If this were 2023 and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti only had a single car, the No. 10 Acura ARX-06, they’d be looking at a DNF at Daytona and a fifth-place finish at Sebring to show for their efforts. But it’s 2024, WTRAndretti is now a two-car …
If this were 2023 and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti only had a single car, the No. 10 Acura ARX-06, they’d be looking at a DNF at Daytona and a fifth-place finish at Sebring to show for their efforts. But it’s 2024, WTRAndretti is now a two-car team and the sole operator of Honda Racing Corporation’s GTP efforts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and with a victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and a podium finish at Daytona, the team has a car tied for the championship lead.
The No. 10 team with core drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, with endurance addition Brendon Hartley and Marcus Ericsson on board for Daytona, has not had the best of luck so far this season, quitting in the night at Daytona and suffering a fluid leak at Sebring, and is currently eighth in the standings. Conversely, the new No. 40 with Jordan Taylor and Louis Delétraz, plus Colton Herta and Jenson Button, soldiered to a third-place finish at Daytona and won Sebring in style with a late-race push to the front.
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“It’s a huge win for the team,” said Jordan Taylor after Sebring. “I think it’s their first win in the GTP class for Acura. First time as a two-car team as well. Our car, we stayed at a triple [stint] all day, didn’t have any big issues. The 10 car was extremely quick, drove to the lead at one point but had their little issue that they recovered from and recovered to a top five.”
Delétraz, Jordan Taylor and Herta are now tied for the championship lead with the Porsche Penske Motorsports No. 6 squad of Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell after their 963 won Daytona with Josef Newgarden also on board. From that perspective alone, taking on the second ARX-06 previously run by Meyer Shank Racing has been a blessing.
“We are recognized now as a bigger team,” said team principal Wayne Taylor as the season began. “Ganassi and Penske have always been at that level — we haven’t. I think now is basically us starting from ground zero. But I can already tell, listening to the drivers and mechanics and engineers of all the different options we have on how we’re going to run … that’s the most important part. When you’ve got one, it’s always a risk. When you’ve got two, you’ve got two chances. That’s what we wanted, that’s what we’ve got, and now we have to execute.”
Filipe Albuquerque and the No. 10 team have had the speed, if not the fortune of their new teammates thus far, but are still already benefitting from the expansion. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Albuquerque, of course, would like to have been spared the bad luck the team has experienced so far this season. Last year, he and Ricky Taylor were in the championship fight to the end, despite not visiting victory circle. But he recognized the value of having a second car from the beginning.
“It’s a big change, for sure,” he explained. “When you have options of trying things, you can spread them out. That’s the good thing having two cars — one car tries this, and the other one tries that to validate what we tested in the simulator. And when one car is faster than the other, sometimes we don’t know why, and then we get to learn about, ‘Oh, it’s this, causing a reaction to the car we were not expecting.’ All these things are important.”
In the second year of WTR’s union with Andretti’s motorsports empire, the benefits of the partnership are evident. As Wayne Taylor notes, it’s a short trip if they need some machining that requires tools they don’t have. And in 2025, all of Andretti Global’s North American teams will be under one roof in its new headquarters in Fishers, Ind.
WTRAndretti brought on one of Andretti’s IndyCar Series engineers in its expansion to more than 100 team members. It takes eight transporters to move the team’s three cars — the team added a Lamborghini Huracán GTD effort for Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal as well in 2024 — its equipment and the massive pit stand. That pit stand houses 66 screens, 32 workstations, thee crew for the three cars, 12 drivers at Daytona, and some 40 Honda Racing Corporation personnel.
WTRAndretti is now fulfilling the vision that Wayne Taylor had for the team from its beginning, running two cars in a top factory program. And he’s happy that now that he no longer has to race another Acura team.
“We’ve got great drivers, a great crew, we have a great partnership with HRC and all our commercial partners,” he said. “Being the sole Acura team is really the best it could be — we don’t want to race against [other Acura teams], because when that happens, you start racing each other and forget about everybody else. Now, there’s a factory program that is focused on these two cars. All the resources of HRC, all our team, can focus on beating everybody else, and we’ve got nobody else to beat in an Acura.”
A caution with 1h20m left in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac turned strategy on its head and put all the GTP contenders back on equal footing, turning it into a contest of fuel conversation balanced by pace…until a pair of …
A caution with 1h20m left in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac turned strategy on its head and put all the GTP contenders back on equal footing, turning it into a contest of fuel conversation balanced by pace…until a pair of yellows for debris negated the fuel-saving aspect.
The No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon, along with the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Felipe Nasr, Dane Cameron and Matt Campbell, were in the situation of requiring one more stop than the other contenders to make it to the end. But with everyone pitting under the yellow, and the Cadillac and Porsche both having stopped minutes before the caution, they needed less energy and left the pits ahead of the others, Bourdais followed by Nasr. The best of the others was Louis Deletraz in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06.
