Taylor, Angelelli victorious in Monterey in WTR’s Corvette DP

After nearly three hours of endurance racing, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Jordan Taylor took the checkered flag at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway’s Continental Tire Sports Car Festival Powered by Mazda. The #10 Corvette DP car was piloted by Wayne Taylor’s son, Jordan Taylor the 20 something prodigy with a quirky sense of humor and a killer instinct at the track. Taylor’s co-driver for the effort was Monaco’s the legendary “Max the Axe” Angelelli.

The GT winner was Magnus Racing’s Porsche #44 entry, driven by co drivers Andy Lally and John Potter. Bringing home the class win for the GX class was the Mazdaspeed #70 car driven by Sylvain Tremblay and Tom Long.

The two hour plus 45 minute race had just three cautions. The first occurred on Lap 20, when Jeff Mosing driver of the #11 Lotus Evora lost power on the front straight, bringing out the first caution of the race. The pits were opened for the Prototype cars on Lap 22, and most of the 16 DP cars took advantage and ended their first stint of the race then, many adding driver changes in addition to adding fuel and changing tires. #10 Jordan Taylor won the race off pit road.

On lap #23, the pits opened for the GT and GX drivers. They followed suit with the DP cars, with most changing drivers in addition to servicing their cars by their crews. Alessandro Balzan, pilot of the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari emerged as leader coming out of the pits, while Tom Long, driver of the #70 GX car retained his lead after pitting. After these early pit stops, the race went on for nearly 2 hours caution free.

The second caution came late in the race, on lap 89, when the #94 Turner Motorsport BMW driven by Paul Dalla Lana spun and was claimed by the gravel trap at turn 4. The green flag waved again 5 laps later. Eventual race winner Jordan Taylor admitted to being more than a bit nervous on the restart because IndyCar star Scott Dixon was right behind him, driving the #02 BMW Riley car for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Taylor said once he’d done one restart with Dixon he was more confident on the restart for the caution which occurred on lap 100.

The third and final caution was caused by a fairly simple spin by the #8 BMW Riley car driven by Brendon Hartley for Starworks Motorsport. The series got the final restart together in just two laps, so the race was able to end under green flag racing.

The race itself had little in the way of injuries, although driver Brian Frisselle was treated by EMTs at the track and then transported to a local hospital. The reason was due to earlier contact with the #2 Starworks which crushed the exhaust system. Brian continued to stay in the race for 90 minutes despite the exhaust fumes in the car before pitting and handing the team's Corvette DP back to his brother to finish the race.

Today’s speed fest tightened the already close point race in the Prototype Challenge class with Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli increasing their champion points lead over their closest competitors, past champions Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett of the Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates team.

The season and series finale will take place at Paul Newman’s home track of Lime Rock in Connecticut on September 28th.