Метка: Filipe Albuquerque

Acura fastest from BMW in first practice

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO



Acura’s Filipe Albuquerque topped the opening practice session for this weekend’s IMSA SportsCar Championship round at Road America.

Albuquerque beat BMW’s Connor De Phillippi and Sebastien Bourdais (Cadillac Racing) in preparation for Sunday’s 2h40m race around the four-mile track that’s the self-proclaimed ‘America’s National Park of Speed’ and features a 47-car entry.

The premier class GTP hybrids were back after taking a break at Mosport last month.

Dane Cameron set the benchmark at 1m53.538s in the points-leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 he shares with Felipe Nasr, 0.015s ahead of the sister No. 6 car of Mathieu Jaminet.

Times tumbled after 10 minutes, as Louis Deletraz (No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06), Bourdais (Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R) and Albuquerque (No.10 WTR Acura) all took turns in P1. Albuquerque’s 1m52.555s was then eclipsed by Deletraz’s 1m52.451s.

BMW joined the chat after 20 minutes, with De Phillippi lapping in 1m51.500s, to take top spot in the No. 25 M Hybrid V8, eight tenths clear of Jesse Krohn in the sister No. 24 car. Both BMW and Acura have tested recently at Road America, while in Balance of Performance news, the BMW has gained 1 kW of power and the Acura ARX-06 is 5kg heavier.

Deletraz split the BMWs with a 1m51.902s, but this was still four tenths shy of De Phillippi, while Ricky Taylor took fourth in the No. 10 Acura with 1m52.104s.

Bourdais suffered an off at Turn 5 and continued, which was mirrored by Jack Aitken later in the session in the No. 31 Action Express Caddy. It didn’t seem to hamper Bourdais, who later jumped up to second place, 0.166s off De Phillippi.

The session was red flagged with 35m remaining for debris to be recovered from Turn 14.

The factory Porsches had fallen back to the bottom of the top 10 until Nasr went third fastest inside the final 10 minutes in the No. 7.

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But with less than four minutes left on the clock, Albuquerque rocketed to P1 with 1m51.089s, four tenths clear of the opposition. He just beat a second red flag as Danny Formal put his WTR with Andretti Lamborghini Huracan in the gravel at the final corner.

United Autosports quickest in LMP2

Paul di Resta set a storming pace at 1m53.486s in the opening moments of the session in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca that proved unbeatable across the 90-minute session.

Tom Dillmann was over half a second off that pace with 1m53.093s for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, ahead of Ben Hanley in third United’s No. 2 car from Mikkel Jensen’s TDS car.

Mosport pole-winner PJ Hyett (AO Racing) clashed with Seth Lucas’s No. 20 MDK by High Class Racing entry at Turn 1, which resulted in Hyett being penalized with a drive-through penalty.

McLaren fastest in GTD Pro

In GTD, Laurin Heinrich set the early pace in the points-leading AO Porsche 911 at 2m05.687s but was toppled minutes later by Antonio Garcia (No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R) and Mike Rockenfeller (No. 64 Multimatic Ford Mustang).

But towards the end of the session it was Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff who vaulted its McLaren 720S to the head of the times, leading all the Pro class cars as well as his fellow pro-ams.

Garcia led the Pro class from Rockenfeller and Nicky Catsburg in the sister No. 4 Corvette.

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What’s really made Porsche’s 963 the pack-leading GTP car in IMSA?

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What went so right for Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 963?

It was at this time last year that everything seemed to click for the new-for-2023 prototype, after stumbling out of the blocks despite the longest pre-season testing program (which started in the summer of 2022) compared its IMSA SportsCar Championship rivals Acura, BMW and Cadillac.

Although it bagged a front-row starting spot in that year’s Daytona 24 Hours, gearbox failure took out one car and the other finished 14th after hitting trouble with the then brand-new common hybrid system. There certainly were some glum faces around its garage that day.

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It showed at Sebring that, when the night air cooled temperatures, the 963 could find its performance window. But a late-race clash with Acura took out both of its cars, and podium finishes went begging.