In a contest of pace, it was Deletraz and the Acura — on fresher tires, because the Acura took tires on the final stop and the Cadillac didn’t — that had it. On the first restart, he easily got past Nasr. It took after the next two cautions, though, before the final battle would commence. Bourdais pulled out a bit of a lead on the final restart, but Deletraz, who had set the race’s fastest lap on lap 187, came charging back. A move alongside in 17 didn’t get the job done, but a couple of laps later, as Bourdais took the middle of the track in defense into Turn 7, Deletraz dove even further inside, taking away the line into the Hairpin. A few turns and several bumps between the Cadillac and the Acura later, and Deletraz had the lead.
“I saw I was strong on braking, especially the low speed like T7, T10,” related Deletraz. “But every time I was close he was defending very well on the inside and I was on the outside and he squeezed me off. So I realized quickly I was never going to make it on the on the outside, which, fair enough … IMSA racing is tough and that’s the way, so I thought about it.
“I saw a gap in [Turn 7] and I just just went for it — bleed off the brake, go in and try to avoid him crossing back. Then I think there was some more contact on the straight, which again, hard racing, but I think fair and in the end we both made it to the flag, which is also down to two drivers. I could not have done it by myself; if he didn’t respect me, we’d both be in the wall too, so I’m really thankful for that.”
Wayne Taylor Racing had its first Twelve Hours of Sebring victory since 2017, and Acura its first (although the second win for Honda Racing Corporation, which won in 2016 with ESM). The No. 01 Cadillac was second, and the No. 7 Porsche third. The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly and Maxime Martin finished fourth to make it four different manufacturers in the top four. The No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura had shown winning pace, but a fluid leak in the late stages that took some time to repair left them salvaging a fifth place to go with the team’s victory, its first in the new GTP era.
“It’s a huge win for the team,” said Jordan Taylor. “It’s their first win in the GTP class for Acura. So it’s a big win for the team, first time as a two-car team as well. I think our plan was we stayed at a triple all day, didn’t have any big issues. The 10 car was extremely quick, drove to the lead at one point, but had their little issue that they recovered from and recovered to a top five. Overall, Louis’s closing stint was what made a difference today. I think the team did a good job keeping us in the fight, but he really fought for that win and got it for us.”
“We had ABS failure, like time and time and time again, we had to do some defaults and stuff and it seemed to come back every time we cleared it,” said Bourdais. “But then the motor stopped coming out of [Turn 7]; that’s where lost the two spots to the two Acuras and the BMW. We got going again. And we never heard that anymore. So it was kind of weird. I don’t remember when it was but it was during my second stint. I had no regen for a while so the rear brakes start to get on fire and the real tire pressures take off and it didn’t look pretty for a minute, but the guys did a great job — they debugged the problem and found the solution and and we got going and we were there at the end, so it’s all you can ask for.”
Era Motorsport’s ORECA once again had the legs on the LMP2 field when it counted. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
LMP2 boiled down to a battle between Connor Zilisch in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA and Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports ORECA. Colin Braun and the No. 01 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry would have been a part of the final battle, but in making a move on Fraga, he made contact and spun, dropping out of contention.
The No. 74 would later suffer a problem and drop down the order, leaving Zilisch to fend off a late charge by Mikkel Jensen in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA. He did so and thus claimed the second consecutive victory for Era Motorsports and teammates Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel after the Rolex 24 at Daytona victory in January.
“It was really tough to pass out there,” said Zilisch. “It was kind of just whoever could get track position and get to the lead was gonna end up winning. So there with about an hour to go, we were all running in a train. I think I was seventh, and I knew I wasn’t going to pass them. So I just started saving fuel and was going to wait for the last pit stop. I saved enough to get back and I took the lead when I came back out.”
It was far from an easy day for the team, as they had to go from the back to the front three times due to a variety of maladies, including a puncture and blocked radiators.
“Every time we got to the front we ended up in the back and think when I got in the car — the plan is double me, double Connor — I get in the car, we were in the lead,” explained Dalziel. “Then we had one of the GTPs went off and threw up some carbon and so in the space of one lap, we had overheating and then we got a puncture, so that’s when we pitted off sequence. That was only four or five laps after the restart. Honestly, I thought that was it. Without a yellow I knew we were going to be struggling to make time back.
“We still knew we had the pace in the car. We definitely didn’t give up. We were already a little bit offset with the fuel time and Connor just started saving a little bit of fuel. There was a whole conversation for a few minutes on the intercom which is, this call is going to be the hero or zero call for the team.”
It was the first Sebring victory for the team and the drivers, although Dalziel has won at Sebring in a WEC race. It was a relief for Merriman after a bunch of podiums at Sebring.
“I’m super happy because every time I’ve been here before we podium, but never won,” said the emotional Merriman. “So, first time I was really excited. The third time, it was like, ‘Are we ever gonna win this race or not?’ The team did a great job, including these guys, but also engineering and the whole crew. These these off-sequence stops, either the one for debris or the one that was just off sequence by strategy, they were fast. Mistakes were not made.”
Jensen, Steven Thomas and Hunter McElrea finished second by only 1.127s, ahead of the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA of Dan Goldburg, Paul Di Resta and Bijoy Garg. In an impressive turnaround after a rough Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Sean Creech Motorsports squad of Lance Willssey, Joao Barbosa and Jonny Edgar finished fourth in the No. 33 Ligier.
