Salters: Acura Taking ‘Analytical’ Approach to Year Two of GTP

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Acura is taking a more “analytical” approach to the second season of GTP competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship according to Honda Racing Corporation USA President David Salters.

The luxury automaker and its North American motorsports arm kicked off the new era of the WeatherTech Championship with a 1-2 finish in last year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, in a season that saw all four LMDh manufacturer make notable gains after each race.

“We were just getting to grips with running the car then,” Salters recalled to Sportscar365.

“I think we built some good foundations, so that helped us a lot. But we were learning everything and getting to grips with the basics of running a very sophisticated car.

“Now, it’s much more analytical. It’s a race car so it still fights, kicks and screams. That’s what it’s meant to do. But it’s a much more analytical process now.

“Generally, the car just runs and then we can start to mine, and that’s what happened during the year. Now we’re just trying to extract the most from the car.

“There’s much less of ‘What’s it doing now?’ and instead refining the process.”

With the ARX-06 remaining unchanged from a technical standpoint since last year, Salters indicated the gains will largely come on the software front, which remains open to development.

“It’s still a very sophisticated car and you’ve got to be very respectful to such a car,” he said. “Now it’s more refined but there’s still a lot to do.

“All of those working together, with our engineer hats on, did a good job [last year]. I think that’s the thing that gave me the most pride.

“Every time we look at the car, we’re like, ‘We did OK there.’ There’s lots of novelty there and innovation. A team of people working together, it was very satisfying.

“That purpose of creation, and trying to think outside the box, we deliberately took risks and they sort of paid off. That’s been the very nice part of this process.”

The biggest change for this season comes with its factory team, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, which has expanded into a two-car GTP effort, as part of Acura’s quest for its fourth consecutive Rolex 24 victory.

The No. 40 WTR Andretti Acura of Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz effectively replaces Meyer Shank Racing’s entry, with the Ohio-based team no longer on the grid.

“It’s a bit control-alt-delete,” said Salters of a team’s two-car approach. “You restart a bit because running one car is one thing and running two is a different thing.

“People often ask me what’s the key for racing. It’s having a good team of people and getting them all working together and going in the right direction.

“That’s typically what it comes down to. When you move to two cars, it’s getting the team working and gelling.

“The communication, it’s a different challenge to communicate to three or four or eight drivers. There’s just new challenges.

“But to the credit of Brian [Pillar, WTR Andretti technical director] and Wayne [Taylor] himself, who always leads from the front, and Travis [Houge, VP/general manager], and everyone involved, it’s going well.

“There’s challenges because you have a bigger group and have all of the coordination. Just trying to make intercoms all work is a challenge.”

Salters, however, admitted WTR Andretti’s two-car program hasn’t resulted in any significant change for HRC US.

“For us, we had already done it because we sort of had two cars’ worth of people,” he said.

“Powertrain and the vehicle dynamics that we look after, we all meet up and debrief all the time. So our bit wasn’t too bad because it’s just a slight geographical change.

“The way the world works these days, everyone’s hooked up via computer.

“We’ve got things to learn. There’s a classical management theory on how you bring a team together, so you see all that sort of stuff.

“But it’s coming along and going well.”

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