Its No. 6 car, driven by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet, notched an unexpected first win on the streets of Long Beach, after a bold gamble to run on a single set of Michelins paid off. But the fact it could do this showed it wasn’t really working its tires efficiently, and had very poor pace, so this was a Hail Mary effort that luckily paid off.

Chances at Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen went begging – a front row lock-out squandered and an on-the-road victory ruled out for excessive plank wear on the No. 6 car respectively. After an abject showing at Mosport, where only BMW was slower in qualifying, then came Road America…

#7 Team Penske Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr

#7 Team Penske Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

“For sure, Road America in 2023 was the turning point, where things really started to click,” says ex-F1 racer Felipe Nasr, who leads this year’s championship. “It was truly a weekend that we could unlock the performance of the car, the true speed of the car.”

Back then Nasr shared the No. 7 with Matt Campbell, who since swapped seats with Dane Cameron to race in the World Endurance Championship for 2024.

“That win was really the breakthrough of the 7 crew,” Nasr adds. “If you look at all the results since, I really think the 7 car has been on a high, really ticking the boxes and being consistent.”

Porsche’s director of LMDh factory racing, Urs Kuratle, refers to it as a “very honest victory” that truly kickstarted its successful sequence of races in America.

#7 Team Penske Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr

#7 Team Penske Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

“It’s like we had a backpack on us that was filled with reliability (issues) and also with performance and operational topics as well,” admits Kuratle.

Following the win, he recalls: “I remember one guy talked to me, ‘So now we can start racing!’ I’m not saying we haven’t had any problems ever since… but maybe that’s the best expression I could say: It’s like the backpack was gone.

“But we are never leaning back, we have to keep on pushing on the whole thing.”

Motorsport.com asked Kuratle what exactly are the key factors that have made the 963 the pack leader: “I think the key strength is that we have a very, very solid package that starts obviously with the drivers,” he replies.

“Road Atlanta is the only race since Road America last year where we have not been on the podium with at least one car. And that is only possible if you have a very strong driver lineup, if the car is reliable and the team doesn’t make any mistakes. These are the key factors.

“I think compared to all the competitors, we have the strongest package on that one and that’s something we are still not 100% happy – if you ever can be happy about this – we still work on every detail to be, to become better on all those topics.”

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell, Josef Newgarden

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell, Josef Newgarden

Photo by: Bob Meyer

This year, the No. 7 car has won the Daytona 24 Hours and The Six Hours at The Glen, while the sister car prevailed at Laguna Seca.

Cameron and Nasr go into this year’s Road America race with a 93-point lead over Cadillac Racing’s Sebastian Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, and are 132 clear of Tandy/Jaminet (who’ve trailed since a disastrous Sebring).

Nasr points to their most-recent victory at Watkins Glen, a race impacted by heavy rainstorms, as the best indicator yet of this team’s precision under pressure.

“When I look at Watkins Glen, I think it was really a test of all of those elements,” Nasr said. “It was a super-hard race with extremely difficult conditions where we had really 50/50 of both.

“It was wet or it was dry, which tires to take, which time to come in the pits. I think that was a really good test to see how we operated in that race, and having the win in Watkins was what’s really not only incredible but was very important for the state of the championship.”

What does a rival think?

Early last year, if you asked one of Porsche’s rival drivers for their thoughts on how the 963 appeared to them in combat, you’d get some puckered lips and responses like “very snappy, very oversteery” and “it seems to struggle to find the performance window on these tires”.

It’s one area that the 963 has vastly improved over its competition lifespan, as it has now won races using all of Michelin’s range of tire compounds – soft, medium and hard – which are mandated for each round.

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Speaking on the subject this week, Acura’s Filipe Albuquerque has advocated Michelin leaning more on the use of its soft compound where possible, to try and avoid instances of these heavy yet powerful cars crashing on cold rubber.

“I believe it’s better to blister a tire than to crash a car on the out lap,” he says. “The performance is better with the harder compound wherever you go (in helping stint lengths), but what it is harder is just the survival on cold tyres.