Halfway at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The eery stillness of full course yellow reared its ugly head once again for the bulk of the twelfth hour, this time at the hands of yet more drama for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport. Just over 20 …
Halfway at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The eery stillness of full course yellow reared its ugly head once again for the bulk of the twelfth hour, this time at the hands of yet more drama for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.
Just over 20 minutes into the hour, the circuit drew quiet for heaps of debris on track near Turn 5, potentially from the No. 40 Acura of Louis Deletraz, ceasing Jack Aitken’s deft use of traffic to keep Dane Cameron’s Porsche 963 1.2s behind the Whelen Cadillac not long after Aitken executed a masterful pass for the overall lead.
Come time for the pits to open for leaders, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW team made good use of the unseasonably warm weather, taking no tires are firing both cars away ahead of the two Penske Porsches, relegating Cameron and teammate Laurens Vanthoor to P4 and P5 respectively. WTR swapped a new nose onto the No. 40 before a spot of drama as the No. 78 GTD Lamborghini attempted to leave pitlane with the fuel hose still attached, causing a small fire which was mercifully brief but would eventually yield a penalty for leaving the box with equipment still attached.
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Green returned with just 15 minutes remaining before half distance, the threatening rain having still not arrived. Almost instantly, Vanthoor muscled back past both RLL BMWs to move back to second overall.
The action lasted only briefly, though. Only minutes later WTR’s woes returned once again in almost the same manner suffered earlier by the No. 10 Acura. As Deletraz approached the infield exit, the No. 40 went dark and coasted to a stop, bringing a full course yellow out once again. Oddly, Deletraz managed to restart the car minutes later while the AMR Safety Team attended and made his way, at speed, back around the field readying to claw time back.
Post pit cycle, Tom Dillman now leads LMP2 in the No. 52 ORECA ahead of Connor Zilisch (No. 18) and Malthe Jakobsen (No. 04) with previous leader Ben Keating having slid to fifth in class.
Alessandro Pier Guidi remains in the GTD PRO lead in the No. 62 Risi Ferrari with Alexander Sims still stalking just 1.5s behind.
GTD is led by Frederik Schandorff in the No. 70 McLaren 720S Evo.
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (WTRAndretti) has completed its driver lineups for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, naming 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button and 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner – and newly named Andretti Global NTT IndyCar Series …
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (WTRAndretti) has completed its driver lineups for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, naming 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button and 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner — and newly named Andretti Global NTT IndyCar Series driver — Marcus Ericsson as the additional drivers joining in the team’s pursuit of its sixth victory in the endurance classic.
Ericsson will drive the No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 GTP alongside Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Brendon Hartley, while Button joins Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz and Colton Herta in the No. 40.
“Marcus is absolutely the perfect guy for our team because of the way he goes about racing,” said team principal Wayne Taylor. “He’s finished in the top 10 something like 30 times in IndyCar, he’s won the Indy 500. He has really shown loads of interest by meeting with the team already and he is very dedicated and focused. I’m happy to have him, and of course, as he is part of Andretti Global program, so we are lucky to have him.
“Jenson and I have spoken for quite a few years. We’ve just never been able to make it happen, but this round we got it to happen. He drove for JDC at Petit Le Mans and the relationship that he’s built with Jordan from the Garage 56 program closes the loop on our driver lineups as Jenson will take the last driver slot that’s open.
“The guy is really fast. I mean he is a Formula 1 world champion. He’s very motivated, my team is very motivated, HPD and Acura are motivated with having him as well as all our sponsors. We look forward to working with him. He obviously is coming from a different background, but we’ve had Formula 1 drivers before and they’ve all done really well. I have no question about his ability to do well for us and for himself. I’m really excited after three years to finally get Jenson to sign up with us.”
It will be Ericsson’s second attempt at the Rolex 24, the Swede’s first coming in 2022 with Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I’m very excited and proud to join the WTRAndretti team for the Daytona 24-hour,” Ericsson said. “After getting a taste of the race in 2022, I have been eager to get back on the grid for this legendary race. It feels fantastic to be racing with one of the best and most successful teams in the sport. It is extra special for me to be racing with Acura, HPD and HRC which I know very well from racing my entire IndyCar career with them.”
Button made his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and GTP debut at Petit Le Mans last month. Although it will be the Rolex 24 debut for the British driver, he has raced twice in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including this year with the NASCAR Garage 56 project.
“I am very happy to announce that I’ll be racing with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 with one of my Le Mans teammates and good pal Jordan Taylor, super speedy Louis Deletraz and Colton Herta, whose career in IndyCar I’ve watched with great interest,” declared Button. “I had my first taste of IMSA last month at Petit Le Mans and loved it. I couldn’t be happier to race at Daytona with such a prestigious team that has achieved so much in endurance racing and especially at Daytona.”
WTRAndretti is embarking on its first season as a two-car GTP team in the WeatherTech Championship. The team’s quest for its third IMSA title after finishing second in the championship the last four years begins in January with the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Colin Braun, Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves sent Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian out with a bang, delivering the team’s third win of the season in the 26th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, while Pipo Derani and …
Colin Braun, Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves sent Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian out with a bang, delivering the team’s third win of the season in the 26th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, while Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims claimed the drivers title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing after their chief rivals for the title were eliminated one by one.
