Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Laguna Seca IMSA: WTR Acura wins to extend points lead

Wayne Taylor Racing Acura drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor took a dominant third victory of the IMSA SportsCar Championship season at Laguna Seca to extend their points lead.

Race winners #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi, DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

Race winners #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi, DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Albuquerque qualified on pole for the first time and led the early stages before handing over to Taylor, who drove comfortably to secure a 14.8 second win over the Chip Ganassi Cadillac of Renger van der Zande and Kevin Magnussen.

With only two races remaining for the Daytona Prototype international contingent at Long Beach and Petit Le Mans, the WTR pair now hold a commanding lead of 100 points over nearest rivals Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr (Action Express Cadillac).

For the second race in a row, a strategic ploy by WTR's sister Acura squad Meyer Shank Racing failed to pay off.

Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla managed to obtain some remarkable fuel economy, leading for a total of 53 laps (second only to Albuquerque and Taylor's 62 laps) during the two hour and 40-minute race.

But with only one brief full-course caution in the early stages, they had to cut their pace dramatically and could manage no better than fourth after starting on the outside of the front row of the grid.

Derani and Nasr looked set for second, even though they were clearly struggling for grip toward the end of each stint, but with just three laps remaining van der Zande pulled off an audacious pass on Nasr to secure the spot.

British pairing Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis in the Mazda were the only other unlapped crew in fifth, as Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier's JDC Miller Cadillac ended a twice-lapped sixth.

#01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi: Renger van der Zande, Kevin Magnussen

#01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi: Renger van der Zande, Kevin Magnussen

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

A remarkable performance by Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen brought a clear LMP2 class win for the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, with 2022 Peugeot Hypercar driver Jensen posting a new LMP2 lap record several tenths of a second faster than the old DPi benchmark that had been set by Juan Pablo Montoya's Penske Acura.

In GTLM, Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner combined to finally claim their first points-paying win for Corvette, leading home team-mates Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia.

Former Porsche driver Tandy had won the season-opening Daytona 240 qualifying race together with Alexander Sims, and combined with Milner to win in Detroit - which also didn't form part of the GTLM championship.

For the second race in a row, Zach Robichon and Laurens Vanthoor had the measure of a closely matched GTD field in their Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers finished second aboard their Pail Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan, just five seconds in arrears as the class championship protagonists finished fourth and fifth.

As a result, Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley (Turner Motorsports BMW M6) extend their points lead over Heart of Racing Aston Martin pairing Ross Gunn and Roman de Angelis, after the latter pairing started from the rear of the grid.

Laguna Seca IMSA result - 118 laps

Cla Class Driver Chassis Time Gap
1 DPi United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Acura DPi 2:40'49.456  
2 DPi Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Cadillac DPi 2:41'04.331 14.875
3 DPi Brazil Felipe Nasr
Brazil Pipo Derani
Cadillac DPi 2:41'04.848 15.392
4 DPi United States Dane Cameron
France Olivier Pla
Acura DPi 2:41'14.985 25.529
5 DPi United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Mazda DPi 2:41'17.959 28.503
6 DPi France Tristan Vautier
France Loic Duval
Cadillac DPi 2:41'06.955 2 Laps
7 LMP2 United States Ben Keating
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
ORECA LMP2 07 2:41'10.984 2 Laps
8 LMP2 Canada John Farano
France Gabriel Aubry
ORECA LMP2 07 2:40'52.397 3 Laps
9 LMP2 United States Thomas Steven
United States Tristan Nunez
ORECA LMP2 07 2:41'06.054 3 Laps
10 LMP2 United States Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
ORECA LMP2 07 2:41'41.324 3 Laps
11 GTLM United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Corvette C8.R 2:42'09.928 6 Laps
12 GTLM Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Corvette C8.R 2:40'56.260 7 Laps
13 GTLM United States Cooper MacNeil
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2:41'38.054 7 Laps
14 GTD Canada Zacharie Robichon
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 911 GT3 R 2:41'23.282 11 Laps
15 GTD United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 2:41'28.794 11 Laps
16 GTD United States Trent Hindman
United States Patrick Long
Porsche 911 GT3 R 2:41'31.858 11 Laps
17 GTD United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
BMW M6 GT3 2:41'43.735 11 Laps
18 GTD Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 2:42'01.075 11 Laps
19 GTD United States Aaron Telitz
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
Lexus RC F GT3 2:40'54.593 12 Laps
20 GTD United States Richard Heistand
United States Jeff Westphal
Audi R8 LMS GT3 2:41'23.870 12 Laps
21 GTD United States Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Porsche 911 GT3 R 2:41'30.898 12 Laps
22 GTD United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
Acura NSX GT3 2:42'00.516 12 Laps
23 GTD United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Zach Veach
Lexus RC F GT3 2:40'52.208 13 Laps
24 GTD United States Till Bechtolsheimer
United States Marc Miller
Acura NSX GT3 2:41'54.757 15 Laps
25 GTD United Kingdom Ian James
Spain Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage GT3    
26 GTD Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Jacob Abel
Acura NSX GT3    

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation

Related video

Previous article Laguna Seca IMSA: Albuquerque secures pole for WTR Acura
Next article Long Beach IMSA: Nasr and Derani take comfortable victory

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe