Road America Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Jamey Price/WTR

***Wayne Taylor Racing returned to victory lane in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP competition for the first time in more than two years, breaking a 19-race winless streak that stretched 792 days. Sunday’s victory in the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix was also the team’s first win since its switch back to Cadillac.

***It marked Cadillac’s third consecutive GTP victory and was the 54th IMSA class win for WTR, which broke a tie with Brumos Racing and Champion Racing for sixth most-time in series history.

***Wayne Taylor said: “I just couldn’t be happier. The last 18 months has been the hardest 18 months for me in motorsports that I can remember. I kept saying to myself, we all work hard, we’ve got great partners with Cadillac, with DEX Imaging, Sharp, and the drivers are all working hard. The most important thing was keeping everybody positive and keeping the passion. To get a win and a third just shows to me that our work ethic, dedication, and focus as a team has paid off. This is really great and I’m very happy for everyone.”

***The No. 10 Cadillac of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque was the only GTP car not to either not to have had contact damage or receive a penalty in the race, which was marred by nine full-course cautions totaling more than two hours behind the safety car.

***However, Albuquerque believed that didn’t play a factor in the race. He and Taylor led a race-high 36 laps. “I think we deserved the win even if we didn’t have any penalty,” said Albuquerque. “We were flawless in the penalties. I think when we look at the standings, so many DNFs, I think it’s easy to see so many DNFs and obviously a win. I think we were controlling the race and the pace. It was elbows out, like when we see the Porsche, fighting hard with nothing to lose, that was hectic.”

***Eight of the 11 GTP entries all spent time out front in the race, with only the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie, No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 and No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 not leading a lap.

***However, more than a third of the GTP grid failed to finish, following brake issues for the No. 24 Spider-Man-liveried Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, a solo accident by Tom Blomqvist that brought out the second-to-final yellow with 18 minutes to go and the race-ending clash between Kevin Estre and Jack Aitken.

***The No. 25 BMW, meanwhile, battled cooling issues and finished two laps back in seventh.

***The DNF for the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac was its first since the 2024 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring when Pipo Derani flipped the car upside down. Additionally, it broke an eight-race podium streak dating back to last year’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

***It also saw Aitken’s championship lead reduced to 128 points over Laurin Heinrich, who scored his fifth podium finish of the season and third in the last four races for the privateer JDC-Miller Motorsports squad.

***While the No. 6 Porsche retired, a sixth place result for the No. 7 entry of Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer, and a 1-2 run at the points-paying halfway mark of the race, was enough for Porsche to clinch the driver and manufacturer titles in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup one race early.

***Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle said: “This shows just how strong our team is in endurance racing, Congratulations to our customer team, JDC-Miller Motorsports, on their second-place finish. Unfortunately, there were also some downsides today. Many cars were involved in incidents during a hectic race. Our two Porsche 963 from Porsche Penske Motorsport were among them.”

***Nasr’s No. 7 Porsche was sent into the Turn 8 gravel trap with two hours ago after contact from the No. 31 Cadillac of Aitken, which did not result in a penalty. The Brazilian, however, received a stop-and-hold plus 60-second sanction for “overdriving during full course yellow in the vicinity of track services” a penalty that the No. 40 WTR Cadillac of Louis Deletraz also incurred.

***In total, there were no fewer than 48 penalties called over the course of the race.

***Albuquerque said: “For sure, IMSA is on the path of policing us. I think sometimes it was a bit too harsh for some other guys. In my opinion I think it was too harsh. For others I understand. It’s just up to us to adapt to these new IMSA style. I think where we are going towards, it’s positive. I think we still need to get the consistent there.”

***Inter Europol Competition claimed its second consecutive LMP2 win, following Tom Dillmann and Jeremy Clarke’s overall triumph in the LMP2 headline race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The duo were joined by the team’s Endurance Cup driver Bijoy Garg on Sunday.

