34 cars weathered intermediate conditions, massive downpours, poor visibility, nine yellows and one red flag before the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen reached its conclusion. When it was over, soggy winners in four classes not only claimed victory in the sixth TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race of the year, but also added victories in Round 3 of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup.

At the head of the field, a wild turn of fortunes with 10 minutes left to run saw Chip Ganassi Racing’s Joey Hand pit from the lead for a splash of fuel, and the timing of that stop would prove to be cruel. A crash on the front straight by Kuno Wittmer in TRG-AMR’s No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage moments after his stop spawned a full-course yellow, leading his Ford EcoBoost DP team to watch the second-place car of Visit Florida.com Racing’s Richard Westbrook sweep by and capture the Prototype win.

Westbrook inherited the lead and spent the final minutes of the race cruising behind the pace car to score the team’s second win in three events with Michael Valiante in the No. 90 Corvette DP.

“It was just survival for that race,” said Valiante, who fought an illness on race day. “It’s been a tough weekend…I’m speechless. Richard did an unbelievable job. It’s great to be in winner’s circle again.”

The key moment in the race for the overall win appeared to come as the fourth hour approached and the volume of rainfall made the need to switch from slicks to rain tires increased. With most teams close to the end of their fuel stints, the majority of the Prototype runners stopped for rains while Jordan Taylor stayed out and stretched his lead on slicks.

The Floridian’s deft touch built a nifty advantage, and by the time he dove for the pits, handed the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP over to his brother, and pit stop cycles were completed, the team emerged with a 20-second advantage over Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP.

Increasing rain volumes eventually led to standing water and poor visibility throughout most of the circuit, which led IMSA race director Beaux Barfield to dispatch the pace car and slow the field after 4h24m, and by 4h32m, Barfield red flagged the race. The sky lightened soon after, and after some of the standing water was removed and the rain dissipated, Taylor held his place atop the field when the race went back to green at 4h59m, but with harder rain starting to fall, he spun the No. 10 with 50 minutes left to go after driving over a painted curb and crashed the black Corvette DP hard enough to end its day. Hand, in second, spun trying to avoid Taylor, made light contact, but quickly resumed and took the lead.

A yellow flag for Taylor’s crash debris and yet another bout of declining weather left the field behind the pace car until 5h44m, and the Ganassi’ team’s choice to leave Hand out while running on fumes would eventually cost them their second win of 2015. Hand and co-driver Scott Pruett settled for second and Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa completed the Prototype podium.

Westbrook and Valiante were far from dominant on Sunday; they led 18 of the 160-lap contest, but they also managed to lead the only lap that mattered and took over the lead in the championship standings.

GT Le Mans was a thriller until the final lap as Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers drove the No. 17 Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR to a popular and faith-filled win. Like Hand in the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost DP, Henzler was all but out of fuel as the 16-minute sprint to the checkered flag began. The German was about to pit for fuel at the end of the lap – one lap after Hand stopped – but was saved by waiting and ultimately benefitted from Wittmer’s yellow-inducing crash.

Having the fortitude to hold out for one extra lap before giving away the GTLM win paid off, and with Falken set to exit the series at the end of the year, Sellers says it was a perfect result amid the program’s winding down phase.

“It was a big team effort today,” the American enthused. “On a day like this it’s about execution. Everybody worked hard. It’s so good to win here under these conditions. With the program going away, it’s nice to get another one in the bag. We were out…we took a chance, right. Everyone stopped after the red flag and we stayed out, and we though we made the right the decision, but then we thought we made the wrong decision… We’re glad it worked out in our favor.”

The No. 17 was chased home by the No. factory 912 Porsche North America 911 RSR and the No. 25 factory BMW Team RLL Z4.

The PC class helped demonstrate the rather depleted nature of the Prototype class at the end of the event as only the top-3 cars were on the lead lap. Fourth overall and first in PC went to Starworks Motorsport’s No. 8 entry as the incomparable Renger van der Zande, Mike Hedlund, and Alex Popow flexed their muscles throughout the day to earn the only semi-convincing class win at Watkins Glen.

“The team did a great job and we had awesome pit stops,” said Popow, who also has Pc wins at Sebring and Petit Le Mans. “Renger – he’s Superman. In the rain, he’s the fastest.”

Van der Zande saw the Daytona- and Sebring-winning No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen PC and the No. 16 Bar1 Motorsports PC round out the podium.

The hardest scrap during the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen belonged to the cars in the GT Daytona class. Paul Miller Racing’s No. 48 Audi R8, TRG-AMR’s No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Alex Job Racing’s pair of Porsche 911 GT Americas, Riley Technologies’ No. 93 Dodge Viper, Turner Motorsport’s No. 97 BMW Z4, and Magnus Racing’s No. 44 Porsche 911 GT America took turns leading on Sunday, and after the flurry of late-race condition changes, Marc Goossens, Cameron Lawrence and Al Carter in the No. 93 Viper came away with the victory.

“I love coming here,” said Lawrence, who co-drove the Daytona-winning Viper in January. “This team is just the best. The pit crew got us three positions at one point. We just go out and drive and do what they tell us. It’s amazing.”

AJR’s Mario Farnbacher slid off the track with eight minutes left in the No. 23 Porsche, surrendering second-place to Andy Lally in the No. 44 Magnus Porsche. PMR’s Christopher Haase was promoted to third after Farnbacher’s off, completing the GTD podium thank to his countryman’s ill-timed grassy excursion.

In addition to the nine cautions and one red flag, the total time lost to crashes and weather totaled 1h58m23s during the six-hour contest.

TUDOR Championship teams have a week off before they head north to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for Round 7.

RESULTS – 160 LAPS: