Taylor Holds Off Cameron for COTA Win

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

A dominant early run-turned nail-biting finish for Wayne Taylor Racing saw brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor score victory in Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas.

Jordan Taylor edged out the No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Dane Cameron by 1.421 seconds for their third win of the season, following a late-race charge by Cameron, who clawed back a 15-second deficit after a spin by Taylor with 36 minutes remaining.

Taylor lost ten seconds when he looped his No. 10 Corvette DP in Turn 20, following a commanding run from pole by Ricky Taylor, who bridged out a significant gap over the pair of Mazda Prototypes, which had another strong early run.

While Cameron and co-driver Eric Curran settled for a runner-up finish, they take over the Prototype class championship lead, with the sister No. 5 Acton Express entry of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipadi finishing third after an early spin.

Curran served a drive-through penalty for deemed avoidable contact with his teammate Fittipaldi at the 15-minute mark. They entered the weekend one point behind the No. 5 duo in the title race.

A spin for the No. 70 Mazda of Joel Miller, meanwhile, dashed hopes of a podium finish with 33 minutes to go, following another disappointing day for the Japanese manufacturer.

The No. 55 Mazda retired in the second hour with with fuel pump failure, after running second early in the hands of Tristan Nunez.

Driveshaft issues, meanwhile, resulted in retirement for the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP in the opening hour, which brought out the first of two full-course cautions in the two-hour and 40-minute race.

Starworks Motorsport claimed top honors in Prototype Challenge, following a dramatic three-way fight for the win in class.

Renger van der Zande took the class lead from the No. 38 Performance Tech Oreca FLM09 of James French with three laps to go, with French fading in the closing stages after being on a two-stop strategy.

French ended up third in class, behind the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry of Tom Kimber-Smith and class pole-sitter Robert Alon, who led early.

It marked championship leader Van der Zande and Alex Popow’s fourth class win of the season as the pairing close in on the class title.

RESULTS: Lone Star Le Mans

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