The No23 car of Andrea Picinni and Jean-Denis Deletraz saw their fading title hopes extinguised when the car blew its engine mid race. Picinni had qualified third, but a poor start saw him performing a recovery drive during the opening stint. The Ferrari 550 survived an incident while passing the Lister Storm of Jamie Campbell-Walter, which resulted in a long pit visit for the Storm.

In N-GT, Stephane Ortelli claimed the championship honours after a dominant drive to win the class. Christian Pescatori need to finish ahead of Ortelli to stay in with a shout at the title, but the JMB Ferrari 360, along with its sister cars struggled with handling problems all weekend, eventually winding up third in class, a lap down on the Ortelli/Dumas Porsche 966.

Meanwhile the British Veloqx team, fresh from winning the GTO class in the British GT Championship, brought two of their cars to Donington Park. Tim Sugden and new signing, ex-F1 star Ivan Capelli, qualified the Veloqx Ferrari 360's fourth and fifth in N-GT. After leading the class for the first hour Tim Sugden handed over to Andrew Kirkaldy but mechanical failure sidelined their bid. Capelli ran third in N-GT during the opening hour, but eventually they were sidelined. Veloqx, aiming to step up to the FIA GT series next year were delighted by the speed of their cars, while acknowledging the need to work on reliability.

The race prepared Coupe will form the basis of a seven round one marque series to be run during 2003. Two races will run at the British and Italian Grands Prix, four will be run in conjunction with the FIA GT Championship when two drivers will race, while the last event will be held at Ferrari's traditional end of season "Finali Ferrari" race days. To ensure equality all the cars will be prepared by Maserati. 

Further back the JMB Ferrari 360 lead pairing of Andrea Montermini and Christian Pescatori had been split up, with Pescatori in the no 50 car being joined by Andrea Bertolini and Montermini in the no 51 car by Iraj Alexander. Pescatori qualified best, lining up in thirteenth place, second in N-GT, one place behind Antonio Garcia's Porsche 993 GT3-R.

The race saw the no 22 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 hold station in third until it spun down the order on lap 5, never coming back into contention, while the brand new Ferrari 550 run by JAS Engineering offshoot, DART Racing, headed to the pits with major electrical problems the same lap. The Lamborghini Diablo ran steadily until retiring on lap 35 with a broken gearbox, while by this point the Deletraz/Piccini Ferrari had cut through the field and was in amongst the front runners. By lap 66 it had taken a stint in the lead, but after stopping for fuel Andrea Piccini, running in third place, collided with the no12 Paul Belmondo Racing Chrysler Viper and spun down the order.

In N-GT the JMB cars slipped further away from the championship lead, Montermini coming home third and Pescatori fourth, comprehensively beaten and lapped by the two dominant Fresisinger Motorsport Porsche's.

In the North American Grand-Am series the Ferrari of Washington 360 GT raced to their fifth N-GT victory of the season. Bill Auberlen and Cort Wagner winning their class at the Mont Tremblant 6 Hours in Canada, as well as finishing second overall, in the process extending their class lead. In a close race, fourth overall and second in N-GT went to the Falcon Racing Ferrari 360 GT. The final round is at Daytona on 10th November.

Meanwhile Jamie Davies and new team mate Tim Mullen in the lead Veloqx Motorsport 360 GT completely dominated the GTO class at the penultimate round of the British GT Championship at Thruxton claiming fifth place overall and mixing it with the more powerful machinery. Their win tightened up the points classification, Davies now four points off the GTO series lead, and a win at the final round at Donnington this weekend would give him the title.

Ivan Capelli is the first driver to be announced, Veloqx delighted to attract such a high profile name. It is believed that Tim Sugden and Jamie Davies are in the frame for next year. As a taster, Capelli will drive a Ferrari 360 GT at the British series closing round at Donnington next weekend. No team mate has been nominated as yet. Ivan Capelli took part in 93 Grands Prix during his F1 career, driving for Ferrari in 1992, but being dropped by the team after finishing a disappointing 12th in the Championship.

“It wasn’t a pretty race,” team manager Glenn Marquis explained. “We had two tyre failures, and were passed under a yellow flag by the race leader, which put us a lap behind the Mosler-Chevrolet with which we were battling. Fortunately GrandAm officials saw what had happened and we got our lap back. The crew did two really quick pit stops to replace the tyres, so we were never more than a minute off the lead. When the Mosler had to stop for fuel the race was ours.” 

Bill Auberlen had qualified the Ferrari on the GT pole, and led the first eight laps, when the Chevrolet-engined Mosler passed him to take the class lead. Auberlen retook the lead ten laps later, and held it until the first tyre failure. The Mosler again took the lead at that point but the Ferrari remained close behind, and regained the lead two laps from the finish, Wagner crossing the line 44 seconds ahead.

Overall the race was won by Chris Dyson and James Weaver in the Dyson Riley & Scott which dominated the race after team mate Butch Leitzinger who had led away from pole retired with a hydraulic fluid leak.
 

race result, GrandAm Watkins Glen 6 hours: 1 James Weaver/Chris Dyson ( R&S Mk lll Ford ) 187 laps, 2 Ralf Kelleners/Anthony Lazzaro/Terry Borcheller ( Lola B2K/40 ) -2laps, 3 Niclas Jonsson/William Rand/Marino Franchitti ( Lola B2K/40 Nissan ) -5laps, 4 Howard Katz/David Sternberg/Bret Arsenault ( Lola B2K/40 Nissan ) -10laps, 5 John Macaluso/Buddy Rice/James Gue ( R&S MKlll Ford ) -12laps, 6 Cort Wagner/Bill Auberlen ( Ferrari 360 GT ) -12laps