The race and the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title turned on Filipe Albuquerque’s final attack on Pipo Derani for the championship with an hour to go in the 10-hour race. With Renger van der Zande leading in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which had been the strongest car throughout most of the day, Derani was running second in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R. Albuquerque was right behind in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06. Those two were the last teams standing in the championship fight, and Albuquerque had to get past Derani to win the championship for he and Ricky Taylor.
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Getting a run out of Turn 12, Albuquerque went left into Turn 1 as Derani defended and was alongside as they turned in. But stuck on the outside and running out of room at the exit, Albuquerque’s fate was sealed with contact between the two cars. The Acura sailed off the track and into the tire barrier on the outside of Turn 1. The crash sent Albuquerque to the hospital for observation before he was evaluated and released, and effectively decided the title in favor of Derani and Alexander Sims.
“I think that he was a little bit too optimistic when there was still an hour to go,” said Derani. “We’ve seen that going through the outside of Turn 1 never really works. It happened last year with two Cadillacs, unfortunately. But over and over again, you try and go on the outside and just lose grip.
“He tried and he came in very aggressively trying to cut me off to the inside, obviously trying to search for grip. But I was there and we touched and he went off. That’s unfortunate for him. I hope he’s feeling OK; obviously that’s the most important.”
But as much as deciding the championship, it set up a dramatic shift in the final result of the race. During the ensuing full-course caution – one of 13 during the race and made longer by necessary wall repairs – half of the frontrunners pitted for energy.
However van der Zande – who already had more time than the others since his last pit stop – as well as Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, Harry Tincknell in the No. 59 Proton Competition Porsche 963 and Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports 963, all stayed out to maintain track position.
That set up the final pass for the lead on the restart. Braun swept around the outside as van der Zande was trying to save energy. A couple of additional cautions in the final 30 minutes, including one that ended the race, curtailed the racing and helped the cars that didn’t pit make it to the end. The No. 01 Cadillac prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing finished second, with Tincknell, Gianmaria Bruni and Neel Jani delivering the first podium for a privateer Porsche team as the No. 59 Proton Competition Porsche 963 finished third.
“I took it real easy on that last restart, took a long time just to save as much fuel as I can,” explained van der Zande. “That’s why we were so slow going down to the restart. I don’t know where Colin got that grip from, but he had massive grip and sent it on the inside and he made the corner, I didn’t expect that, but hats off for that move.”
“I knew it was gonna be kind of all to play for and I thought if we could get clean air, we were going to be in good shape,” added Braun. “So I just kind of put it all on the line. We didn’t have a whole lot to lose, and I think they were kind of in the same boat with the championship.
“So I knew it was going to be a big commitment. And yeah, it was awesome. It was nice to make it happen. Then, yeah, I just kind of put my head down and tried to hold on.”
The result was victory for Braun, Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves in what is MSR’s last IMSA race for the foreseeable future, the second Acura next year being run by WTRAndretti and Blomqvist moving to the IndyCar Series side of the MSR operation. It was an impressive feat considering the team was two laps down at one point in the race after contact with the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 required replacing a toe link on the MSR Acura.
“It’s incredible,” declared Blomqvist. “I think good things happen to good guys and you know, I think that’s going to be more true. We’ve won three races this year. Obviously, we don’t have a championship, but I couldn’t be more proud and, at the same time, grateful to have spent these last two seasons with this team.
“We’ve done a lot together, won some good races, and it’s just such a good team atmosphere. It’s like a family and they work hard, they never give up.”
Fifth was enough to give the No. 31 Cadillac the title. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Derani ended up bringing the No. 31 V-Series.R home in fifth, more than enough to secure the championship. It was Derani’s and the team’s second championship in three years, he and Felipe Nasr taking the 2021 DPi championship after a similar late-race battle with a WTR Acura. It was the first prototype championship for Sims, who moves back to racing a Corvette in GTD PRO next season,
“It’s so much personal sacrifice by every member of the team,” said Sims. “It’s the non-glamorous side that really is necessary, but hugely, hugely appreciated by everyone that puts effort into getting the car into a position where we’ve been competitive every single race.
“It’s been a crazy season, as always in IMSA. It’s been so many highs, a few lows – as with every team – but it’s a really, really emotional moment to tie up the championship and thanks goes to Cadillac, Action Express, Whelen, these two guys next to me that have carried me most of the year. It’s been mega.”
Four teams came into the championship with a solid shot at the championship, the top three in a virtual tie. However, one by one they were eliminated.
The first was the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor, through no fault of Tandy who was at the wheel at the time. Dennis Andersen in the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA LMP2 car made light contact with Charles Scardina in the No. 023 Triarsi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, sending the Ferrari spinning across track into Brendan Iribe’s No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren, which then struck Tandy’s Porsche.
The 963 ended up stuck in the gravel. While it was fished out and returned to the paddock, by the time the car was repaired it was too many laps down to have any hope for the championship.