“Having a softer compound, it’s just much easier to apply the energy on the out lap, but eventually you will pay through the long run. But, at the end of the day, it’s going to be the same for everybody.

“For example, at Long Beach we had the soft when last year it was medium. So that was the main change from last year to this year. On top of that, obviously, all the drivers know and then taking their adjustments, but it seems like Porsche has been a little bit ahead of things on cold tyres.

“They’ve been a little bit stronger than the others as well in WEC. I mean, I think that’s the perks of having cars in multiple championships.”

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

When Nasr is asked about the tire warmup issue, he says it’s been a real focus of attention.

“I feel like one year under our belts make a huge difference on understanding on how to turn on the tires, depending on each track and the tire compound as well,” says Nasr. “We’ve seen that several times and in the last race in Watkins, when it was mixed conditions.

“Some cars could really light up the tire right away. Some took maybe a few more laps and, you know, it goes in favor of some cars depending on the track layout and how we put the energy on the tires.

“It’s certainly one area we’ve been working a lot. Not only as a team but as drivers as well trying to see where we can produce and put more energy in the tire, but with the car as well, like setup-wise, things that we can do to generate more heat in the tire.

“Everything counts, you know, in-laps, the out-laps and how you generate the heat on the tires in the race.”

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr

#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

So, while Porsche was already decent on these tire compounds, it was still prone to struggles at high-energy tracks like Mosport (which is no longer on the GTP schedule) and Road Atlanta, which hosts the Petit Le Mans finale.

Porsche’s 963 has certainly hit its sweet spot to lead the IMSA drivers’, teams’ and constructors’ standings with just three rounds to go. And PPM is leading the WEC drivers’ and constructors’ championships too, with customer JOTA topping the teams’…

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Albuquerque steps down to LMP2 for overall IMSA victory bid at Mosport

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


IMSA SportsCar Championship star Filipe Albuquerque will drop down a division – but still be in the reckoning for an overall race win – at Mosport later this month.

Albuquerque, who normally drives for the factory-backed Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura squad, will hop across for a one-off IMSA LMP2 outing with United Autosports in Canada on July 14.

The Portuguese sportscar ace, who has 13 wins in IMSA’s top division, can step down to P2 as the GTP class isn’t racing at Mosport this year.

Albuquerque drove for United at last month’s Le Mans 24 Hours, sharing with Ben Keating and Ben Hanley, but the car was classified a disappointing 42nd. The sister car won the event, in the hands of Oliver Jarvis, Nolan Siegel and Bijoy Garg.

Albuquerque will team up with Daniel Goldburg in the #22 United Autosports ORECA 07, racing in place of Paul di Resta who will be fulfilling his full-season Hypercar commitments with Peugeot Sport in the World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Sao Paolo.

“I am really looking forward to race in Mosport with United,” said Albuquerque. “We will be racing for the overall victory.

“I had the chance to meet Daniel already and we had a great feeling. On top of that, I got a nice warm up at Le Mans to get back into the LMP2.

“We want to fight for the win for sure.”

#23 United Autosports Oreca 07: Gibson: Ben Keating, Filipe Albuquerque, Ben Hanley

#23 United Autosports Oreca 07: Gibson: Ben Keating, Filipe Albuquerque, Ben Hanley

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Albuquerque has never won at Mosport but is a winner this year after scoring victory with Ricky Taylor at Detroit last month.

He previously won both the WEC and European Le Mans Series LMP2 class crowns with United.

“It’s always a pleasure to race with Filipe,” said United Autosports CEO, Richard Dean, “So with Paul fulfilling his commitments with Peugeot in the WEC, it was an easy choice.

“Filipe is super quick, reliable and a fantastic mentor for other drivers… I’m sure Daniel will learn a lot from him in Canada.

“Sadly, the 24 Hours of Le Mans didn’t go to plan for Filipe and the United Autosports #23 LMP2 crew this year, so this is our opportunity to celebrate victory together in 2024.”

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Taylor vows Acura can ‘gain back the points we lost’ in IMSA title chase

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Ricky Taylor believes Acura remains in the IMSA SportsCar Championship title hunt after he and team-mate Filipe Albuquerque ended their win drought last time out on the streets of Detroit.

