Masse holds Stevenson by 0.781 seconds at Watkins Glen
Florian Masse took his first Championship victory in the Ferrari 250 GTO Series II after a 49-lap contest with Nat Stevenson that was undecided until the final lap. Stevenson’s second place, however, secured the Championship by four points.
A race of shifting command
Watkins Glen produced a proper sports-car contest, one in which the leading cars seldom enjoyed the luxury of clear road or a settled order. Florian Masse’s Ferrari, Nat Stevenson’s Shelby Cobra 289 Hardtop, Adam Celárek’s TVR Griffith Series 200 and Hayley Smith’s similar TVR ran as a compact leading party from the sixth lap through to lap 20, never spread by more than five seconds.
Celárek and Stevenson were prominent in the early exchanges, while Masse remained firmly among them. The lead passed repeatedly between the principal contenders as the first half developed, and the race had acquired its essential shape well before midway: a French Ferrari and a British Cobra at the centre of affairs, with Celárek and Smith still close enough to ensure that neither could treat the matter as a private duel.
There were moments when the order altered sharply. Celárek moved ahead of Stevenson before Masse rose to the front on lap 12. By then the four-car contest had already demanded constant attention, and the lead was not a possession that could be taken for granted.
Ferrari and Cobra
Masse and Stevenson then carried the argument into a longer, harder phase. For 33 consecutive laps they remained within two seconds of one another, each taking and surrendering the advantage as the race ran on. Stevenson reclaimed the lead on lap 16, only for Masse to be back in front by lap 23.
The contest did not resolve itself after that. Stevenson was again ahead at the end of lap 46, but Masse answered immediately on the next lap and placed the Ferrari back in command. The Cobra remained an immediate threat in the closing stages, close enough to deny Masse any comfort through the last miles.
At the chequered flag Masse had won by 0.781 seconds. It was a narrow and deservedly hard-fought first Championship success, achieved not by escaping the pursuit but by surviving it. Stevenson set the fastest lap, 1:13.598, a time exactly matched by Celárek, but it was Masse who had the final fraction in hand when it mattered.
The podium behind them
Smith’s third place was the quiet reward for remaining part of the leading company during the decisive early stretch. The British driver brought the Griffith Series 200 to the flag behind the Ferrari and Cobra, while Celárek’s fourth place completed a strong showing for the TVR after his early prominence.
Valentin Knechtel finished fifth in another Ferrari 250 GTO Series II, with FMG sixth in the earlier 250 GTO. FMG had been as low as 16th after the second lap, but worked back into the leading half of the order and spent much of the latter race in close company with Mark Johnson’s Cobra. Johnson finished seventh, just behind the Ferrari after their long contest.
Brandon Hawkin took eighth in the Chevrolet Corvette, followed by CoVid_Man’s Shelby Cobra 289 Competition and Falling Falcon in the third Griffith. The latter had made a particularly forceful opening, rising from 21st on the grid to 12th by the end of the first lap before continuing to tenth at the finish.
A title decided by restraint
For Stevenson, second place carried a larger value than its immediate disappointment. The Championship had reached its conclusion at Watkins Glen, and the dropped-score calculation left the Cobra driver on 145 points. Masse’s victory lifted him to 141, while Celárek ended the campaign third on 133.
Thus Stevenson is Champion, the final margin only four points. Masse’s victory could not quite overturn the table, but it transformed the final accounting and gave his season a fitting defining result. The earlier leader, SDH-M ~ HappyKojot, remained second before Watkins Glen but was passed by both Masse and Stevenson in the completed standings.
It was an ending in keeping with the race itself: no easy separation, no excess of ceremony, merely a Ferrari first across the line and a Cobra close enough behind to take the greater prize.
The final impression
Masse will rightly remember Watkins Glen as the place of his first win in the Championship, secured in a finish among the closest in the archive. Stevenson, having pressed him to the end, could afford to view the 0.781 seconds from a broader perspective. Over one afternoon, the race winner and the Champion were not the same man, and both had earned their distinction.
The final round left a clean contrast between race-day glory and the longer discipline of a Championship. Masse had the victory, but Stevenson had carried enough of the season with him to make second place sufficient.