Mid-Ohio Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

***Acura scored its fourth consecutive win in the Acura Sports Car Challenge presented by TLX Type S, with the ARX-05 DPi maintaining its undefeated streak of success at Mid-Ohio courtesy of Wayne Taylor Racing’s fuel mileage run on Sunday.

***Ricky Taylor has won three of those four years while co-driver Filipe Albuquerque earned his first win at Mid-Ohio. The duo have extended their DPi championship lead to 55 points over Mazda’s Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis, who finished third and maintained their run of podium finishes this season.

***Acura Brand Officer Jon Ikeda, who was on-site Sunday, proclaimed it as an “amazing day and an amazing race” for the manufacturer. “This is why we’re racing sports cars in IMSA, it’s the most incredible racing I’ve ever seen,” said Ikeda.

***WTR has now won at every circuit on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar except for Road America, which Ricky Taylor said is also the case for longtime crew member Bill Mullen, who the team is aiming to achieve prior to Mullen’s retirement. 

***Felipe Nasr admitted that his fuel saving was a “little too extreme” that he feels it ultimately cost him the lead to Ricky Taylor at the time. “We wanted to win that race,” Nasr said. “It was hard to do everything at the same time – save fuel, keep temperature in the tires. We knew the Acuras had a little more in their two tanks. So, they had a margin to play [with]. Whereas we were on the extreme limit.”

***The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi, which finished sixth, underwent an engine change Saturday evening. A suspected issue with its fuel rig cost the Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla-driven entry time during its first stop after running as high as third in the race.

***IMSA rookie Kevin Magnussen was handed a drive-through penalty for changing lanes prior to the start of the race. The Formula 1 veteran went onto set the race’s fastest lap in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.

***Only three of the six DPi cars scored qualifying points as a result of teams electing to change tires post-qualifying and being moved to the rear of the starting grid. The No. 55 Mazda (pole), No. 10 WTR Acura (second) and No. 31 AXR Cadillac (fourth) earned points.

***Felipe Fraga claimed LMP3 class honors in the Brazilian’s first-ever prototype race. Fraga revealed post-race he had only four days’ worth of experience in Riley Motorsports’ Ligier JS P320 Nissan before the race. He missed the opening two rounds of the season due to visa-related complications.

***In addition to putting its IMSA Prototype Challenge entry into use at the last minute, Performance Tech Motorsports had to make repairs to the car following a late-race incident in the IPC race that put the Brent O’Neill-led team up against the clock to make it onto the grid. Rasmus Lindh and Dan Goldburg combined to finish second in the WeatherTech Championship race.

***While initially also set to pull double duty on Sunday, the No. 91 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Dylan Murry and Jim Cox did not start the IPC race in order to focus on its WeatherTech Championship run, where the duo scored a third place run.

***GTD class winners Turner Motorsport has taken over the points lead, with Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley now seven points ahead of The Heart of Racing’s Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis, who finished fourth on Sunday.

***It came after a 12th place class finish for the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ryan Hardwick and Patrick Long, who has slipped from first to third in the drivers’ standings after an incident that ended with contact and a spin into the gravel trap to bring out the race’s only full-course caution.

***Lexus’ streak of three consecutive class wins at Mid-Ohio came to an end after rear suspension failure for the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in the second hour. It had led the race from pole in the hands of Aaron Telitz and Jack Hawksworth.

***Mario Farnbacher presented Mike Shank with a helmet on Sunday morning prior to the race, as a thank-you for his three years with MSR that netted back-to-back GTD championships.

***Reigning DPi champions Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves, meanwhile, traded helmets pre-race as well. The Brazilian served as grand marshal for Sunday’s race.

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