As a result of their victory, Taylor and Albuquerque’s Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 has risen to sixth in points, 239 off the leading Porsche of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr – which has been top of the pile since winning the season-opening Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.

They head into this weekend’s six-hour race at Watkins Glen keen to maintain momentum, and Taylor reckons his epic late-race pass on Porsche’s Mathieu Jaminet to grab victory in Detroit can be a turning point.

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images

“It was a rough start to the year, and it was nice to turn it around at Detroit,” said Taylor. “Historically, our team has been a strong starter, and kinda holds on to the finish, so there’s no reason why we can’t make up what we’ve lost until Detroit. If we’ve lost that much, hopefully we can gain it back.

“There are still a lot of cars at the top of the charts, and unique to this season those cars are quite close. But there are still quite a few races to go – with a lot of [stormy] weather expected this weekend, so a lot can still happen.

“I think like in 2020 [when he won the title in a Penske-run Acura DPi with Helio Castroneves], going out and winning a lot of races is all we can do.”

Ricky Taylor & Helio Castroneves won 2020 DPi title in Penske-run Acura

Ricky Taylor & Helio Castroneves won 2020 DPi title in Penske-run Acura

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Taylor revealed that post-race investigation by his team showed that its Detroit victory shouldn’t have happened: “The ironic thing was that on our analysis of Detroit, we were actually the slowest car – so the slowest car ended up winning the race!

“I think that showed just how wild it was, and how much chaos that race produced.”

Taylor boasts 25 wins spanning 10 years in IMSA’s top class but the losing streak since Road America in 2022 has been one of his longest win droughts of his career.

“There’s a lot we can gain,” he added. “Coming out of a drought of not winning, I think we were kinda trying to force it a little bit, after not winning for so long. I think that adds to the pressure and compounds it. Then you start to think nothing can go right.

“Now we’ve got that win, the pressure is kinda off now – and we can let things come to us more naturally now. We can do what we do, and hopefully our results will speak for themselves.

“The team has been really strong, especially with our two cars working really well together, there’s been a lot of opportunities for good results that just didn’t materialize for us.

“If the opportunity is there, I think we can make a little charge here. We definitely still have our sights set on the championship, even though it’s a big points spread. We’re coming off a high, and hopefully we can carry that momentum.”

#10: Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, Acura ARX-06, GTP: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz

#10: Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, Acura ARX-06, GTP: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

One curveball ahead of the Six Hours of The Glen is a weather forecast that promises a heady mix of heatwave and thunderstorms at one of America’s greatest road courses. A 56-car entry for the four-class endurance event will pack Watkins Glen’s 3.4-mile layout, making it a huge challenge to conquer.

“The funny thing about the rain we’re expecting is that three of our four drivers haven’t driven the car in the rain yet,” admitted Taylor. “So Louis [Deletraz, who shares the sister No. 40 car with Ricky’s brother Jordan Taylor] is the only one who’s driven this car in the wet. He qualified on pole for Petit last year, in the damp, and it didn’t look bad.

“The guys coming back from Le Mans are ready to go with plenty of fresh rain experience! Looks like rain almost every single session this weekend, so all of us want to drive as much as possible to get a feel for it – I’ll certainly be putting my hand up.”

#10: Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, Acura ARX-06, GTP: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz

#10: Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, Acura ARX-06, GTP: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Watkins Glen is a track that the team has targeted improved performance and has tested recently at a circuit that’s had some significant changes in terms of fresh curbs being added at the Bus Stop since last year’s event here.

“The first section is OK for us, but the big curb [at the left-hand elements] is off limits for us,” he explained. “There’s a bit of a sweet spot behind the ‘hot dog’ where if you can get your front wheel in the right spot, it’s kinda smooth, but the chances of missing that, it’s quite a big consequence for us.

“I’ll be interesting to see how the different cars handle it, and we’re definitely going to work on our car to see if we can get it to be more compliant over those. But I don’t think all of [the curb] is going to be useable.”