At one point the No. 7 PPM 963 squad of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr was leading the championship when the other contenders were mired down the order. Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly also had their brief taste of glory. While their No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 made it to the end, it was behind the No. 31 and no threat for the championship. Once Albuquerque crashed, all the No. 31 team had to do was finish sixth or better to secure the title.
Crowdstrike Racing took the LMP2 MEC title with their win. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
George Kurtz, Ben Hanley and Nolan Siegel won LMP2 in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA over the No. 35 TDS Racing entry of Giedo van der Garde, John Falb and Josh Pierson and the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA of Ben Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin and Alex Quinn. The victory secured the Michelin Endurance Cup title for Kurtz and Hanley as well as the Trueman Award and the Le Mans entry that comes with it for Kurtz.
“We had to have a lot go right to win the overall championship, but the two things we were focused on was the endurance championship and the big one was a Le Mans entry,” said Kurtz. “So at the end of the race, just 20 minutes left, you never think there’s going to be a green flag to the end and there’s so many emotions going through your mind. I have to give so much credit to my co-drivers and the team did a fantastic job.”
Keating, Chatin and Quinn had battled all race long with the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, whose full season drivers Steven Thomas and Mikkell Jensen were Keating and Chatin’s main rivals for the championship. Whichever team finished ahead of the other would take the title. Jensen was chasing Chatin as the sun was setting, but threw the No. 11 off track, ending their race and assuring Keating and Chatin of the championship.
Gar Robinson had already settled the final LMP3 title, but he, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon still wanted to win the race in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier. They were leading with only minutes left when Garett Grist in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier made a move for the lead resulting in contact that sent the No. 74 to the pits with a cut tire.
“I had a good run in Turn 7, I was catching up on the backstraight in his draft, and I knew it was probably going to be my best chance before we hit traffic to make the move,” explained Grist. “I think he was probably a bit surprised I sent it from that far back, but I was a long way up beside him once we got to apex. Unfortunately there was contact and he got a puncture; obviously, I don’t want that to happen, but I think it was my best opportunity so I took it.”
The result was victory for Grist, Dakota Dickerson and Bijoy Garg, the latter two getting their first victory in the WeatherTech Championship. Matthew Bell, Orey Fidani and Lars Kern were second in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine, and the Riley Motorsports squad ended up third.
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian went out with a bang, taking victory in the 26th Motul Petit Le Mans in the team’s last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race for the foreseeable future. During a late-race yellow, in a race punctuated …
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian went out with a bang, taking victory in the 26th Motul Petit Le Mans in the team’s last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race for the foreseeable future. During a late-race yellow, in a race punctuated by 13 full-course cautions, the team kept the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 out to gain track position, and Colin Braun swept around leader Renger van der Zande on a restart to take the lead and eventually the win for him, Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves.
“It’s amazing with all the crap this team has been through this year. It’s too much. It’s just too much,” said team principal Mike Shank, his voice breaking.
While the victory brought MSR into spitting distance of the championship, it was Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims taking the title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing as their competitors took themselves out one by one. They finished sixth in the No. 31 V-Series.R with Jack Aitken, but it was enough to take the title, Derani and the team’s second in three years.
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Ben Hanley, George Kurtz and Nolan Siegel won LMP2 in the No. 04 Crowdstrike by APR ORECA, delivering the Michelin Endurance Cup title to Kurtz and Hanely, as well as the Trueman Award for Kurtz. The championship went to Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin, who finished third with Alex Quinn in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA after their chief rivals TDS Racing crashed out.
A late-race tangle between Garret Grist and Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier decide the LMP3 contest in favor of Grist, Dakota Dickerson and Bijoy Garg in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier. Fraga’s co-driver Gar Robinson had already claimed the championship by taking the start.
Daniel Juncadella held off Pfaff Motorsports’ Patrick Pilet to take the GTD PRO win for he and WeatherTech Racing teammates Jules Gounon and Maro Engel in the No. 79 Mercedes AMG, bookending their season with endurance race victories and delivering Juncadella and Gounon the Michelin Endurance Cup championship.
Loris Spinelli, Misha Goikhberg and Patrick Liddy took the first win for Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics in the No. 78 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. A late-race incident that brought out the final full-course caution upended the GTD fight, taking out the second-place runner at the time, Jan Heylen in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, with dramatic flames.
Jordan Taylor returns to the family team and Louis Deletraz gets the call-up to full-time GTP driver as Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport announces its full-season lineup for its second Acura ARX-06 for 2024. WTRAndretti and Honda …
Jordan Taylor returns to the family team and Louis Deletraz gets the call-up to full-time GTP driver as Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport announces its full-season lineup for its second Acura ARX-06 for 2024.
