Taylor puts WTR Acura on Laguna Seca pole, resets track record
IMSA is thinking: We gotta find a way to screw that boy.
Images by Jake Galstad/Lumen
198 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Richard S. James | April 30, 2022 6:16 PM ET

It will be an all-Acura front row for the start of tomorrow’s Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Ricky Taylor will start the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura he shares with Filipe Albuquerque on pole for the 2h40m race — the fourth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship — with Oliver Jarvis in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura alongside.

The WTR car — the defending Laguna Seca winners — rolled off the truck fast and Taylor has set the quickest time in each session. While Taylor went faster in qualifying, with a new record of 1m13.924s around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn circuit, so did the others. The top three were within a tenth-and-a-half, with Jarvis only 0.089s off the pole time. Alex Lynn was the surprise in the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Cadillac, nearly making it on the front row with a 1m14072s lap. Sebastien Bourdais will start alongside Lynn in the other CGR Cadillac.

“Every session has been creeping closer and closer and closer,” said Taylor. “So as long as they don’t get any closer, I think we’ll be happy. We placed a lot of emphasis on qualifying, so to get the pole is satisfying, but there’s no room for anything else and and the race will be a completely separate story with Laguna Seca requiring a lot of front grip in qualifying and then needing really good rear tire degradation for the race. It’s going to prove that different cars will be competitive tomorrow. The one thing we have in our favor is that we have track position. It’s hard to overtake here so we will always take that.”

Stephen Thomas and Patrick Kelly, in the Nos. 11 and 52 PR1 Mathiasen ORECAs, respectively, traded fast laps during the qualifying session, with Thomas eventually claiming the LMP2 pole with a 1m17.571s lap; Kelly 0.057s behind.

“My teammate is fantastic,” declared Thomas. “He’s actually got a lot more racing experience than me. He helped me, so I expected him to be right there. In the last practice, Henrik Hedman was, I think, within a tenth of me. I think I was fastest both practices, but it was narrow margin, so I thought it was gonna be a shootout which is a ton of fun.”

Hedman ended up third quickest in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA with a 1m18.267s lap. Dennis Anderson will compete the second row of LMP2s in the No. 20 High Class Racing car.

More IMSA!

Cagey strategy bolts Volt Aston Martin to Michelin Pilot Challenge win

Laguna first-timers come prepared for the challenge in IMSA

TCR and GT4 "long term" for Michelin Pilot Challenge - Doonan

Mathieu Jaminet came out late in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R GTD PRO car, but it paid off. Jaminet turned a 1m23.142s lap, seven-tenths quicker than last year’s GTD qualifying record, to claim the pole.
#9: PFAFF Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3R, GTD PRO: Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet

“We stayed a few minutes in the box for a little bit of track evolution just to see how it’s going out there and to find a nice gap,” he explained “It was maybe smarter to to leave a little bit later. We knew we could turn on the tires quite quickly; this is exactly what happened and then I put in my best lap of the weekend at the right time. No mistakes; really nailed it. The car was spot on today so I hope we’re gonna continue like this tomorrow.”

If the Porsche can get the tires working quickly, though, what does that say about possible degradation during the race for Jaminet and Matt Campbell?

“This is what we are a little bit worried [about]. Maybe…it turns on the tire so quick and then maybe we can have more deg. That’s the big question mark and the key for tomorrow, but what we have seen so far in practices is a lot of the degradation, but this seems pretty much the same for everybody in the field, so hopefully starting at the front will help us to control the pace and manage the tires,” Jaminet added.

Daniel Juncadella, in his first visit to Laguna Seca, was sitting at the top of GTD PRO until Jaminet pipped him. Juncadella had been quick from the get-go in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG and will start outside the front row for the split GT start after a 1m23.142s lap, 0.022s off the pole. Alex Riberas put the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage on the inside of the second row, another 0.204s back.

Russell Ward came on strong late in the session, with a 1m23.567 in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMGand put it on the outside of the second row, the fastest of the GTD field.