Taylor is hoping that the track will play to the ORECA-chassised Acura’s strength of coping with the low ride-height required here, which Porsche fell foul of last year when its winning car was disqualified for excessive plank wear – handing victory to BMW.

“One standout of the Acura is that it’s really efficient, you can run it really low, and Watkins Glen is such a smooth track,” he said. “It’s also one of the higher-energy tracks that we go to, so we’re using the hard tire, which will be hard to warm-up as usual. It’s going to be in the 90[F]s when it’s dry, so I think that caters to us a little bit.

“Even though Acura has won two races this year, the motivation is really high that we still need to improve. Watkins isn’t historically a good track for us, we had some reliability issues last year, but we were really quick.”

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Acura beats Porsche with stunning pass in wild street fight

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On the series’ debut on the tight and twisty 1.654-mile, nine-turn temporary street circuit in downtown Detroit, Taylor beat Porsche’s Mathieu Jaminet after pulling off a great overtaking move inside the final 25 minutes in GTP.

AO Racing’s Seb Priaulx and Laurin Heinrich won the GTD Pro class in their Porsche 911.

After the pair of factory-backed Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s swept the front row in qualifying, poleman Nick Tandy’s #6 car led Dane Cameron’s #7 entry to the green flag.

Albuquerque’s #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 braked late and went around the outside of a cautious Cameron at the opening turn to grab second, as Sebastien Bourdais (#01 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R) went down his inside to claim third.

The full-course yellow caution flew at the end of the opening lap as Harry Tincknell’s GTD class Ford Mustang ground to a halt before even making the first corner.

At the restart, Tandy led Albuquerque, Bourdais, Cameron and the two BMW M Hybrid V8s of Philipp Eng and Nick Yelloly. But Eng was soon given a drive-through penalty, losing his hard-earned fifth place for changing lanes before the start.

Tandy pulled away, despite battling with a malfunctioning radio, leaving Albuquerque, Bourdais and Cameron to scrap over second. Pipo Derani, who crashed in qualifying, exited the #31 Action Express-run Cadillac after 10 minutes to hand over to Jack Aitken in a bold strategy play.

After 25 minutes, and having predicted issues in GTD traffic ahead of the race, Tandy outbraked himself at Turn 3 and punted factory Ferrari racer Daniel Serra’s Conquest Racing 296 into a spin. The collision led to a drive-through penalty for the race leader.

“I just missed when they were checking up, I apologize to them,” said Tandy, who explained he was fiddling with his radio leads as he couldn’t hear his pits clearly.

That left Albuquerque leading Bourdais and Cameron, although Bourdais dived for the pits after 30 minutes to hand over to Renger van der Zande. The call was made late, however, and Bourdais hadn’t loosened his belts, which led to a slow driver change.

Albuquerque pitted to hand over to Ricky Taylor a lap later, and he rejoined with an extended advantage. Cameron went a lap longer before stopping to hand off to Felipe Nasr, who rejoined ahead of Taylor.

Yelloly ran longer in the lead and pitted after 37 minutes. He handed over to Connor De Phillippi, who promptly stuffed the car into the Turn 3 tire stack on his out lap.

That cycled the penalized Tandy back to the lead, and he rattled off a sequence of fastest laps. He dived into the pits, to hand over to Jaminet, just before the second caution period, as De Phillippi crashed his BMW again, smashing its left-rear corner against the Turn 2 wall.

Jaminet rejoined in the lead, ahead of stable-mate Nasr, Ricky Taylor, van der Zande and Jesse Krohn in the surviving #24 BMW. But Nasr had to pit under yellow to switch a punctured tire, dropping him from second to eighth.

The race restarted with 47 minutes remaining, with Nasr immediately gaining three spots by driving the outside of Richard Westbrook’s JDC-Miller Porsche 963, Gianmaria Bruni’s Proton-run variant and Krohn’s BMW at Turn 3, and he then sliced past Louis Deletraz’s #40 Acura (shared with Jordan Taylor) further around the lap.

But the race was quickly neutralized once again, when Westbrook was pushed into a spin by Aitken and blocked the track.

