Taylor Holds On for Mid-Ohio Win in Fuel Mileage Race

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Ricky Taylor held off Felipe Nasr to give Wayne Taylor Racing and Acura victory in a fuel mileage thriller in Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge presented by TLX Type S.

Taylor kept the Acura ARX-05’s undefeated record alive at the circuit, edging out Nasr’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R by 0.368 seconds in the hard-fought third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

While the pole-sitting No. 55 Mazda RT24-P of Harry Tincknell held command of the first half, a caution for the beached No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long set up a 45-minute shootout to the finish that saw four of the six DPi competitors stretch their fuel.

Taylor took over the lead from Nasr shortly after the restart and managed to finish ahead of the Brazilian for WTR’s second win in three races this season.

He shared top honors with Filipe Albuquerque, who extend their points lead as a result.

Nasr and co-driver Pipo Derani saw their alternative pit strategy pay off during the race’s only caution but still wound up second ahead of the Multimatic-run Mazda DPi, which completed the podium after dominating early.

The top four DPi cars all stretched their fuel to the end, including the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi pairing of Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier, which dropped more than 20 seconds behind to sixth in a fuel mileage run.

Both Renger van der Zande and Olivier Pla made splash-and-goes in the final five minutes, relegating the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac and No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi to fifth and sixth place finishes, respectively.

Fraga, Robinson Take LMP3 Class Honors

The Riley Motorsports duo of Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson controlled LMP3 with the team’s second win of the season.

Fraga, in his first outing with the team, drove the No. 74 Ligier JS P320 Nissan to a 3.249-second class win over the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry of Rasmus Lindh in second.

Lindh’s co-driver Dan Goldburg muscled his way into the class lead on Lap 20 around pole-sitter Robinson prior to the first round of pit stops that put the Riley entry back out front.

A late spin and contact with the barriers by the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier of Colin Braun gave the No. 91 Riley entry of Dylan Murry and Jim Cox third in class.

Turner Comes Out on Top in GTD

Turner Motorsport claimed top class honors in GT Daytona, with Bill Auberlen claiming his record-extending 63rd class win in top level IMSA competition.

Auberlen took the No. 96 BMW M6 GT3 to a 2.712-second win over the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Zach Veach.

It came after the class pole-sitting No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, which was seeking its third consecutive Mid-Ohio class win, dropped out of contention in the second hour with a right-rear suspension failure that sent Jack Hawksworth behind the wall for repairs.

Robby Foley inherited the class lead from that point prior to the team’s final pit stop and driver change to Auberlen.

Auberlen and Foley’s class victory broke Lexus’ three-race win streak at Mid-Ohio and sees the duo take over the points lead.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow completed the GTD podium in third ahead of the No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in fourth.

Mario Farnbacher completed the top-five in the No. 76 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo.

RESULTS: Acura Sports Car Challenge

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