WTRAndretti and Honda Performance Development announced earlier this year that the team would add a second Acura for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, and the driver lineup brings a homecoming for Jordan Taylor, who competed for his father’s team for seven seasons including prototype championships in in 2013 and ’17 and two wins at Daytona in the 24 Hours. Deletraz has accompanied the WTR Andretti duo of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Acura for endurance races in 2023, including the team’s second-place finish at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
“I’m excited to announce that Louis Delétraz and Jordan Taylor will be joining WTRAndretti as full-time season drivers of our second Acura ARX-06 GTP race car,” declared Wayne Taylor. “Louis has been with us for over a year in our endurance events and has quickly become an integral part of our team. I am looking forward to having Jordan back in our home stable after his great career with Corvette. It was a natural for us, since he and his brother drove together with our team and the Cadillac DPi program. With two cars and the Rolex right around the corner, we thank GM and Pratt & Miller for making Jordan available to us at this early stage.
“Now, with Ricky and Filipe in one car and Louis and Jordan in the other, it will be a great battle for the fans on who will take first and second. Not sure Shelley [Taylor, wife of Wayne and mother to Ricky and Jordan] and I will enjoy it as much as the fans, but both cars will share the number one status and be prepared identically. There will be no team orders on who comes first and who second. They will both fight for the win.”
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Jordan departed WTR for a four-year stint with Corvette Racing, where he took GTLM titles in 2020 and ’21 with Antonio Garcia. This season he has also made forays into NASCAR racing and was heavily involved in the NASCAR Garage 56 Project at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With the Corvette Racing program shifting to GT3 customer racing, it was a good time for Jordan to pursue another opportunity, which didn’t take a lot of searching.
“I’m super excited to be coming back to WTR, now partnered with Andretti Autosport, to go back and fight for overall wins with Acura alongside Louis,” he said. “After spending seven years with WTR from 2013-19, it’ll be nice to be heading back to work with some familiar faces and some new ones. I’ve known Louis for a few years now and have obviously followed his career. I think our driving styles will complement each other very well to bring success next year.
“I’ve spent the last few years in GT cars, so there will be a lot to learn coming into GTP, but I can’t wait for the challenge. I loved my time competing in GT with Corvette Racing alongside Antonio these past few years. We had a lot of success together. I’ve learned a lot and grown as a driver, so I’m looking forward to bringing that experience back to prototype racing.”
After joining WTRAndretti as the 2023 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup co-driver, Deletraz will move into his first full season as a GTP co-driver in the WeatherTech Championship in 2024. Deletraz’s resume in sports car racing includes two back-to-back European Le Mans Series Championships (2021-’22), and he is a two-time IMSA LMP2 race winner in 2022 highlighted by an overall LMP2 class win at Petit Le Mans. So far this season, Delétraz has two wins in the European Le Mans Series, a class podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two podiums in the FIA World Endurance Championship and a FIA WEC victory at Spa in Belgium.
“I am extremely happy to continue with WTRAndretti in a full IMSA GTP season role,” said Deletraz. “I have really enjoyed working with the team, Acura and HPD this year and the 2024 two-car program makes it even more exciting. Sharing the car with Jordan is fantastic, having a multiple IMSA champion in Prototypes and GT, I couldn’t ask for a better teammate, and I think with our different motorsport experiences we will have a strong package with hopefully many successes. I’m thankful for the opportunity and trust, I can’t wait to get started!”
WTR has been in the thick of the championship fight for the last several seasons with Ricky Taylor and and Albuquerque, and the pair are currently leading the points in the inaugural season of GTP competition. This season, Acura’s factory effort in GTP has been split between WTRAndretti and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, but for 2024 there will be two cars under the WTRAndretti tent. Andretti Autosport bought into WTR at the end of last year as it looked to gain a greater presence in sports car racing as the team has undergone a lot of changes in the past year.
“I’m very excited to get Jordan back in a GTP car and also to have Delétraz come on as a full-time driver with us in our second Acura,” said Michael Andretti, chairman and CEO of Andretti Autosport. “I think that across our two cars, our driver lineup is going to be the strongest in the paddock. This is another great step as we continue to build a closer collaboration with Wayne and build WTRAndretti to be even stronger.”
WTRAndretti has not announced what number its second Acura will carry, nor any additional sponsors for the team. Additional drivers in both cars for the endurance races will be announced at a later date.
Two full-course cautions in the final hour allowed Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 to go 76 minutes and 52 laps from the team’s final pit stop to claim victory for he and Tom Blomqvist in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at …
Two full-course cautions in the final hour allowed Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 to go 76 minutes and 52 laps from the team’s final pit stop to claim victory for he and Tom Blomqvist in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. It was the team’s second official win of the season, and the team became the first to repeat victory in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season after their victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, for which they were subsequently docked points for manipulating tire data.
“I managed to hand the car over in the lead early on to Colin, but then it kind of went against us a bit,” said Blomqvist. “We lost (position) in the stop – which we didn’t really foresee, so we need to look at that, understand what went went on – which made our life a little bit more difficult.
“We kind of just rolled the dice and said, ‘There’s no point finishing third, we’re not really in the championship. Let’s roll the dice, hope for some yellows.’And that was really the only chance. We were going for the win. And that last yellow really saved us because it just enabled us to basically go almost flat out to the end. So yeah, awesome job by Colin,” he continued.
Blomqvist had already proven the team’s pace by putting the car on pole and leading the first stint as both Acuras pulled away from the rest of the field, Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura pursuing him. But that pace was nearly negated by strategy and a lucky break for the No. 10. Just before the race’s second full-course-caution with 55m left, Filipe Albuquerque brought the No. 10 in for what would be its final stop; if there were no more yellows, most of the rest of the field would have to stop and the WTR crew would be sitting pretty.