The race went green again just past the hour mark, with Jaminet scampering away from Taylor, van der Zande and Nasr. Taylor stayed within a second of the leader, as van der Zande and Nasr fell away.

Taylor grabbed the lead at Turn 3 with 25 minutes to go, making a bold lunge down the inside of the hairpin, after Jaminet had been slightly hampered while lapping a GTD Mustang.

The yellow flew again with 20 minutes to go to deal with a debris that was accruing on the main straight. It went green again with 15m to go, with Jaminet keen to avenge Taylor, while Nasr attacked van der Zande.

Bruni made a move on Krohn to snatch sixth, with Aitken following suit. But as Bruni attacked Deletraz, he got swiped by Aitken and slammed into the wall approaching Turn 4. That led to a fifth caution, as Bruni’s car was stranded.

Taylor survived the final restart with seven minutes remaining to record the #10 Acura’s first win since Road America in 2022.

#77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R: Laurin Heinrich, Sebastian Priaulx

#77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R: Laurin Heinrich, Sebastian Priaulx

Photo by: Josh Tons / Motorsport Images

Disaster for Corvette, Porsche beats battered Lexus in GTD Pro

In GTD Pro, under the shadows of General Motors’ giant Renaissance Center towers that dominate the skyline here, the pressure was on Chevrolet’s Corvette squad to perform.

After scoring a 1-2 in qualifying, Antonio Garcia’s #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R led Tommy Milner’s #4 to the green, ahead of Jack Hawksworth (#14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F) and Seb Priaulx in AO Racing’s #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

But it all went wrong almost immediately for Garcia, who pitted at the end of the opening lap with an alternator issue.

New leader Milner handed over to Nicky Catsburg after 40 minutes, changing just one tire during the stop. Ben Barnicoat took over from Hawksworth in the Lexus, with Laurin Heinrich in for Priaulx in the ‘Rexy’ Porsche.

Straight after a mid-race restart, leaders Barnicoat and Catsburg clashed at Turn 3, the Lexus punting the Corvette into a spin after hitting the inside wall.

That promoted Heinrich (who had tagged the spun Corvette and suffered splitter damage) to the lead, but he had to come to a halt to avoid the spun Westbrook, and was almost collected by Barnicoat – who continued in second despite pieces falling off it.

Barnicoat successfully battling bent steering and a loose hood to chase Heinrich to the finish, while the Pfaff McLaren 720S of Marvin Kirchhofer was set to take third when he was punted off by Alex Riberas (Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage) at Turn 3 in the closing stages.

Cla   Nº   Driver   Entrant / Car   Laps   Time   Delay/Retirement 
1 10  Ricky Taylor
F.Albuquerque		 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti
Acura		 75 1:40’02.133  
2 6  Nick Tandy
Mathieu Jaminet		 Porsche Penske Motorsport
Porsche		 75 1:40’03.265 1.132
3 01  R.van der Zande
S.Bourdais		 Cadillac Racing
Cadillac		 75 1:40’06.331 4.198
4 7  Dane Cameron
Felipe Nasr		 Porsche Penske Motorsport
Porsche		 75 1:40’07.275 5.142
5 40  Jordan Taylor
Louis Delétraz		 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti
Acura		 75 1:40’12.253 10.120
6 31  Pipo Derani
Jack Aitken		 Whelen Cadillac Racing
Cadillac		 75 1:40’12.492 10.359
7 24  Jesse Krohn
Philipp Eng		 BMW M Team RLL
BMW		 75 1:40’12.926 10.793
8 85  T.van der Helm
R.Westbrook		 JDC-Miller Motorsports
Porsche		 74 1:40’16.425 1 lap /14.292
9 77  Laurin Heinrich
Seb Priaulx		 AO Racing
Porsche		 74 1:40’28.354 1 lap /26.221
10 14  Jack Hawksworth
Ben Barnicoat		 Vasser Sullivan
Lexus		 74 1:40’31.239 1 lap /29.106
11 23  Ross Gunn
Alex Riberas		 Heart of Racing Team
Aston Martin		 74 1:40’33.223 1 lap /31.090
12 15  Parker Thompson
F.Montecalvo		 Vasser Sullivan
Lexus		 74 1:40’33.819 1 lap /31.686
13 1  Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow		 Paul Miller Racing
BMW		 74 1:40’44.260 1 lap /42.127
14 65  Joey Hand
Dirk Müller		 Ford Multimatic Motorsports
Ford		 73 1:40’47.978 2 laps /45.845
15 35  Daniel Serra
Albert Costa		 Conquest Racing
Ferrari		 72 1:38’11.000 Not running
16 9  M.Kirchhöfer
Oliver Jarvis		 Pfaff Motorsports
McLaren		 71 1:36’57.349 Not running
17 4  Tommy Milner
Nicky Catsburg		 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports
Chevrolet		 69 1:40’48.643 6 laps /46.510
18 5  Gianmaria Bruni
Bent Viscaal		 Proton Competition
Porsche		 65 1:27’07.954 Not running
19 3  Antonio García
Alexander Sims		 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports
Chevrolet		 59 1:40’47.282 16 laps /45.149
20 64  Harry Tincknell
M.Rockenfeller		 Ford Multimatic Motorsports
Ford		 51 1:40’49.244 24 laps /47.111
21 25  C.De Phillippi
Nick Yelloly		 BMW M Team RLL
BMW		 33 39’49.265 Not running



