Two years ago, Filipe Albuquerque made one of the most spectacular passes of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season at Road America, putting two wheels on the grass while fighting through traffic to put the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 in his mirrors, win the race for himself, Ricky Taylor and the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura squad, and keep the team in the championship fight.
Heading back to the Wisconsin circuit two years later, the desire to win burns strong in Albuquerque, for a different reason: With the championship off the table, it’s win or nothing.
“We are completely out of the championship because it’s only three races left,” explains Albuquerque. “We have nothing to lose. Unfortunately, Watkins Glen, that failure that we had in a wheel completely put us out of the championship — we were already in a tough position. Now we just go for single wins, put all the risks we have and make it happen.
“With that said, we need the luck to kind of start turning around and eventually we can make something happen. At Road America in the past we won there. We were competitive last year. So I just hope that we can be again competitive. We just need to hit our marks, try to get the pole position and then, you know, leave the car in P1. At this point, second place doesn’t mean anything for us; it’s definitely a win or nothing.”
Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor are 380 points from championship leaders Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. That was in large part due to a wheel failure and DNF for the No. 10 Acura in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, the result of slight, but just in the wrong spot, contact between Albuquerque and Cameron in the Porsche. To make up the gap, there are, realistically, only around 140 points available to gain each weekend, and even that would require pole and victory for the No. 10 Acura in each race, with the No. 7 finishing last each time out.
The WTRAndretti sister car, the No. 40 of Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor, though, is 199 points off the championship lead. Still quite a feat to make it happen, but not impossible. The one circumstance where “win or nothing” doesn’t apply for Albuquerque? If there were an opportunity to help his teammates.
“100 percent, we are going to try to help them as much as we can. And if that will cost us a win, we will back off for them to win,” he admits. “It’s those things that we talked about in the past — what if this situation happens or not — but I take it without any team call needed, because I’m a team player and know the situation. At the end of the day, we are working for a manufacturer, which is Acura. We are where we are for different reasons, and they are a bit ahead on the road. So if they can go for the win, we’ve got to support them as much as we can, take more bold strategy and car setup to see if it works, because we are the ones with nothing to lose.”
In the past two races at Road America, the No. 10 has a first and a third — an average of second. If Albuquerque and Taylor were in the championship hunt, that average would be perfectly acceptable; but this time it’s only the glory of a win that matters.