Watkins Glen 2026

World Racing League descended on Watkins Glen International for the 7th round of the 2026 season and the penultimate round of the 2026 WRL Eastern Championship. The rolling hills of Watkins Glen, NY joined beautiful skies as the backdrop, foreshadowing another incredible weekend of of WRL endurance racing. A 40-car strong field with GTO, GP1 & GP2 all well into the car count based bonus points promised a hyper-competitive weekend of endurance racing.

Friday’s qualifying put the level of competition into perspective immediatley - The top 5 cars in GTO qualifying were separated by just 1.07 seconds, Top 5 in GP1 separated by an incredible .582 seconds and GP2 pole was decided by only .063 seconds at the line. GTU would take top honors with Forty48 Competition posting the fastest lap of qualifying with a 1:58.347 snatching the overall pole by just .55 of a second from GTO. Following post-qualifying tech and dyno your pole sitters were as follows:

GTU and overall pole was secured by James French of #148 Forty48 Competition with a blistering 1:58.347 with just a .55 second margin to the fastest provisional qualifying time of GTO.

GTO pole was secured by Cameron Shields of the #54 888 Racing 991.2 Porsche Cup with a best lap of 1:59.299 just .243 seconds separating them from their team car #102 888 Racing 991.2 Porsche Cup.

GP1 pole was secured by Sheldon Rosenbaum in the #555 Cajun Canuck Racing E36 with a 2:09.004 just 0.134 seconds ahead of #88 OLJ Racing Porsche Cayman entry driven by Victor Larin.

GP2 pole was secured by Troy Lindstrom in the #83 Palomar Racing E36 BMW with a 2:13.627 just .538 seconds head of the #216 Skip Barber Racing School Toyota GR Cup entry driven by Dylan Weber.

Smiling faces, beautiful weather and an atmosphere that only historic tracks like Watkins Glen can provide set the tone for the weekend and what is quickly becoming one of the favorite races on the WRL calendar. After a HOT weekend at Road Atlanta, donning a light jacket in the morning at Watkins Glen was a welcome reprieve. Competition and camaraderie are no strangers to the WRL paddock and both were out in full force and it was truly anyone’s to win. Saturday and Sunday provided incredible, competitve racing up and down the field evidenced by weekend broadcast viewership totals eclipsing 30,000! Of course none of this is possible without our fantastic teams, incredible drivers and dedicated crews putting in the effort and for that we all thank you!

Race 1

Race 1made good on the promises of Friday qualifying results with incredible racing up and down the field. From the drop of the green flag the #91 Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang GT4 piloted by two-time Mustang Challenge Champion Robert Noaker took a commanding lead in GTO as he worked to chase down James French in the #148 Forty48 Competition GTU Sebeco NP01 for the overall lead.

Starting from the back due to complications in post-qualifing tech, the GP1 #62 Open Throttle Racing M240ir driven by Mateo Siderman made a heroic push to lead the race by lap 2 and had an incredible race on his hands with several position changes across his double stint. With a very similar story, the #41 Velocity Motorsports Club Honda Civic also started from the back but Oliver Mitchenson brought the car into the pits on lap 36 in P1 and the team hardly looked back as they drove their Honda to victory marking the 2nd class win in 2026 WRL competition for front-wheel-drive chassis.

GP1 proved once again why it’s one of the most competitive racing classes in North America with incredible racing from green to checker, but the #43 PC Racing entry would not be denied. Will Vanjonack would drive the #43 across the line in P1 after 8 hours of racing securing them the victory.

GTO delivered once again with incredibly close racing - after 8 hours the battle for P2 was spread across less than 30 seconds between #102 888 Racing, #53 Kingpin Racing and the #119 AE Victory Racing. At the end of the day the #120 of AE Victory Racing finished first in GTO and first overall earning them critical points in the 2026 GTO Championship.

Race 2

Race 2 built upon the drama of Saturday’s opener with intense competition and relentless battles up and down the field. From the drop of the green, the #91 Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang GT4 piloted by Robert Noaker once again led the charge into Turn 1, but Sunday’s headline belonged to the #54 888 Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup. Cameron Shields drove the #54 across the line in P1 after seven hours of racing to secure the overall and GTO class victory.

GTO delivered a nail-biter right to the checkered flag: the #99 Team GTR Racing entry kept the pressure on until the final lap, finishing just 8.6 seconds behind the #54 in P2 overall. Behind them, Saturday's overall winners, the #120 AE Victory Racing team anchored by Michele Abbate, captured the final step of the podium in P3, holding off the #53 Kingpin Racing machine in P4 and sister car #119 AE Victory Racing in P5—with the top five overall finishing on the same lap after 7 hours.

In GTU, the #148 Forty48 Competition Sebeco NP01 rebounded from Saturday's mechanical heartbreak with a clinical, wire-to-wire performance finishing 7th overall to claim the class victory.

GP1 was another absolute showcase of endurance strategy. The #62 Open Throttle Racing M240iR set the initial benchmark, pacing the class for 61 laps. However, the #555 Cajun Canuck BMW E36 mounted an unstoppable middle-stint charge, leading 71 laps in class and taking the checkered flag 8th overall to claim the GP1 win over the hard-charging #48 El Diablo Motorsports entry. The #505 Angry Croc team made a late-race push in their WRL debut weekend with Sam Keller running as high as P2 in the late stages of the race, ultimately finishing in P5 just .394 seconds behind P4.