“Looking at the practice times, we didn’t expect to be this high up in qualifying,” Ward said. “We were really good over the distance and that’s kind of what we’re going for. In the past when I’ve raced here, it doesn’t help you to push and pull a gap. You just need to maintain a good average and have the car there at the end because once you start sliding around here, people just overtake you. The goal for us [is to] keep it clean and keep the tires under us and then put Philip [Ellis] in the car and see if he can bring it home in the position that I started.”

John Edwards was the fourth-quickest GTD Pro qualifier in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M4 GT3, starting inside the third row. Jaden Conwright will start the No. 42 NTE/SSR Lamborghini Huracan outside Edwards after dropping to 1m23.77s at the checker. Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW and Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin make up the fourth row of the GT field. The top eight cars were all under the previous qualifying record.

Next Up: Warmup at 11 a.m. Eastern followed by the 2h40m Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship race starting at 3 p.m. Eastern and broadcast on NBC.

 

• Taylor/Albuquerque storm to fourth straight Laguna IMSA victory for Acura

Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
share
tweet
emailBy Richard S. James | May 1, 2022 9:10 PM ET

The consensus coming into WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was that it was an Acura track. Acura had won the past three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races in the DPi class, and Wayne Taylor Racing and the No. 10 Acura ARX-06 came in as the defending race winners and default favorite. While they showed that the feeling was warranted by leading every session, qualifying on pole and ultimately winning the 2h40m race around the 2.38-mile, 11-turn circuit, it wasn’t as easy as might have been expected.

Ricky Taylor started the No. 10 on pole, took the lead at the start and was able to put a gap on Oliver Jarvis in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura. 
“We managed to get a pretty decent gap,” explained Taylor. “Our strategy, being out front with such big pit stop windows, the only way to control what other people do is to build a gap. So they told me just push as hard as you can to build that cushion. That’s what I did, not saving tires, not saving fuel, just build a gap. And then they could play with the strategy.”
The @WayneTaylorRcng team of Felipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor WIN at @WeatherTechRcwy Laguna Seca! pic.twitter.com/1qiUmH260F

— Motorsports on NBC (@MotorsportsNBC)

The face of the race changed when the first and only full-course caution for GTD polesitter Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG went hard into the wall up the hill from Turn 6. That caution came at 32 minutes into the race — about as ideal a time as it could be, just as the pit window was opening for the DPi and LMP2 cars to make the race on three more stops, and the GTD cars to make it in two.

Filipe Albuquerque took over the No. 10, and Tom Blomqvist entered the No. 60, and the race was on. The MSR crew brought the No. 60 in a lap earlier than the WTR car on the next stop. Although Albuquerque emerged from the pits in front of Blomqvist, the heat in the No. 60’s tires made the difference, and Blomqvist was shortly in the lead.

Traffic played a big part in the rest of the race and the ultimate outcome, and Albuquerque seemed to usually get the best of it. With just over an hour to go, Blomqvist got held up in traffic, and Albuquerque pounced with a forceful move in the Corkscrew, diving inside at Turn 8, and pushing Blomqvist wide and over the curbs in 8A. There was more contact between the two as they tried to negotiate the traffic headed toward Turn 9.

“When I was P2, I was really, really frustrated because I kind of felt that I had a better car,” said Albuquerque. “Somehow I didn’t understand how it could be he passed me in the pits, and it was like it was impossible to hold him. So I was really mad. Then when I caught him and I was like, ‘This is not going to end like this,’ so I just sent it and luckily, it paid off. The Corkscrew is always a tricky one because you don’t know what it’s going to be like on the other side. Sometimes you need to take some risks, but I’m glad it paid off for me.”
The Acura battle was fierce at the front. Richard Dole/Lumen

Blomqvist chased hard, setting the fast lap and a new lap record, 1m15.546s on lap 100 trying to hold onto Albuquerque. Given a clear lap, Blomqvist could catch the No. 10, but Albuquerque always got the better of him in traffic.

At the end, Albuquerque held him and won by just a tick over a second, for WTR’s second-straight win at Laguna Seca for he and Taylor, and Acura’s fourth in a row. Blomqvist was left with the consolation prize and a lot of frustration for himself and Jarvis.

