Action Express “Came Up Short” With Last-Lap Pit Stop

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Jack Aitken believes that Action Express Racing “came up short” in a dramatic closing sequence of events that altered the results of Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

The team’s No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R, which bounced back from early race adversity to lead a race-high 71 laps, came up one lap short on achieving its first victory since the 2023 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring when Earl Bamber was forced to pit his GTP-leading car for a top up of energy.

The Action Express Cadillac, along with the majority of the GTP leaders, had planned late-race splash-and-dashes prior to the race’s tenth full-course caution being called with less than ten minutes left on the clock.

It left the field to circuit behind the safety car, and saw the then-second-placed No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly pit for energy as the field took the restart with three minutes to go.

Bamber, however, stayed out for one lap but was forced in just as the white flag flew, resulting in a sixth place result for he and co-drivers Aitken and Frederik Vesti.

“It was pretty brutal watching on,” Aitken told Sportscar365. “We had the quickest car today and whenever you don’t come away with a win that’s always a hard one to take.

“We ran a really good weekend. Earl did an awesome job finishing the race.

“I was planning to get back in but the way the yellows kept coming, there wasn’t a good time do it.

“He powered through in the heat and was doing an awesome job on the fuel save. We just came up short, unfortunately.

“It’s gutting but we did what we could.”

While acknowledging the fuel save from the eventual race-winning No. 60 MSR Acura of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, Aitken believed the race would have had a different outcome had the late yellow not come out.

“The 60 obviously managed to do a great job but I think a lot of us were in the same boat,” he said.

“Some guys gambled to come in early or just before that yellow came out, which was smart. I’m not sure if we were in the position to do that.

“It’s always tough when you’re leading the race. You’ve got more to lose by taking those gambles.

“We ran our race the way we thought we should and unfortunately lady luck threw that yellow for just that right amount of time to take it away.”

Runner-up finisher Louis Deletraz, in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, was on a different strategy, having pitted with around 40 minutes to go while in green flag conditions.

“At the end I didn’t know so much where we were at,” said Deletraz. “There was a lot of things going on.

“But I knew I had more fuel than the cars ahead of me, and I knew I had a shot to go forward.

“In the end the cars had pitted, but we were quite fast. But key to the race was really the early pit stop, get us out of sequence and have some pace.”

It marked Deletraz and co-driver Jordan Taylor’s best finish of the season.

“The guys made a great call at the end, pitting Louis kind of out of sequence to put him in clean air, and we probably would have cycled up to fourth if the race had gone green, which would have been an improvement from where we were on the restart,” said Taylor.

“I think the call kind of made our race with the yellow coming out late and putting us up into second, the 10 car made it in right before the yellow to put them in third.

“WTR’s first double podium as a two-car team, which is cool, and obviously a good day for Cadillac having two cars on the podium. I feel like we’ve turned a corner this year with a lot of the bad luck we’ve had, and hopefully that momentum can continue the rest of the year.”

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John