In GP2, the #83 of Palomar Racing showed strong early pace, but the #38 Palomar Racing BMW E36 took control on Lap 24 and never looked back. The #38 led an extraordinary 107 laps in class, driving their BMW to a dominant 9th place overall finish and sealing the GP2 victory ahead of the #83 and Race 1 winner #41 Velocity Motorsports Club.

Word On The Grid:

Velocity Motorsports Club made the trip from Canada to put on a series of excellent performances in their front wheel drive Hondas, scoring a win in GP2 with their #41 machine on Saturday and a 3rd place in Sunday’s 7 hour solidifying that front wheel drive cars can compete on the highest level in the GP classes. This is the 2nd
Palomar Racing finishes P1 and P2 in GP2 on Sunday proving the endurance prowess of the E36s running under the Palomar racing flag.
PC Racing picks up a hard-fought win on Saturday redeeming themselves from a challenging weekend at Road Atlanta and showing the endurance potential of this longtime WRL GP1 stalwart.
Wheelhouse Motorsports showed excellent pace as the team continues to unlock performance from their incredible sounding GT4 Mustangs with Robert Noaker taking commanding leads in the early stages of both races.
Angry Croc showed great performance in Sunday’s race as a new-to-wrl team with several WRL regular drivers behind the wheel running as high as P2 in the final stint on Sunday showing excellent pace and promise. A P4 finish on Saturday backed up by the hard fought and exciting P5 finish on Sunday was an excellent showing in a stacked GP1 field.
El Diablo finishes P2 both days at Watkins Glen gaining extrememly valuable points in their rebuilt car as they continue their hunt for the GP1 championship.
GTR99 executed a perfect race on Sunday to put themselves in position for a battle for the win, finishing just 8.6 seconds behind the #54 888 Racing entry.
Cajun Canuck grabs their first win in GP1 improving on their career best P2 from Road America and pushing them even closer to the top of the points race in GP1.
AE Victory had another excellent points weekend finishing P3 with the #120 on Sunday after P1 and P2 on Sunday.
OLJ Racing returned to WGI for 2026 in their Porsche Cayman and immediately put down a blistering 2:09.135 in qualifying just .131s off the pole. Some unfortunate damage kept them from contending in Saturday’s race but plenty of promising pace from this team.
Complete event results on RedMist Timing: Watkins Glen ‘26 Results on Redmist.racing
Have a fun story you’d like to share during or after the race? Shoot it to race@racewrl.com and we’ll get your story added to this recap!

Behind the Scenes:

Driver ID Success! after several years of testing, iterating and struggling to bring the first reliable, low-cost driver ID system to market Flagtronics and WRL are ecstatic to announce that the system was operating at upwards of 95% accuracy throughout the weekend. While there is still some work to go, this was a landmark event for the driver ID system and all of the incredible data and information we’ll be able to leverage in the future.
Front Wheel Drive entries have scored a high percentage of success in 2026 proving that perfromance balancing modifiers for these chassis is working well to keep them in the mix. With a win from Velocity Motorsports Club on Saturday and a win by Honda Research West at Thunderhill earlier in the year these front wheel drive platforms are proving to be highly competitive in GP competition.
Broadcast Improvements just keep getting better and better! Huge thanks to Kris Eshenour for the crew cam bringing POV action directly from the crews who keep the cars on track and competitive in the pits. Drone coverage keeps getting better and better bringing the best perspective in racing to WRL in an increased capacity each event. Broadcast survey participation has been high and has increased the depth of the broadcast commentary substantially - keep them coming! With over 30,000 views across the weekend Watkins Glen 2026 broadcast represented one of the most viewed events in WRL broadcast history.
GTO APV Updates ahead of Utah are forthcoming and will focus on rebalancing the top of the field. Utah presents interesting challenges in terms of elevation and engine performance and will further increase our body of data for future adjustments.
Have questions, suggestions, ideas or feedback? We want to hear from you! Email race@racewrl.com with any inquiries.

championship chess:

OVERALL POINTS battle is heating up with 5 cars representing 4 different classes at the top of the National Overall championship!
GP1 East Championship - Cajun Canuck reduces the gap to P1 to 14 points meaning the GP1 title is still up in the air headed into the Sebring East Championship round.
GP1 National Championship - Just 8 points cover the top 4 teams, with 2nd and 4th having larger points hauls to close the gaps.
GP2 National Championship - A 13 point gap between 1st and 2nd means that there is a lot still to play for with 3 rounds left in the series.
GTO West Championship -just a 9-point spread across 1st-3rd place making Utah Motorsports Campus a pivotal event in both the West and National championships in GTO!
National Overall Championship - With just 6 points between the 120 and 148 this championship is still up in the air with 3 rounds left to go.
WRL Points for all championships can be found here: WRL Championship Standings

broadcast Links:

Friday Qualifying Broadcast:WRL Watkins Glen 2026 Qualifying Broadcast
Saturday Race 1 Broadcast:WRL Watkins Glen 2026 Saturday Broadcast
Sunday Race 2 Broadcast: WRL Watkins Glen 2026 Sunday Broadcast