Taylor Holds Off Jaminet in Incident-Filled Detroit Race

Photo: Brett Farmer/IMSA

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque broke through to claim victory in Saturday’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, ending a near two-year winless streak for the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti entry.

Taylor made a bold pass around the pole-sitting No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet with 26 minutes to go in the 100-minute street race in downtown Detroit to take the pairing’s first victory of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP era.

The second-generation driver withheld the pressure of Jaminet during two subsequent late-race yellows and restarts, finishing 1.132 seconds ahead of the Frenchman.

It came after Jaminet emerged in the lead despite an early race drive-through penalty for Tandy due to incident responsibility with the No. 35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa Balboa.

Tandy rejoined the field in sixth but took the lead after being the last of the GTP cars to make its regular-service pit stop, which like nearly all of the hybrid-powered prototypes, opted to double-stint their Michelin tires.

A caution for a crash by Connor De Phillippi moments later helped keep the No. 6 Porsche out front at the time but ultimately lost out to Taylor in the end of an incident-filled race that was marred by five cautions.

Renger van der Zande drove the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to third with Sebastien Bourdais, who was one of the first of the leading GTP cars to make green flag pit stops but had a delay during the driver change that cost them several positions.

The No. 7 Penske Porsche of Felipe Nasr rebounded from a damaged right-rear tire after a scrape with the wall, which required an additional stop under a yellow, to finish fourth, with the Brazilian making numerous impressive passes to carve his way through the GTP field.

Louis Deletraz completed the top-five in the No. 40 WTRAndretti Acura, ahead of the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken, who was involved in multiple incidents, including a run-in with the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni that resulted in no further action by race control.

Aitken, however, was handed incident responsibility for his clash with the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche of Richard Westbrook that led to the race’s third caution and a track blockage.

The Action Express car was on an alternate strategy after the team pitted Pipo Derani at the ten-minute mark. The Brazilian started from the rear of the GTP field after losing his two best times in qualifying due to bringing out a red flag in the session.

Jesse Krohn brought the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 home in seventh, ahead of Westbrook’s Porsche in eighth.

Both Bruni and De Phillippi, the latter who had accidents on two consecutive laps, retired from the race with damaged cars.

AO Racing Goes Back-to-Back in GTD Pro Fight

Laurin Heinrich and Seb Priaulx came out on top in the production-based ranks, benefitting from contact between the two class-leading GTD Pro cars.

Heinrich took the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R to a 2.885-second win over Ben Barnicoat’s damaged No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, which got into the then-leading No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg.

No penalty was called by race control for the incident, which dropped the No. 4 Corvette to a ninth place finish.

It marked the second consecutive win for the AO duo, who extend their championship lead.

A late-race off for Marvin Kirchhofer’s No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo gave the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn the final podium position in third, ahead of the GTD Pro guesting No. 15 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow completed the top-five.

The class pole-sitting No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia dove into the pits on the opening lap with an alternator failure, costing the car some 15 laps, while both Multimatic-run Ford Mustang GT3s encountered issues as well.

RESULTS: Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic 

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