[h=2]Action Express ends WTR's streak with Glen win[/h] Sunday, 02 July 2017
By Marshall Pruett / Images by Lumen Digital
Wayne Taylor Racing's perfect season came to an end in the first corner on the opening lap of the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, and from its misstep, the door opened for Action Express Racing to earn the first non-WTR win of 2017 in the Prototype class with Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque behind the wheel.
The AXR team kept Cadillac's streak of Prototype perfection alive, however, as Barbosa chased down the upstart JDC-Miller Motorsports team to take the lead with nine minutes left on the clock. Despite coming close to earning the first victory for a WEC-spec LMP2 car with the No. 85 ORECA 07-Gibson piloted by Stephen Simpson, Barbosa pounced in traffic to eke out a 1.183s win in the No. 5 Cadillac DPi-V.R.
"We've been together for a long time and we ran really well here today," Fittipaldi said. "I'm so, so happy. More than that, we've won [here] three years in the last five. This is awesome."
Attrition played a huge role in how the Prototype race was settled, and the tiny JDC-Miller team was rewarded for running clean and smart to the finish. Simpson was particularly fast, but lost out to Barbosa who was far more aggressive in traffic and used those decisive moves to catch and pass the ORECA.
"The team did a fantastic job, my teammates were fantastic," Simpson said. "I was determined to get the win for them today, but it just didn't quite work out today. I just got a little unlucky with the traffic."
Mazda completed the podium with a fine third (+8.546s) as Jonathan Bomarito chased the leaders home in his No. 55 RT24-P to give the brand its second consecutive podium – a first for the Mazda Prototype team.
Prototype was the one class to deliver constant drama on Sunday. WTR opened the account with unnecessary contact that ruined its chances of winning six in a row as Ricky Taylor clashed with Olivier Pla in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217-Gibson and damaged the right-side suspension on his car. Next, the PR1/Mathiasen Ligier went from leading the race with Pla to making extra pit stops after being unable to fill the fuel tank. Then, Scott Sharp clipped the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 and spun the No. 2 Nissan Onroak DPi into the barriers, which ended the pole-winning car's chances of winning.
The contending No. 31 AXR Cadillac left the pits under yellow without the right-rear wheel nut tightened; for reasons unknown, rather than continuing slowly back to the pits during the caution which would have minimized the time loss, Eric Curran stopped on track and lost numerous laps while the DPi-V.R was loaded onto a flatbed trailer. The No. 70 Mazda RT24-P was sidelined early for a turbo issue that eventually led to its retirement. The sister No. 22 Nissan coasted to a stop on the front straight with just over an hour left to go, and not to be outdone, the repaired No. 2 Nissan came a halt with a little more than 30 minutes remaining.
In the end, only four prototypes were left on the lead lap, and with the crashes and malfunctions, the championship-leading WTR Cadillac went from last to sixth overall after cutting its six-lap deficit to three.
Taking nothing away from the No. 5 AXR Cadillac, it's fair to say its win at Watkins Glen was made possible by reliability and clean driving, rather than outright pace. Pla's fastest lap in the Ligier – a full second faster than Derani's pole time from Saturday – and the near-win by the JDC-Miller ORECA serves as an indicator of how quick the WEC P2s have become with the Cadillacs slowed by Balance of Performance changes. The comparatively untouched Nissans, which are making great speed without the shackles of BoP, could have toppled the Cadillacs, but were let down by persistent reliability woes.