#63 benefits from strong strategy as Grosjean-Kvyat lead multiple laps in the 6 Hours of the Glen
Sant’Agata Bolognese/Watkins Glen, 23 June 2025 – The Lamborghini SC63 enjoyed its most competitive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship outing of the year at Watkins Glen, as strong strategic calls and consistent pace in changeable conditions enabled Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat to record a seventh-place finish in the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of the Glen.
The result equals the best finish for the SC63, achieved in its very first IMSA race at Sebring last season and comes after Grosjean led large parts of the 6 Hours ahead of the mid-way point. It also marks the first points finish for the crew, serving as added motivation before the penultimate Endurance Cup round at Indianapolis in September.
Free Practice and Qualifying – GTP
Keen to make amends for a poor start to the season, following successive retirements at the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours, the SC63 returned to action for the first time in 99 days in Upstate New York with a trimmed down driver line-up of Grosjean and Kvyat for the 6 Hours. Having tested recently at the circuit, the team completed its pre-race programme without issues during free practice and amassed a total of 65 laps ahead of qualifying. With ambient and track temperatures soaring for Saturday, the SC63 wasn’t quite within its optimum performance window and Grosjean could only manage 11th on the grid, with a time of 1m33.479.
Free Practice and Qualifying – GTD PRO and GTD
The weekend began strongly for the #9 Pfaff Motorsports crew of Caldarelli and Mitchell in the opening free practice session. The pairing combined to set the fastest time of the morning, some six-tenths of a second quicker than the second-placed car. The good form continued in the second session, with the #9 again the fastest of all, this time by a mere two-thousands of a second.
Following its podium at the previous round in Detroit, the #9 then celebrated its first-ever pole position with Lamborghini machinery, with Caldarelli demonstrating the one-lap pace of the Huracán GT3 EVO2. The Italian set a best time of 1m44.595 to end up just over a tenth quicker than Dan Harper’s BMW. In GTD, the #78 Forte Racing Huracán of Mario Farnbacher, Misha Goikhberg and newcomer Scott Hargrove qualified ninth while the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing entry of Graham Doyle, Danny Formal and Trent Hindman lined up 19th.
Race – GTP
While the race began on a dry track, rain began to fall shortly before the green flag flew with the entire field of GTP cars still on slick tyres. The combination of slicks and a wet track appeared to suit the SC63 with Grosjean at the wheel, the Frenchman making up several places on the first lap to move up to ninth. As conditions worsened and cars in front began to fall foul of the slippery surface, Grosjean then settled into a solid fifth position as a flurry of full course yellow interventions produced a stunted opening salvo to the race. The #63 remained on the cusp of the podium places after the team elected to stay on slicks during the first of two rain showers, before following the rest of the field in to switch to wets when the heavens opened properly. The track then started to dry out and, following a well-timed pit-stop just before another FCY, the #63 cycled to the lead of the race. Grosjean’s pace at the wheel of the SC63 was impressive and, in clear air, he pulled out a healthy two-second margin over the chasing Acura before the race was neutralised for a fifth time just before half-distance.
Kvyat took over for the second half of the race, but a slower-than-planned pit-stop dropped the car to ninth place before the restart. The final portion of the race was all about energy saving and, with Grosjean back at the wheel, the #63 climbed up the order once more to run fourth with just a handful of laps remaining. A final, short stop to replenish the energy denied the team a shot at a top five finish, eventually having to make do with seventh, just seven-hundredths of a second behind the sixth-placed Acura.
Race – GTD PRO and GTD
Caldarelli took the start and fended off an early challenge from the #48 BMW to maintain the lead on the opening lap as light rain began to fall. Indeed, as the rain intensified, so the #9 Huracán GT3 EVO2 appeared more comfortable in the changing conditions, with Caldarelli extending his advantage to over two seconds either side of an early FCY period. Unfortunately, the car slipped to fourth after Mitchell took over during the pit-stop phases amid another FCY intervention but moved back into the podium positions soon after.
The race then took a turn for the worse as Mitchell had an off-track moment at the Bus Stop chicane, dropping to eighth place before a battery loom issue caused the #9 to suffer a power outage at turn six, Mitchell just about managing to stop the car before light contact with the barriers. The team got the car behind the wall and remedied the issue but lost five laps in the process before stopping on-track for good with just over three hours left to run.
In GTD, the race barely got going before it was over for the #45 as Doyle lost the rear of the car on the wet kerb at turn one. The car suffered significant rear-end damage and was out on the spot. The #78 also suffered an early setback with a spin following contact at the Bus Stop, which knocked the rear toe-link out. It returned to the track and had a steady run to 14th at the end.
Quotes –
Romain Grosjean: “It’s been a fantastic day for the SC63, we were leading the race for a long time today, and the performance of the car on a damp track on slick tyres was really strong. It was definitely a productive weekend for the whole team, we had a good strategy and were only a couple of laps short of fuel at the end sadly. But we managed to execute everything really well, and had no issues with the car all race so overall it was a great race and I hope to enjoy more races like that.”
Daniil Kvyat: “It’s great to finally finish a race this year, it was very important for us and to get P7 shows that we were competitive, and we were in the game throughout the race. Overall, it was a fun race, different conditions but maybe a little less fun when it was at its hottest during the day, but we still had to hold it all together, keep it on track and keep pushing. There are a lot of positives to take from this race and I hope that we will be able to bring some things to the car that will help us make a step forward with the pace of the car.”
