Mario Farnbacher and his team Meyer Shank Racing with Trent Hindman and Justin Marks were able to celebrate their first win of the season at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. The 27-year-old and team colleague Trent Hindman’s first place also enabled them to increase their championship lead. The duo’s 119 points after four rounds of the season giving them a 16-point advantage.
“We’re over the moon at finally making first place,” said Farnbacher after the race in Watkins Glen. “The victory was incredibly important for the entire team and we’ve worked on it for ages, but we continually had to deal with small problems in previous races. This time everything fitted perfectly. It wasn’t an easy race and I had to pull all the stops in the last laps. I’m now all the happier that I’ve taken the victory home.”
In the end, it was the team’s tyre strategy that secured the triumph. Farnbacher absolved a double stint in the final phase, but without stopping for a tyre change in the last laps. Rivals – on the track with fresh tyres – did their utmost to catch up with the driver from Ansbach in the Acura NSX GT3 Evo, but the Meyer Shank Racing pilot remained adamant and finally crossed the finish line in first place.
The fact that the trio had the pace to win the GTD class was proven by the team in the sessions on Friday and Saturday. Thanks to the performance of US American Hindman, the #86 crew started from pole position on Sunday morning.
Things continue without a break in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Just one week after the race in New York State, the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix is scheduled for 5 to 7 July in Bowmanville, Ontario. But before Farnbacher leaves for Canada, he’ll be absolving the official test on 2 July for the 24-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