“It was a roller coaster in terms of strategy going on,” Albuquerque stated. “So we were lucky, initially, to go to the pits and then right after a yellow came. I didn’t know if this was good or not for us. If everyone pitted, then we were kind of virtually P1. Then the No. 60 car just took a massive risk, which paid out to go to the end. My initial feeling I got from the team was they are on fumes, like they don’t have enough fuel and old tires, so they might struggle. So I just took it easy; I think it was super important to finish somewhere on top.”
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When Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 ran into the back of Aaron Telitz in the No, 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in Moss Corner and ended up off track with broken suspension, Braun had the opportunity to get into the pits before the third full-course caution came out and the pits closed. However, he drove on past, and the ensuing long yellow allowed the No. 60 to go to the end. A hard crash for the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, Renger van der Zande going into the tires at Turn 8 after contact with Augusto Farfus in the No. 24 BMW Team RLL M Hybrid V8, with five minutes left sealed the victory.
“I still had a bit bit of fuel save to do, but I pushed pretty hard for the first couple laps (after the final restart),” Braun explained. “I knew if I could get a bit of breathing room then I could hit some of these fuel numbers a bit easier and not have to worry so much about about the 10 coming back in some of the brakes zones where you’re lifting early to save. So once once I got a bit of a gap, I kind of settled in and started hitting that fuel number really well. I was surprised the kind of the number we could hit and the pace we could still go.”
Albuquerque and Taylor ended up second for an Acura one-two. The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly gambled with a different strategy early, coming in after less than 20 minutes to top off the energy, and the team came away with a third-place finish, BMW M Team RLL’s 100th podium, to create a virtual tie at the top of the points with Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims. Derani and Sims’ No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac finished seventh after an extra trip through the pits when they didn’t make it into pit lane before it was closed for a full-course caution.
Sims and Derani still lead the points with 1872. De Phillippi and Yelloly are only 10 behind, and Albuquerque and Taylor were propelled back into the championship fight, sitting at third with 1843, 34 points ahead of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy.
The surprise of the race in GTP was Mike Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm finishing fourth in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, the highest placing Porsche. The No. 5 made its first stop earlier than most of the other GTP cars, and hit its third stop with perfect timing, just before the race’s third full-course caution.
Jake Galstad/Lumen
LMP3 turned into a battle between a driver with immense local knowledge and the team that has now won every LMP3 points race this season. Felipe Fraga, after taking over the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier from polesitter Gar Robinson, was leading on the penultimate restart. But Ontario native Garret Grist in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier he shared with Ari Balogh was coming hard. Grist took the lead from Fraga shortly after the restart.
However, Grist lost any advantage he had with some unlucky breaks in traffic, and with less than 10 minutes to go, Fraga attacked, going inside Grist in the final turn. Running side-by-side through the turn, Grist had no room at the exit and went off course, Fraga sailing by while Grist recovered. The incident was reviewed by officials, but no action was taken.
“It was a crazy race,” said Fraga. “Today they were a little bit faster than us, especially in the straights. At Watkins as well, we were fighting crazy hard. In the GT traffic, I basically caught (Grist), two or three seconds in two laps. I think he didn’t expect me to try in the last corner, and I did it. I tried to put him inside, he turned on me, and we had contact. I think that’s what happens when you race really hard. I’m really happy; I expected to finish second today because of our pace, but I’m happy it worked out.”
Grist disagreed with Fraga’s assessment of the situation. “It’s pretty clear what happened. At Watkins Glen I raced clean, here I raced clean. I guess we know how we can race now.”
Fraga and Robinson ended up with the victory, Grist and Balogh were second, and Wayne Boyd and Anthony Mantella were third in the No. 17 AWA Racing Duqueine. Fraga and Robinson have 1115 points, with Boyd and Mantella in second with 934. Grist is alone in third at 928 after Balogh missed the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.
Qualifying for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park turned into a repeat of the second practice, with Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing fighting for the top spot and making Acura the star of the show. This time, …
Qualifying for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park turned into a repeat of the second practice, with Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing fighting for the top spot and making Acura the star of the show. This time, however, it was Tom Blomqvist putting the No. 60 MSR ARX-06 on pole with a 1m5.653s lap, 0.081s ahead of Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 WTR ARX-06 as Acura locked out the front row. For Blomqvist, it was a repeat pole after setting a blistering record lap in qualifying for last year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.
“It’s always a hell of a commitment around here, regardless of what car you’re in,” Blomqvist stated. “When you put new tires and then take the fuel out, around here, your minimum speeds pick up drastically. This year the GTP car carries about 100 kilos of fuel, so it’s just night and day difference. When you take it for a qualy run, it’s such a good feeling. Last year was a lot more of a wild ride. We’ve got a good car this year, it’s a bit more forgiving; nonetheless, I wasn’t actually happy with my personal performance in that session, just a little bit messy from from my side. I wasn’t super happy with where I was on track. But I can’t complain, I’m still sitting here. It’s just testament to the job the team’s done in preparing the car.”
