Recap Of Watkins Glen – 6 Hours of Racing, Rain or Shine, Cornhole Challenge Gone Wrong

Since last year was my first time in Watkins Glen and the first time I DJ/MC’ed at Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at the Team IMSA store.  This year when the Craton Promotions team was getting assigned races to work throughout the season, I almost demanded that I get back to Watkins Glan. There are a handful of reasons for this love of the Glen. First, the track is beautiful, the whole atmosphere of the fans midway is cool and the people are just fun to be around. Second, the town of Watkins Glen New York is simply awesome, the Italian restaurant is great, and the ice cream shops on the main drag, are unbelievably great. (see the photos)  They have a waterfall in the middle of the town, I mean it’s a great place.

The 2023 Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen was the fifth race of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. According to historians, It is one of the most prestigious sports car races in North America.

The race was sponsored by Sahlen’s. It was previously called the Six Hours of Watkins Glen. The race dates back to 1948.

Our team this year consisted of Thomas Craton, Jacob, Micah, and myself. We have found a great rental house in the area so we enjoyed our time at the track, our time in the town, and our downtime at the house as well. We even had a visitor for dinner every night (see photo)

Thursday through Sunday at the track, we had all of the new official IMSA merchandise and I also had the Team IMSA cornhole boards out in front of the store, taking on all challengers.

Across from our Team IMSA store, this time was the Chevrolet display which had some very pretty Corvettes out front for people to look at. Chevrolet also had an MC at their booth and we worked together very professionally, letting each other get through our promos before the other would talk. Johnny D I think his name was. One of the days I was out front challenging fans to play me on the Team IMSA cornhole boards and I challenged Johnny to come over and do a round of booth-VS-booth, he did come out and then proceeded to beat me at my own game, LOL, it was all fun and games, plus the crowd loved it.

Hyundai also had an MC talking about them, but he would never engage with us. I challenged him, went to the Hyundai booth, signed up for a free shirt, challenged him again, went and talked to his customer representative out front, and challenged him again, but it never happened. Maybe at the next track, we can finally finish that Team IMSA cornhole challenge, Mister MC.

I have to give a shout-out to my friends at the Watkins Glen store and to my bartenders next to our Team IMSA store, I know what you are thinking already, the bar was right next to you, and yes it was, and yes we did.  Great weekend for our “At the Events” crew for sure.

We also did a random drawing from our VIP email list and gave away a Patriot Brand IMSA backpack cooler to our lucky winner, (See Photo)

Next up for my part of the Craton Promotions crew will be the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.