***Both the class-winning No. 43 Oreca 07 Gibson and second-placed No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR entry of Alex Quinn gambled on fuel and were unlikely to have made it to the finish had the race not ended under caution. When asked on the fuel situation, Dillmann said: “We were tight but I don’t necessarily want to say if we would make it without the yellow or not.”

***The Inter Europol entry came back from a drive-through penalty in the third hour for improper pit protocol and a stop-and-hold plus-60 for taking more than an emergency pit stop, which dropped them a lap down at the time. “It took a huge team effort and a great strategy to bring the car back to the lead,” explained team principal Sascha Fassbender.

***Dillmann and Clarke closed the gap to championship leaders Quinn and George Kurtz to 36 points, with the AO Racing duo of Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett 110 points behind the CrowdStrike by APR duo with two LMP2 races to go.

***Pfaff Motorsports scored its first WeatherTech Championship win since Sebring 2023, some 36 races ago, when Klaus Bachler, Patrick Pilet and Laurens Vanthoor took top GTD Pro class honors in a Porsche 911 GT3 R. It also marked the first series win for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 and only second triumph for the car in global competition after Mirko Bortolotti’s win in DTM at Oschersleben just eight days ago.

***Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell’s breakthrough win came in the car’s first race on Brembo brakes, following a mid-season provider change that was approved by the FIA but was first seen on the Canadian squad’s Lambo thanks to IMSA’s rapid approval process.

***Mitchell said: “It’s part of the small upgrade package that we’re planning to roll out worldwide for the car in the races to come during the rest of the season. It seemed to work well this weekend. We were happy with how that went. It’s going in the right direction but I think it’s one small part of a lot things this weekend that we improved as we are race by race learning a lot.”

***The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Nick Tandy and Harry King finished second in class after leading a race-high 54 laps. “We’d put together a great strategy before the start but all of that went out the window because of the numerous yellow flag periods,” explained King. “We were rewarded for a clean performance overall: no penalties, no contact, no mistakes during pit stops.”

***While Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner have closed to within 15 points of GTD Pro championship leaders Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen following an accident for the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO at Canada Corner just past the halfway mark, the No. 3 Corvette lost further ground in the title race when Alexander Sims and Frederic Vervisch came together with a little more than 90 minutes to go, resulting in the No. 3 Corvette ending up in the gravel and losing six laps due to right-rear damage.

***Sims explained: “I knew I had a Porsche on the inside of me, and then I was right behind the 65 [Mustang]. He was holding mid-track and so I braked to the outside and in hindsight that was the wrong thing to do. It was a bit messy. I also don’t sit here and think I wasn’t smart for doing it. I took a risk and it didn’t pay off this time.”

***Team RLL’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo again showed impressive form, having led for eight laps, although it was forced to retire in the fourth hour due to a steering issue.

***Winward Racing’s Russell Ward and Philip Ellis have closed to just 24 points of Heart of Racing Team’s Eduardo Barrichello in the GTD points race following their and Indy Dontje’s class victory on Sunday, the team’s third of the season and second consecutive in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

***Ellis said: “I made the pass for the lead right at the restart because if there was another yellow, like we had, they obviously would have had the track position, and we would have lost the win. I just went all in on the last two or three restarts to make up that last position and it worked out.”

***The No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Kenton Koch, Onofrio Triarsi and Robert Megennis finished second, after Koch stretched the car’s energy to a 1 hour and 16-minute final stint, aided by the series of late yellows and the race finishing behind the safety car.

***However, IMSA re-ordered third and fourth place in GTD following a post-race review by race control indicated that the No. 81 DragonSpeed Corvette of Giacomo Altoe did not overtake the No. 068 YRB Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Valentin Hasse-Clot prior to the final caution at the end of the race.

***The re-ordering came after podium celebrations and the results remain provisional pending a “comprehensive review” of Estre and Aitken’s race-ending incident according to a statement released by the sanctioning body on Sunday evening.

***Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, on Aug. 21-23, for GTD Pro and GTD competitors before all four classes return together for the Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a two-hour and 40-minute contest on Sept. 18-20.

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