The second row will be the two Cadillac Racing V-Series.Rs, Pipo Derani qualifying third in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac at 1m5.829s. Sebastien Bourdais, after spending the first part of the session scrubbing the three set of tires allotted for qualifying and race, will start on the outside of the second row in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
“I think we did a good job from free practice two to qualifying,” said Derani, who with Alexander Sims is leading the GTP points and looking for their second win of the season. “The car was really good yesterday and we tried a couple of things that didn’t go as planned for practice two. We were able to turn the tables around again and come back to qualifying with a strong car. To be that close to the Acuras after what they displayed in practice two, I think it shows that we are on the right path. So, thanks to the team for providing me a good car. Starting on the second row is good, especially on a track that is difficult to pass.”
Gar Robinson posted a dominant qualifying time in LMP3, his 1m12.946s lap in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier more than 0.4s ahead of Orey Fidani in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine. Ari Balogh marked his return to the cockpit, having sat out the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen after a qualifying crash, by putting the the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier third.
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Jack Hawksworth claimed the GTD Pro and overall GT pole in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, his second of the season after taking the top spot at Long Beach, where he and Ben Barnicoat went on to take victory. Hawksworth posted a new track record – beating his own GTD record from 2018 by half a second and Mathieu Jaminet’s GTD PRO mark from last year – with a 1m15.029s lap to beat Jules Gounon in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG by 0.074s.
“It’s been, obviously, a perfect start to the weekend so far,” said Hawksworth, who hasn’t raced at CTMP since 2018, having missed last year’s race due to a back injury. “The car’s always been strong here. If we have a track on the calendar that we have circled that we feel like we’ll be good at, this is that track. The minute we rolled off the car felt good, and we executed a good clean weekend so far.”
GTD PRO teams occupied the first three spots, as Alex Riberas put the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin vantage GT3 on the inside of the second row with a 1m15.341s lap. The rest of the GTD PRO cars will line up right behind Riberas — Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R qualifying fifth overall and Mosport rookie Klaus Bachler in the hometown favorite Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R qualifying seventh.
It will be an all Heart of Racing second row for the GT start, as Canadian driver Roman De Angelis took the GTD pole, the second in his career, on home soil with a 1m15.478s lap. That lap will stand as a new GTD track record as De Angelis looks to repeat the victory Heart of Racing scored at CTMP last year when the team won both GTD and GTD PRO.
“I’ve definitely had a had a lot of weekends here over my racing career. My first time ever in a car was at the driver development track and also tons of racing here in Formula Ford and Carrera Cup,” De Angelis recounted. “Tons of track time here, so hopefully I would perform decently. It’s been difficult for the last few years to put qualifying together for myself, that’s definitely been my weak point. I tend to overdrive, so really focusing on the last few rounds trying to talk with my co drivers and stuff and figure out what I what I needed to change and it’s been good so far this year. So happy to to get a pole in general and obviously to do it at home was great, with my family and friends at a circuit that I really enjoy being at.”
De Angelis will have a small buffer to the second-place GTD qualifier at the start, as Frankie Montecalvo (1m15.058) will be starting the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus directly behind him – Jordan Taylor qualified between them – and Madison Snow will line up behind on the outside of the fourth row, having qualified the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 third in GTD with a 1m15.595s lap. Mikael Grenier (No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG) and Patrick Gallagher (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) completed the top five in GTD qualifying.
Up next: A 20 minute warmup session takes place at 8:15 a.m. ET Sunday, ahead of a 12:05 p.m. race start.
Colin Braun pulled out a late flyer to take the top spot in the first practice session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Braun posted a time of 1m07.341s in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 …
Colin Braun pulled out a late flyer to take the top spot in the first practice session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Braun posted a time of 1m07.341s in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 to take over the top spot that had been held by Pipo Derani in the No 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
Braun’s time was 0.78s quicker than Derani’s best of 1m08.121s. The rest of the GTP field was in the 1m08s range as Acura and Cadillac alternated in the first four positions, Filipe Albuquerque third in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ahead of Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Philipp Eng completed the top five in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8.
Garett Grist posted the top time in LMP3 at his home track, a 1m12.270s lap in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier, followed by Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier, 0.212s off Grist’s best. Matt Bell was third for AWA in the No. 13 Duqueine.
Frankie Montecalvo, who nabbed the GTD pole at CTMP last year, was quickest in the class in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 at 1m16.558s, 0.112s quicker than Frederik Schandorff in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S. Those two headed the GT field overall, with Antonio Garcia third among the GTs and first in GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R. Ben Barnicoat was right behind Garcia, only 0.02s off the Corvette’s time in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
Alex Riberas was third in GTD PRO in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Robby Foley (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) and Loris Spinelli (No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo22) split Barnicoat and RIberas to round out the top four in GTD.
The session was interrupted by two red flags. The first was for the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG stopped on course in Turn 8. The second was for George Staikos in the No. 4 Ave Motorsports LMP3 stopped on course at Turn 5.
UP NEXT: Practice 2, a 1h45m split session beginning at 8am ET.
