TOP TEN FINISH IN HECTIC IMSA DEBUT!
Ben Tuck made yet another debut last weekend in the US based IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and it could not have been more dramatic. The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, held at Watkins Glen in upstate New York featured no less than 10 Full Course Yellow periods across the 6 hours, totalling just under half of the entire race duration. After navigating multiple incidents and a monsoon-like rainstorm, Ben Tuck and his new co-drivers of the Conquest Racing #34 Ferrari 296 GT3, brought their car home in 10th place in the GTD class, with Ben logging his first IMSA Championship points.
Just a week after taking a top ten result at the celebrated 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ben was once again in action on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, when he joined co-drivers Bronze rated Manny Franco and Platinum rated Daniel Serra in the #34 Ferrari run by Conquest Racing for Round 7 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Watkins Glen in New York State.
Just a week after taking a top ten result at the celebrated 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ben was once again in action on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, when he joined co-drivers Bronze rated Manny Franco and Platinum rated Daniel Serra in the #34 Ferrari run by Conquest Racing for Round 7 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Watkins Glen in New York State.
The weather on race day began hot and humid, with ominous looking clouds gathering before the start. Lap 1 had barely got underway when the rain started to fall before the field had their tyres fully up to temperature. For the next 30 minutes as cars began to slide off the track, Franco maintained his position as the grid carefully circulated in the intermittent rain until an incident prompted the first of the Full Course Yellow periods closing the pit lane. Just at that moment, the circuit was subjected to a tropical style monsoon rainstorm and for the next 10 minutes the entire field were reduced almost to walking pace in treacherous conditions and zero visibility until the pit lane reopened. Franco was able to keep the car intact and even gained a few places during the frantic pitstops. The next 50 minutes featured just 3 minutes of green flag running as the conditions caused chaos up and down the order.
The team perfectly timed their next stop in the middle of the drama and leapfrogged several competitors so that by the time the green flag was waving again, the #34 Ferrari was up into third position as the weather transformed into a humid tropical sweltering heatwave. Half an hour later the team pitted again for a driver change and Ben took the wheel into another FCY period.
Once released to full racing speed Ben found second place and took advantage of seven laps of full speed running to chase down the car ahead. By the time the next FCY was called he was sitting on the leader’s bumper, until they had to make a pitstop, promoting Ben to the lead of his debut IMSA race. Five laps later Tuck had to take on fuel and dropped back to fourth place which he held until the next scheduled driver change for Platinum rated Serra to finish the race in the now baking temperatures.
Serra negotiated a further two FCY periods which served to close the cars up and created a ferocious eight car battle at the head of the field, into which Serra was pitched, and it was not long before he was forced off the track in the melee and dropped back down the order. Across the final hour of the race Serra fought hard and by the chequered flag he was in tenth position.
Overall, Ben was impressed with his first taste of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship;
“Well, that was a crazy first experience of IMSA! I loved the racing, loved the track, it was just a shame about the result, it really didn’t match what we were capable of, we deserved a lot more than P10, but it felt like anything could happen. Manny [Franco] had an incredible first couple of stints, he did really well to get us into the top 3 and I found myself leading at one point too. But I quickly found out the air-con wasn’t working so that was a hot stint, I’ve seen the pictures Grosjean and believe me I was in the same state as well. Daniel was having a good battle too but he got really roughed up so we ended up further down the order than we should.”
Although new to Watkins Glen, it was not Ben’s first taste of racing stateside. In 2023, he competed in a one-off appearance at Indianapolis in the GT World Challenge America series, finishing seventh after stunning his competitors by taking second place in his individual qualifying session.
On his busy schedule, Ben remarked: “So I’ve come from Le Mans to here and then on to the Spa 24 Hours next, I’m absolutely loving it, this is my best year yet of racing!”
Ben next races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, round 11 at Indianapolis on 21st Sept 2025.
