WTR’s Taylor, Albuquerque Break Through at Road America

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque broke a two-plus year winless streak, delivering Wayne Taylor Racing’s first victory with the Cadillac V-Series.R in Sunday’s chaotic Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America that ended under caution.

Albuquerque took the No. 10 Cadillac to the win in the six-hour IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup round, which was marred by nine full-course cautions, totaling more than two hours behind the safety car, and numerous penalties and incidents.

The Portuguese driver stayed out of trouble and led the final 90 minutes of the race, following several well-timed stops and penalties for fellow GTP competitors.

It marked the first win for the duo since Detroit 2024, back when the team was still running Acura ARX-06 machinery.

The race effectively ended with 11 minutes to go when Kevin Estre and Jack Aitken made contact entering Turn 1, sending both the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 and GTP championship-leading No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac hard into the barriers.

The two cars had a fierce battle in the closing hour, with multiple contact made over various laps, which came to blows on the final restart.

Race control declared that the race-ending incident will be reviewed post-session.

It initially promoted the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie of Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn to a second place result, but De Angelis was handed a post-race drive through penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Renger van der Zande that occurred on the final restart.

As a result, Laurin Heinrich took second in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche, with the German driver gaining significant ground in the championship as a result, reducing the gap to 128 points to Aitken with two GTP rounds to go.

Heinrich shared driving duties with Kaylen Frederick and Tijmen van der Helm, which saw no fewer than three drive-through penalties and a mechanical black flag for the right-side door being ajar, for the privateer Porsche.

The No. 40 WTR Cadillac of Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor was promoted to third, with van der Zande and pole-sitter Nick Yelloly finishing fourth.

De Angelis and Gunn were demoted to fifth in the Valkyrie due to the penalty.

Felipe Nasr was sixth in the No. 7 Penske Porsche, which was in the gravel with two hours to go after contact with the No. 31 Cadillac of Aitken that also led to no penalty for the Whelen-sponsored entry.

It was also a race to forget for the pair of Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s, which initially showed pace but both struck trouble.

The No. 25 car of Marco Wittmann led at the end of the opening hour by staying out while everyone else pitted, but served three drive-through penalties later in the running before having cooling-related issue to the car’s energy recovery system.

The Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde-driven BMW, sporting a special Spider-Man livery, retired in the late stages with brake issues.

Estre’s No. 6 Porsche was provisionally classified eighth and Aitken’s Cadillac in ninth.

LMP2 class honors went to the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson of Tom Dillmann, Bijoy Garg and Tom Dillmann, which benefitted from the series of late-race yellows.

Both the Polish squad’s Oreca and the second-placed No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR entry of Alex Quinn were due to make late pit stops for fuel had the race ran green without the late series of yellows.

Contact between the two United Autosports entries of Paul di Resta and Mikkel Jensen on the final restart led to the No. 22 Oreca of di Resta getting spun around and Jensen handed a drive-through for incident responsibility, dropping the No. 2 car to ninth.

It promoted the No. 11 TDS Racing entry to third in class.

Pfaff Gives Lamborghini Temerario GT3 First Enduro Win

Pfaff Motorsports delivered Lamborghini the first endurance race win for the new-for-2026 Temerario GT3, with Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell coming out on top.

The No. 9 Lamborghini emerged in the class lead in the closing two stints, thanks in part to a scrap between the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs from AO Racing and Manthey.

Manthey driver Thomas Preining was served with a costly drive-through penalty in the final hour for failure to adhere to the controlled powertrain parameters, which dropped his car to ninth in class.

Nick Tandy drove the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche to second in class with Harry King, with Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg completing the class podium.

The pair of Multimatic Motorsports-run Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs were fourth and fifth.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, which entered the weekend as the class points leaders, finished eight laps behind after Connor De Phillippi found the barriers at Canada Corner just past halfway.

Title contenders Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia’s day was also a challenging one, with Sims tagged into the gravel by the No. 65 Mustang of Frederic Vervisch with 1 hour and 35 minutes to go that led to no penalty.

Sims finished two laps ahead of the BMW in tenth, while the Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo was the category’s only retirement due to steering failure after a strong early run.

Corvette’s Milner and Catsburg have closed to just 15 points of De Phillippi and Verhagen with three GTD Pro races to go.

Winward Racing, meanwhile, picked up back-to-back class wins in GTD, with Philip Ellis and Russell Ward teaming with Indy Dontje in their No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Kenton Koch, who like the top two LMP2 finishers, was light on fuel, but finished second in class thanks to the late-race incidents.

DragonSpeed scored the first podium finish with its Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, coming home third with drivers Giacomo Altoe, Casper Stevenson and Alec Udell.

RESULTS: Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix

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