“I had much more pace than them,” Blomqvist lamented. “So just had to bide our time. You know, initially, we did a good strategy call to stop a lap earlier and then basically undercut them. I did a really good out lap and managed to jump into the lead. Then we came across a bunch of absolute maniacs out there. I think I got the worst possible traffic at the worst time. Filipe was pretty forceful up into the Corkscrew and managed to get through. That kind of messed up our race, really, because there wasn’t enough opportunity to get past. It’s just too difficult to pass in normal running and I didn’t really get a good opportunity with traffic. It was a shame because our car was the for sure the faster one today and I think we should have won the race.”

More IMSA!

Cagey strategy bolts Volt Aston Martin to Michelin Pilot Challenge win

Laguna first-timers come prepared for the challenge in IMSA

TCR and GT4 "long term" for Michelin Pilot Challenge - Doonan

The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs had been the best of the rest for most of the weekend, but things went sour for them in the race. The No. 01 was revisited by electrical gremlins only 10 minutes in, with Sebastien Bourdais rolling to a stop headed up the hill to the Corkscrew. He managed to cycle the power and get rolling again, pitting the next lap, but the car never emerged again after going behind the wall. It was the third last-place finish of the season for the team. With a little over an hour left, Alex Lynn, pushing on hot tires on a clear track before pitting, sailed off in Turn 6. He got going again, but the No. 02 was never a factor after that.

That left Tristan Nunez and Pipo Derani to claim their second third-place finish of the season in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac, the first coming at Sebring. The podium was the team’s fourth consecutive third-place finish at Laguna Seca.
Tower Motorsport ruled the roost in LMP2 with John Farano and Louis Deletraz. Richard Dole/Lumen

Louis Deletraz made quite the impression in his American debut, winning LMP2 with John Farano in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA and getting a new lap record in the process. They finished 23s ahead of Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman in the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Henrik Hedman in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA finishing third.
“It’s really amazing. I’ve been playing Laguna Seca since I was eight years old on Playstation, and to be here in real life, I’m very happy to be in IMSA for my first time and win at my first go,” said Deletraz. “It really is amazing. The team did an awesome job. And I’m very thankful for it. It was very nice. The car was good all weekend, I felt comfortable from the first lap. It’s always good to know I have a lap record. In the end, we were fast all the time, we made no mistakes and we were very smart on strategy so I can only thank them.”
Next up for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is another 2h40m race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in two weeks. LMP3 returns to the lineup, but GTD Pro won’t be part of the championship until the Six Hours of the Glen at the end of June.

 

Taylor/Albuquerque storm to fourth straight Laguna IMSA victory for Acura

Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
66 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Richard S. James | May 1, 2022 9:10 PM ET

The consensus coming into WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was that it was an Acura track. Acura had won the past three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races in the DPi class, and Wayne Taylor Racing and the No. 10 Acura ARX-06 came in as the defending race winners and default favorite. While they showed that the feeling was warranted by leading every session, qualifying on pole and ultimately winning the 2h40m race around the 2.38-mile, 11-turn circuit, it wasn’t as easy as might have been expected.

Ricky Taylor started the No. 10 on pole, took the lead at the start and was able to put a gap on Oliver Jarvis in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura. 
“We managed to get a pretty decent gap,” explained Taylor. “Our strategy, being out front with such big pit stop windows, the only way to control what other people do is to build a gap. So they told me just push as hard as you can to build that cushion. That’s what I did, not saving tires, not saving fuel, just build a gap. And then they could play with the strategy.”
The @WayneTaylorRcng team of Felipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor WIN at @WeatherTechRcwy Laguna Seca! pic.twitter.com/1qiUmH260F

— Motorsports on NBC (@MotorsportsNBC)

The face of the race changed when the first and only full-course caution for GTD polesitter Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG went hard into the wall up the hill from Turn 6. That caution came at 32 minutes into the race — about as ideal a time as it could be, just as the pit window was opening for the DPi and LMP2 cars to make the race on three more stops, and the GTD cars to make it in two.

