WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – With 11 minutes to go, Turner Motorsport’s Bill Auberlen went to the outside of Murillo Racing’s Christian Szymczak entering the Inner Loop. After a brief side-by-side battle, Auberlen was able to take over the lead. While everyone fought behind him, Auberlen was able to pull away to take the win for himself and Dillon Machavern in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Tioga Downs Casino Resort 120 at Watkins Glen International Saturday (June 25). It is Auberlen and Machavern’s first win of 2022.
Rennsport One’s Eric Filguerias led the field of 43 starters to green and managed to pull away slightly from the pack. Murillo Racing’s Kenny Murillo was able to get past Riley Motorsports’ Alfredo Najri on the start to move up to second.
Eventually, KohR Motorsports’ Luca Mars got up to Murillo and began to battle with him. This allowed Filguerias to expand his lead.
Further back, a couple of teams ran into tire issues. Rebel Rock Racing’s Frank DePew had contact with PF Racing’s Sheena Monk in turn 1 while racing for 19th. The result was a cut left front tire that forced DePew to trundle around to get a new tire. Later on, Stephen Cameron Racing’s Sean Quinlan also cut a left front tire.
The first yellow flew 20 minutes into the race when Dr. Anton Dias Perera in the second Riley Motorsports Toyota got in the gas a little too quickly exiting turn 7. He spun his Supra out and backed into the Armco.
The hit was significant enough to damage the guardrails, resulting in a lengthy yellow. A number of teams chose to pit here to change tires even though it was before the 40-minute minimum drive-time had been reached.
As the race continued on, the flat tires started to rack up. First, Rory van der Steur‘s Hyundai had a suspension issue. He ended up having to stop and rectify it. He continued after the fix, but was eight laps down.
The flat tires continued as well. VOLT Racing’s Alan Brynjolfsson cut a tire while running fifth. Quinlan cut a second tire, while Najri had a flat as well. Eventually a caution was brought out to sweep the track.
Prior to the debris caution, Filguerias led the entire first half of the race before stopping for tires, fuel and to put Stevan McAleer in the Porsche. That gave the lead to Murillo and eventually Eric Foss.
Foss made a green flag stop with 53 minutes to go to put Kenton Koch in the car just before the caution came out. That allowed Koch to cycle…
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