What were some of the best/most dominant sports cars in the premier classes at The Glen?

April 9, 2013 by theglen.com

This year's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen will be the final trip for the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series to Watkins Glen International. In 2014, Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series will have fully merged, creating new classes and different machinery competing in the same class.

The Daytona Prototypes will go head-to-head with the P2s and Delta Wing in the premier class, while four other GT-based divisions will split up a myriad of different kinds of cars.

This got us to thinking: What were some of the best/most dominant sports cars in the premier classes at The Glen? We've got five of them, in no particular order:

Porsche 935T

In essence, this is a racing version of the 911 and debuted in 1976, when Manfred Schurti, Rolf Stommelen and Jochen Mass teamed up to drive it to a win in the Six Hours of The Glen by one lap. The car didn't stop winning in Schuyler County for the next three years, giving it four total victories.

Mass and Jacky Ickx won with the 935 in 1977; Toine Hezemans, John Fitzpatrick and Peter Gregg won with it in 1978; and Don Whittington, Bill Whittington and Klaus Ludwig took the 1979 six-hour endurance racing classic.

Porsche 962

When IMSA's GTP class got up and running, the 962 was impossible to beat at The Glen.

That car carried Legend of The Glen Al Holbert to three of his victories here and the 962 captured four straight victories from 1984-87.

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Holbert teamed with Derek Bell, and once with Jim Adams, to win three straight, while Price Cobb and Vern Schuppan earned a win in 1987 with the sleek closed-cockpit car. Along with four wins, the 962 posted eight podium finishes and had an average margin of victory of two laps.

Nissan GTP 2XT

The Nissans dominated sports car racing in the late 1980s and in 1990, winning three straight at The Glen with four different drivers piloting the red-white-and-blue factory cars.

Geoff Brabham teamed up with John Morton for the win in 1988; then Brabham welcomed Chip Robinson as a co-driver in 1989; and Bob Earl and Robinson co-drove to the Camel Continental win in 1990 – the last year of the mighty VG30ET turbo engine in IMSA.

Overall, the GTP 2XT won three straight 300-mile Camel Continental races at The Glen.

Toyota-Eagle MKIII

The final years of the GTP era in sports car racing, Dan Gurney left his mark with this inline 4-cylinder powered monster that ultimately brought about the end of closed-cockpit GTP racing.

With Juan Fangio III behind the wheel, the MKIII never lost at The Glen, posting wins from 1991-93, including the 1992 romp when Fangio won by five laps in just two-and-a-half hours.

Ford-Riley & Scott MKIII

In a span of seven years, Dyson Racing's venerable Riley&Scott open-top chassis won six times, including three six-hour victories.

The era was defined by a battle between Ford and Ferrari in the post-GTP scene, but the Blue Oval's low-end power got the best of the 333SP. With James Weaver behind the wheel for five of those wins, Dyson Racing also employed the services of Butch Leitzinger, Rob Dyson, Andy Wallace, Chris Dyson and Elliott Forbes-Robinson during the car's reign.

The Ford's V8 blended perfectly with The Glen's long straights and provided enough grunt to power through what few slow corners existed on the circuit – in either iteration.

Source: theGlen.com