Filipe Albuquerque took over the No. 10, and Tom Blomqvist entered the No. 60, and the race was on. The MSR crew brought the No. 60 in a lap earlier than the WTR car on the next stop. Although Albuquerque emerged from the pits in front of Blomqvist, the heat in the No. 60’s tires made the difference, and Blomqvist was shortly in the lead.

Traffic played a big part in the rest of the race and the ultimate outcome, and Albuquerque seemed to usually get the best of it. With just over an hour to go, Blomqvist got held up in traffic, and Albuquerque pounced with a forceful move in the Corkscrew, diving inside at Turn 8, and pushing Blomqvist wide and over the curbs in 8A. There was more contact between the two as they tried to negotiate the traffic headed toward Turn 9.

“When I was P2, I was really, really frustrated because I kind of felt that I had a better car,” said Albuquerque. “Somehow I didn’t understand how it could be he passed me in the pits, and it was like it was impossible to hold him. So I was really mad. Then when I caught him and I was like, ‘This is not going to end like this,’ so I just sent it and luckily, it paid off. The Corkscrew is always a tricky one because you don’t know what it’s going to be like on the other side. Sometimes you need to take some risks, but I’m glad it paid off for me.”
The Acura battle was fierce at the front. Richard Dole/Lumen

Blomqvist chased hard, setting the fast lap and a new lap record, 1m15.546s on lap 100 trying to hold onto Albuquerque. Given a clear lap, Blomqvist could catch the No. 10, but Albuquerque always got the better of him in traffic.

At the end, Albuquerque held him and won by just a tick over a second, for WTR’s second-straight win at Laguna Seca for he and Taylor, and Acura’s fourth in a row. Blomqvist was left with the consolation prize and a lot of frustration for himself and Jarvis.

“I had much more pace than them,” Blomqvist lamented. “So just had to bide our time. You know, initially, we did a good strategy call to stop a lap earlier and then basically undercut them. I did a really good out lap and managed to jump into the lead. Then we came across a bunch of absolute maniacs out there. I think I got the worst possible traffic at the worst time. Filipe was pretty forceful up into the Corkscrew and managed to get through. That kind of messed up our race, really, because there wasn’t enough opportunity to get past. It’s just too difficult to pass in normal running and I didn’t really get a good opportunity with traffic. It was a shame because our car was the for sure the faster one today and I think we should have won the race.”

More IMSA!

Monk grateful for team's support after tumultuous few weeks

Pfaff carrying positive energy into GTD Pro break

Pfaff Motorsports rebounds for Laguna GTD Pro win

The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs had been the best of the rest for most of the weekend, but things went sour for them in the race. The No. 01 was revisited by electrical gremlins only 10 minutes in, with Sebastien Bourdais rolling to a stop headed up the hill to the Corkscrew. He managed to cycle the power and get rolling again, pitting the next lap, but the car never emerged again after going behind the wall. It was the third last-place finish of the season for the team. With a little over an hour left, Alex Lynn, pushing on hot tires on a clear track before pitting, sailed off in Turn 6. He got going again, but the No. 02 was never a factor after that.

That left Tristan Nunez and Pipo Derani to claim their second third-place finish of the season in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac, the first coming at Sebring. The podium was the team’s fourth consecutive third-place finish at Laguna Seca.
Tower Motorsport ruled the roost in LMP2 with John Farano and Louis Deletraz. Richard Dole/Lumen

Louis Deletraz made quite the impression in his American debut, winning LMP2 with John Farano in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA and getting a new lap record in the process. They finished 23s ahead of Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman in the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Henrik Hedman in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA finishing third.
“It’s really amazing. I’ve been playing Laguna Seca since I was eight years old on Playstation, and to be here in real life, I’m very happy to be in IMSA for my first time and win at my first go,” said Deletraz. “It really is amazing. The team did an awesome job. And I’m very thankful for it. It was very nice. The car was good all weekend, I felt comfortable from the first lap. It’s always good to know I have a lap record. In the end, we were fast all the time, we made no mistakes and we were very smart on strategy so I can only thank them.”
Next up for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is another 2h40m race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in two weeks. LMP3 returns to the lineup, but GTD Pro won’t be part of the championship until the Six Hours of the Glen at the end of June.