TAYLOR: Another Year That Long Beach Got Away

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The home race of Acura and the most important race of the year. This was an event where, in the past, we have struggled immensely.

It was the weakest racetrack on the schedule for us and somewhere that we felt almost no pressure, because a good result was so far out of reach.

Coming into 2023, with the new GTP category and our new Acura ARX-06, ORECA, HPD, and WTR Andretti placed a lot of emphasis on our performance at Long Beach.

Everyone worked very hard to create a car that could perform at a high level on the bumpy, slow speed, and low energy street course.

During Practice 1 and 2, we showed that everyone’s hard work seemed to be paying off. The car was a dream to drive and the lap time showed on the race track. Acura was the car to have at Long Beach suddenly and we were all very excited to get to qualifying and the race.

Filipe qualified the car on the pole with an amazing lap towards the end of the session ahead of the 60 car for an all-Acura front row lockout.

Thanks to the hard work of everyone at HPD, ORECA and WTR Andretti we proved that we had turned Long Beach from our biggest weakness to our biggest strength. It looked like our weekend to finally win Acura’s home race.

Before the race Filipe had some concern about his earplugs so he made sure to test them, all was good. However, on the grid right after the anthem when Filipe got in the car to start the race, they suddenly were not working again.

Mayhem ensued to try get them working and to try get a spare set to him in the minute-and-a-half before cars rolled off. The backup pair did not make it and the earplugs weren’t able to be repaired.

We normally tuck all of our radio and earplug cables inside of our balaclava and race suit so nothing is exposed, however, during this rush to fix everything we didn’t have time to tuck everything away neatly.

Filipe drove off and started the race only communicating by one way radio communication (Filipe to pit lane) and by signals from the pits. He had an amazing stint and controlled the race very well ahead of the Porsche and BMW who were showing much better performance than in practice.

We reached the pit stop window and Filipe dove to pit lane. He did all the driver change responsibilities of the departing driver: loosen shoulder belts and lower lap belt, remove radio plug, and attach the right shoulder belt to the roof magnet to prevent the belt falling in the seat for the proceeding driver.

However, when he was getting out of the car, the earplug cables from the drama before the race got caught in the right shoulder belt. Not only did he get caught up and stuck in the car, and not only did it pull the shoulder belt down into the seat, but it also pulled the belt all the way tight.

In all the mayhem of getting out of the car, the insert was also still in the car. By the time I was in the seat and the shoulder belt was loosened, the normal pit service time (of around 16 seconds) was completely done, but we were only halfway done with the driver change. It was a huge time loss, followed by a further delay with the launch.

What seemed like a race to control from the front was now a battle from the mid pack to try and catch and pass the leaders. After all, we had the best car of the day so at least we had speed. Head down.

On the stretch of trying to catch the third place car of BMW, we had two instances where I hit the pit speed button by mistake. Trying not to get frustrated with myself, I started to release that hand each time going through the hairpin to make sure I didn’t hit it again.

They caught a bad stretch of traffic and we were right on the battle for second to fourth. Upon arrival, the Porsche of Matt Campbell and the BMW of Connor De Phillippi were battling hard and De Phillippi made a move into Turn 6 but overshot the corner on the inside and had to go into the escape road.

The track was very slippery off line and a tiny rear lockup sent him wide. That meant an easy step up to P3 for us.

The two leading cars of Jaminet and Campbell both did not take tires on the stop and were struggling a lot to keep the pace on the old tires.

They got the track position with hot tires on the out lap but were now paying the price, however, the call is always made considering how difficult it is to pass at Long Beach and weighing that with the strength of the out lap on hot tires.

We had a lot more pace than the two Porsches but were running out of time. I tried everything to get by Campbell but he was doing a very good and very fair job of defending.

It felt like a go-kart race with the amount of dives we were making on each other, even an over under in Turn 6. His weakest corner was Turn 5 exit, but I wasn’t able to make an inside or outside move work into T6.

Eventually, using our strength out of T5, I was able to get close for T6 and set up an inside move as he opened his hands for T8 where it would be difficult to defend. The move stuck but there were only a few laps to go and the BMW, who also showed good pace, also got through with me.

Jaminet was the leader and we had about five laps to catch and pass him. Luckily he got some very bad traffic two laps in a row and the gap closed right up with three to go. I was initially hoping his car would look similar to Campbell out of T5 and could try a similar move, but he was shockingly good on corner exits.

I think because Campbell was forced to defend his whole stint, it made his life much more difficult to save tires, whereas Jaminet was able to save better without so much pressure from behind.

So I knew from what I saw that the same move might not be possible in the sequence from T5-T8. Jaminet had a moment coming to the line with two to go and I was as close as I had been to anyone going into Turn 1.

At these times a lot goes through your head considering this is possibly the best or only chance to with the race with only 1.5 laps to go and no more traffic to give a chance.

The thoughts are with the 200+ HPD employees who have worked to build, develop, and tune the engine, systems and vehicle dynamics with this car, ORECA which designed and built the car, and all of our WTR Andretti team members (including Filipe) who have given everything to give us the fastest car on track each and every weekend.

This was our home race and all of those people gave us the best car to go win the race. Are we ok with finishing second if there is a legitimate chance to win?

He braked at the 500 (around where we brake on full fuel), I told myself I was ok to go as late as the 425. I made the move on the inside braking at my point, and for the first half of the brake zone I was very happy with the move and the car was braking very well.

But as the corner tightened and I was more off line on corner entry the tire locked and the car quickly ended in the tire wall.

It was the smallest margin of error and the frustration and disbelief are inexplicable. I just immediately felt so sorry to everyone involved in the Acura ARX-06 project. It was another year that Long Beach got away. I was furious at myself.

I am infinitely proud to represent Acura and to drive their race car and am so lucky to have this opportunity. Professional sports car racing is hard, we make our living doing things at a high level and are balancing risk daily.

On Saturday I took a risk that ended our chances of winning. The team of people who put this car together deserved a win, so that hurts.

However, I watched the replays and learned what I would’ve done differently next time.

Thank you to everyone for your support before and after the race. I can vow that we will be back strong in Laguna. The championship is still extremely tight so the drive back to the Steam Vessel begins today.