappeared in the final stint as Alex Quinn charged through GT traffic in the No. 04 CrowdStrike entry, closing to within a second. In the end, there just wasn’t enough time left to make the move.

GTD PRO & GTD: Strategy Decides It

GTD PRO belonged to the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, which ended an 836-day winless streak dating back to Sebring 2024. Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat executed a clean, controlled run from pole, with fuel strategy proving decisive in the closing stages. Several contenders gambled on long stints to avoid a late stop, but the risk didn’t pay off. The No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 was forced into a splash of fuel inside the final 11 minutes, handing second to the Paul Miller Racing BMW.

In GTD, the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R came out on top. Riccardo Pera, Ryan Hardwick, and Richard Lietz held firm under pressure as rivals behind them were forced to pit late, securing a Porsche 1–2 ahead of Wright Motorsports.

Final Lap Incident

The race ended under caution after a heavy final-lap incident in Turn 9 between the No. 4 Corvette and the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3. Contact sent the Mustang into the barriers and brought out the ninth full-course yellow, freezing the order and locking in the results behind the safety car.

The Soul of Sports Car Racing

As the paddock started packing up in the evening light, the contrast between Daytona and the Glen felt even sharper than it did going into the weekend. Daytona is all polish and high-stakes—the big, shiny season opener where everything is dialed to eleven. Watkins Glen is the exact opposite. It’s gritty, rough around the edges in the best way possible, and honestly, that’s why it leaves such an impression.

Between the physical exhaustion of trekking from corner to corner, the wild energy of the infield campers, and drivers pushing right to the absolute limit all weekend, the Six Hours of The Glen still feels like one of those unmissable stops on the calendar. Nobody leaves here with a perfect weekend, and that’s kind of the point. What sticks with you isn’t just the on-track action, but how intimate it all feels—fans, crews, and cars all packed into the same chaotic space. It’s a genuine reminder of why we fall in love with this sport in the first place.

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