Taylor, Albuquerque Conquer Laguna Seca

Photo: IMSA

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque extended their DPi points lead with victory in Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca after a failed two-stop strategy call by Meyer Shank Racing.

Taylor took the No. 10 Acura ARX-05 to a 14.875-second win over the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Renger van der Zande, who made a late charge in the final moments of the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

Pla and co-driver Dane Cameron led the bulk of the race in the No. 60 MSR Acura DPi after stretching the fuel mileage following an early-race yellow.

The Frenchman made his final stop with 53 minutes to go and emerged as the leader once Taylor made his third and final stop some ten minutes later.

However, Pla then went into fuel-saving mode, handing the lead and eventual victory back to the No. 10 Acura with 25 minutes to go.

It marked Taylor and Albuquerque’s third win of the season and first since Mid-Ohio in May.

Pla crossed the line in fourth, behind the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani, who lost second in the closing minutes to van der Zande. The two cars made slight contact while battling for position.

Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis brought the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P home in fifth, meanwhile.

A spin in the pit lane for Tristan Vautier saw the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac drop out of contention.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports scored its third LMP2 class win of the season following a commanding run by Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen.

Jensen drove the team’s No. 52 Oreca 07 Gibson to a 13-second victory over the No. 8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks entry of Gabriel Aubry and John Farano after last-lap contact between Aubry and the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry of Ryan Dalziel, who was second at the time.

It promoted the No. 11 WIN Autosport Oreca of Tristan Nunez and Steven Thomas to third in class. 

Corvette Claims First Laguna Win Since 2014

GT Le Mans saw the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R pairing of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner break through for a long-awaited class win and the team’s first victory at Laguna Seca in more than seven years.

Quick pit work put Tandy out front of the No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia in the final round of stops, despite the Englishman locking up the brakes at the pit exit and briefly going off-course.

It marked the No. 4 Corvette’s first points-paying class win since Sebring in July 2020 and was Tandy’s first official victory with the Pratt & Miller-run squad.

Tandy and Milner collected class honors in the Detroit round earlier this year in what was an exhibition race for the team.

The No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Cooper MacNeil and Matt Campbell, which won last time out at Road America, did not factor into Sunday’s race.

Two in a Row For Pfaff Porsche in GTD

GT Daytona saw another win by the Pfaff Motorsports duo of Laurens Vanthoor and Zach Robichon following a slow final stop for the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen.

Auberlen and co-driver Robby Foley led the majority of the race until the car’s second and final stop with 1 hour and 7 minutes to go that saw the Porsche factory driver take over the lead.

He drove to a 5.512-second win over the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Bryan Sellers, who also capitalized on Turner’s misfortunes.

The class pole-sitting No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Trent Hindman and Patrick Long came home third, thanks to Long’s late-race pass on Auberlen, who settled for fourth. 

Ross Gunn brought the No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entry home in fifth, after having had to start from the rear of the 13-car field due to an infraction from Qualifying 2.

GTD saw the majority of the on-track incidents, including an opening lap incident between Ian James and series debutant Jacob Abel after James lost control of his No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.

It brought out the race’s only full course caution, with both cars eliminated.

RESULTS: 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