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Ricky Taylor looking for redemption at Long Beach

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A year ago, a disastrous pit stop for issues during a swap with co-driver Filipe Albuquerque left Taylor forced to put on a furious charge in the No. 10 Acura ARX-07 for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti.

Taylor overcame a gap of 8s with eight minutes left and stormed back through to second and, with three minutes remaining, caught the Penske Porsche 963 of race leader Mathieu Jaminet, who was on older tires. With two laps to go, Taylor dove to the inside of Jaminet entering Turn 1 but underestimated the lack of grip off the racing line as momentum carried him into the tire barrier and left the latter to coast to the win.

Although a year has passed since then, the loss – that he takes ownership of – is still fresh in his mind.

“I’m really excited to be going back because I remember my first feeling after the race last year was, ‘Gosh, I wish I could try this again’,” Taylor said.

“You don’t get a second chance in motorsport. Going back this year, I’ve been thinking about that moment for a year now and finally get a chance to go erase it from my memory hopefully, this year.”

If put if put in a similar position in Saturday’s 100-minute IMSA SportsCar Championship race, would Taylor repeat the move?

“It’s so situational,” he said.

“It didn’t seem like an overly aggressive move at the time. We were in a position in the championship where there was so much up in the air, it was so early, there wasn’t really much to gain or lose. Looking back on it, it cost us the championship, but there were a lot of other moments that also cost us the championship. …

“I wouldn’t make the same move obviously because it didn’t work. I might have waited a lap or two longer knowing what I know now; he was quite off the pace, and I might have had another chance at the time. You think you don’t have another shot, so I don’t blame myself for going for it. Last year, we really wanted to win the race. The second place wasn’t something we were interested in.”

Taylor and Albuquerque are eighth in the championship standings after two rounds, which could provide a more aggressive approach on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit.

“This year, we come into it, we need to get some points and we need a result,” Taylor said.

“We’re going to be aggressive. Hopefully, that situation doesn’t happen again. Hopefully, we can get the pole and control the race from the lead. But even with one pit stop, a lot can happen.”

One factor that is likely to make a bigger impact is having a softer tire compound versus last year, when Jaminet vault to the lead and win despite never changing tires during the race.

Taylor believes the softer rubber will allow for higher tire degradation, which could make for more defensive driving.

“There’s going to be a lot more deg,” he said.

“Out laps are going to be really strong. I’m not a strategist, but obviously the drivers are always throwing around ideas of ‘Oh, we should undercut them’, but everybody’s going to try undercut. There’s going to be a lot of people defending and then who goes long?

“There’s definitely going to be people trying different stuff and I don’t think it’s a full two stints, so there’s quite a bit of room to play. I think for one stop it’s going to be pretty exciting what people do.”

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