Laguna Seca IMSA: Albuquerque/Taylor victorious in WTR Acura

Albuquerque led from pole and was almost clipped by Dane Cameron’s Meyer Shank Acura DPi at Turn 1 but clung on to the lead. The race went under yellow almost immediately, however, as GTD racer Ian James spun his Heart of Racing Aston Martin exiting the first corner and collected Jacob Abel’s Acura NSX.

The race resumed with Albuquerque leading Cameron, Kevin Magnussen (Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac), Pipo Derani (Action Express Cadillac), Harry Tincknell (Mazda) and Tristan Vautier’s JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac.

While most of the leaders pitted soon after the half-hour mark, Cameron stayed out and ran a long first stint – his team clearly prepared to roll the dice on fuel strategy. Vautier climbed to fourth, as Tincknell briefly got ahead of Magnussen in the first round of pitstops, but Magnussen repassed him on track and then got ahead of Vautier.

After an hour-long first run, and a brimmed fuel tank, Cameron handed over to Olivier Pla, who rejoined in sixth as the team aimed to make one fewer stop than the opposition. Vautier then suffered a bizarre spin as he entered the pits, dropping the Mustang Sampling car to the tail of DPi.

Pla pitted from the lead with 54 minutes remaining, allowing Taylor to take over at the front, who was well clear of Nasr (in for Derani) and van der Zande (who took over from Magnussen).

Taylor stopped for the final time with 43mins to go, rejoining 10s behind Pla.

All eyes were on the gap as Taylor chased down Pla, who dropped his pace substantially in the final 30 minutes – his task made harder by having to negotiate GTD traffic while doing so. Taylor rocketed past with 25mins remaining, sealing his victory.

Nasr and van der Zande battled for third, well clear of the Mazda of Oliver Jarvis (in for Tincknell) and Loic Duval (who took over from Vautier). Pla's bold fuel gamble bit him hard, as he lost second to Nasr and third to van der Zande in the final 10mins.

Van der Zande muscled his way past Nasr for second in the final moments, making contact several times as he forced his way ahead. That added to Wayne Taylor's joy, as the team's closest title rival lost valuable points.

In LMP2, pole winner Ben Keating slipped back to third at the start, but soon regained the class lead in his PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA. His biggest scare came later in the opening stint, however, came when he sideswiped Frankie Montecalvo’s GTD Lexus while putting a lap on him.

Keating handed over to Mikkel Jensen with a sizable lead over the Dwight Merriman/Ryan Dalziel Era Motorsport ORECA. Dalziel appeared to be taken out in a bizarre last-lap incident on the final lap at the Corkscrew – that almost involved the overall winner too, and fell to last in class after a second spin at the final corner too.

#4 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R, GTLM: Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Tandy escapes late drama to scoop GTLM win

The all-Corvette battle for GTLM honours was closely matched throughout, with the pole-winning Jordan Taylor/Antonio Garcia leading for the most part ahead of the Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy C8.R.

The pair ran side by side just after half distance as they negotiated traffic, but their final stops proved crucial. Although Tandy locked up as he exited the pits – briefly running across the gravel at Turn 1 at pit-out – he managed to wrest the lead away from Garcia when it mattered.

The only other class contender, Cooper MacNeil/Matt Campbell WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19, was never in the hunt all day.

In GTD, Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6 got ahead of pole winner Trent Hindman (Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R) at the first corner. The opening stint of the race was wild, as Richard Heistand’s Audi got into the Lexus of Aaron Telitz, spinning him around, and Till Bechtolsheimer (Acura NSX) spun out Roman De Angelis in the second Aston.

After taking over from Foley, Auberlen extended the BMW’s lead out front, while an all-Porsche battle for second raged between Patrick Long (in for Hindman) and Laurens Vanthoor (sharing the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche with Zacharie Robichon).

Once Vanthoor cleared Long, he chased down Auberlen – who rejoined behind Long when he pitted for the final time. They made contact at the final corner before the BMW got back ahead.

While all this was going on, Vanthoor was now clear out front, running well ahead of the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan of Madison Snow/Bryan Sellers. Long regained third from Auberlen in the closing stages.

Cla	Class	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	DPi	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Acura DPi	118
2	DPi	Renger van der Zande Kevin Magnussen	Cadillac DPi	118	14.875
3	DPi	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	Cadillac DPi	118	15.392
4	DPi	Dane Cameron Olivier Pla	Acura DPi	118	25.529
5	DPi	Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell	Mazda DPi	118	28.503
6	DPi	Tristan Vautier Loic Duval	Cadillac DPi	116	2 laps
7	LMP2	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen	ORECA LMP2 07	116	2 laps
8	LMP2	John Farano Gabriel Aubry	ORECA LMP2 07	115	3 laps
9	LMP2	Thomas Steven Tristan Nunez	ORECA LMP2 07	115	3 laps
10	LMP2	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel	ORECA LMP2 07	115	3 laps
11	GTLM	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Corvette C8.R	112	6 laps
12	GTLM	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	Corvette C8.R	111	7 laps
13	GTLM	Cooper MacNeil Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	111	7 laps
14	GTD	Zacharie Robichon Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 GT3 R	107	11 laps
15	GTD	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	107	11 laps
16	GTD	Trent Hindman Patrick Long	Porsche 911 GT3 R	107	11 laps
17	GTD	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	BMW M6 GT3	107	11 laps
18	GTD	Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	107	11 laps
19	GTD	Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth	Lexus RC F GT3	106	12 laps
20	GTD	Richard Heistand Jeff Westphal	Audi R8 LMS GT3	106	12 laps
21	GTD	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge	Porsche 911 GT3 R	106	12 laps
22	GTD	John Potter Andy Lally	Acura NSX GT3	106	12 laps
23	GTD	Frankie Montecalvo Zach Veach	Lexus RC F GT3	105	13 laps
24	GTD	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	Acura NSX GT3	103	15 laps
25	GTD	Ian James Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	0
26	GTD	Mario Farnbacher Jacob Abel	Acura NSX GT3	0
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