Taylor, Albuquerque, No. 10 Acura end drought with Detroit IMSA victory, first since 2022

Unofficial Race Results

The drought ended in Detroit.

Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, and the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 found their way to Victory Lane for the first time in 15 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, a streak dating to August 2022.

WTRAndretti was victorious earlier this year with its new-for-2024 IMSA Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class No. 40 entry at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac. But the organization’s flagship No. 10 team had endured almost 22 winless months despite leading the GTP class standings into the 2023 WeatherTech Championship finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Saturday at Detroit, it appeared not even a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility on the tight, 1.645-mile street course could deny victory to the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 driven Friday to the Motul Pole Award by Nick Tandy. But Taylor drafted Tandy’s co-driver Mathieu Jaminet down the long Jefferson Avenue straight, and he executed a clean pass into the Turn 3 hairpin with 25 minutes remaining in the 100-minute sprint race.

Taylor held on through two additional restarts after short late-race cautions and the No. 10 Acura prevailed by 1.132 seconds after 75 laps of rough-and-tumble street course racing. The No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R shared by Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande claimed third place, followed by the outside front row starting No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche and drivers Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron.

“It means so much,” reflected Taylor, a two-time champion in IMSA prototypes who earned his 32nd career victory Saturday. “With how important track position is here, we didn’t think we had a chance really. But Filipe had an amazing start. We ran one set of Michelin tires for the entire race. The one pit stop, the guys nailed it. The driver change was flawless. I’m just so happy and proud for the team. Just super excited.”

Albuquerque qualified the No. 10 Acura in fourth place, but he immediately moved up to second with a deft move into Turn 1. He kept leader Tandy in sight until Tandy spun out a Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class car less than half an hour into the race, incurring a drive through penalty that dropped the No. 6 Porsche to sixth place.

Smart strategy and a well-timed pit stop for the driver change from Tandy to Jaminet elevated the No. 6 Porsche back into the lead. But Jaminet got bogged in GTD PRO class traffic, allowing Taylor’s Acura to get a run that the Porsche driver could not defend.

Jaminet was upset with himself for losing the lead – and in his mind, the race.

“Everything was okay, but I basically struggled to generate temperature in the front tires,” he said. “I thought everything was under control, but I caught traffic in the wrong spot and that gave him a shot. He did a good move. Congrats to them, but from my side, I’m definitely not happy. That was not one of my best drives today.”

Albuquerque’s emotions after the race stood in stark contrast. The weight on not winning clearly wore heavily on him and Taylor.

“It’s almost like when you are struggling in a family when something goes wrong,” he said. “You just get more united and try to motivate each other. You never lose that faith and stick even more together, knowing the tables will turn and it’s just around the corner. I think this moment just made our No. 10 Konica Minolta team stronger. Today I nearly cried.”

The No. 7 Porsche team retained the lead in the GTP class standings, with a 70-point advantage over the No. 01 Cadillac. Next up is the No. 6 Porsche, followed by the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac which dropped from second to fourth after a sixth-place finish at Detroit.

The concrete canyons of the new 1.645-mile, nine-turn street course were enough to cause loose fillings for drivers and cars alike in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

Ultimately the car with teeth on its grille and a new “gold tooth” for this race survived a tough bite of action Saturday on the way to its second successive Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class victory.

AO Racing, with “Rexy” the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R – featuring the T-Rex-inspired dinosaur livery – emerged from seeming hibernation to snatch an unlikely resurrection act after Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports appeared poised to dominate against the backdrop of General Motors’ corporate headquarters.

From a 1-2 start on the grid, the race quickly went awry for the pair of Corvette Z06 GT3.R cars.

First, Friday pole-winner Antonio Garcia’s race evaporated before it ever got going with reported alternator problems bringing the No. 3 car to pit lane just after the start. But where the race truly became a painful root canal for Corvette came after a restart from the second full-course caution just past halfway through the 100-minute race.

Tommy Milner was last of the GTD PRO runners to pit after leading the entirety of his stint and handing over the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R to co-driver Nicky Catsburg, who appeared to have the advantage on both tire and fuel strategy.

After the restart, however, there was contact between Catsburg and Ben Barnicoat, who’d taken over the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, at Turn 3. Barnicoat was on the inside of Catsburg attempting to take the lead.

In the aftermath, Laurin Heinrich, who’d taken over the No. 77 AO Porsche from Seb Priaulx, hit Catsburg on the rebound with nowhere to go and damaged his front splitter.

A subsequent traffic jam at Turn 1 following a separate incident between two Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars caused a third full-course caution and left the damaged Heinrich and Barnicoat cars limping but still running 1-2 ahead of Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, Marvin Kirchhoefer in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and Albert Costa Balboa in the No. 35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

IMSA officials reviewed the Catsburg-Barnicoat contact with no action taken, leaving Barnicoat’s damaged car to go after Heinrich for the remainder of the race while Catsburg sat in the pits out of contention while the No. 4 Corvette was being repaired.

Two more full-course cautions interrupted the flow and there was one more bit of podium drama inside the final five minutes. Riberas and Kirchhoefer made contact into Turn 3, but the incident was put under review by IMSA race officials again with no further action.

Heinrich, battered but not beaten, emerged ahead of the similarly ailing Barnicoat by 2.885 seconds at the finish. Riberas finished third to ensure he and co-driver Ross Gunn scored their first podium of the season in the No. 23 Aston Martin.

It was the second career and second straight WeatherTech Championship win for Heinrich, Priaulx and AO Racing. Unofficially, the pairing extended its GTD PRO championship lead to 84 points over Barnicoat and co-driver Jack Hawksworth.

“It was super difficult and I had to adapt my driving style,” said Heinrich, who added that the Porsche’s vibration was “horrendous” and forced him to adjust his driving.

“I had to enter really slow in the corner. Every restart it got more difficult. I couldn’t have done it without (Priaulx). That’s the key to win in IMSA.”

Priaulx added, “Our job was keep the car nice and clean for Laurin and leave it for him to fight. I couldn’t have done it without the team. Double win! Really happy for the whole team.”

Hawksworth, who saw the Catsburg-Barnicoat contact from pit lane, described his view of the incident.

“It’s a hard one to say. The (No.) 4 came over in the braking zone, and you can’t do that,” he said. “From a little bit back, the (No.) 4 came across. You can’t move in the braking zone.”

The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship (and the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup) resumes June 20-23 at Watkins Glen International, when all four classes will be in action at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen

 

 

 

Comments

comments