Taylor: Points Swing Pays “Massively” for WTR Andretti

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Ricky Taylor said Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race played “massively” into their favor in the GTP title race, which has resulted in a significant points gain for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.

Taylor and co-driver Filipe Albuquerque entered the weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park fifth in the standings and at a 111-point deficit to Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims, who still lead the championship but are now at a reduced margin of only 29 points to the WTR Andretti pairing.

BMW M Team RLL’s Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly, meanwhile, sit second in the driver standings, just ten points behind the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R duo following the sixth round of the season.

The points swing came after a seventh place result for Derani and Sims, after losing ground due to an ill-timed yellow that forced Sims to drive through a closed pit and return for service later in the race.

“We feel so lucky to be still in the fight,” said Taylor, who finished second on Sunday. “For it to all happen in one day, the 31 to have had bad luck today.

“As much luck as we had to beat that yellow we weren’t trying to beat, and for it to be a short yellow on top of that, and for them to enter under a closed pit by… nothing, that was a lot of luck in our favor and a lot of bad luck against them.

“That’s racing and it comes and it goes. That luck comes and goes. Hopefully that’s a sign that our season is headed in the right direction. We don’t expect to get these kind of days every weekend.

“So we’re going to need to execute and keep doing these sort of clean performances the rest of the year and put ourselves in a position to be lucky more often.”

Albuquerque described Sunday’s race as a “roller-coaster” in terms of strategy, which had the No. 10 Acura initially in the catbird’s seat following that same yellow sequence as the Portuguese ace pitted just minutes prior to the caution.

“We were lucky initially to go the pits and right [before] a yellow came,” he said. “I didn’t know if this was good for us [at the time]. Everyone pitted and we were virtually P1.

“Then the 60 car took massive risks [on energy], which paid out, to go to the end.

“My initial feeling was that I got from the team that they are on fumes; they don’t have enough fuel and old tires, so they may struggle.

“I just took it easy… Risking the victory, especially at this track that we’ve seen where it’s almost impossible to pass when we are so close with the pace.

“We need to be humble. We need to start somewhere with good results, bring the momentum and go from there.

“This was super important, showing massive pace in the car. So let’s continue that.”

Taylor added: “Before the race, I think the theme of the weekend was that we needed to put together a weekend like we’re used to doing… just get back to normal.

“It’s been such a wild season for us, only finishing two races so far this year is kind of unheard of.

“I think when we had the sister car in the front with us, the game was just, ‘No risk, bring home some points’ and it just so happened that the 31 had a bad day and the points have come in our favor massively.

“I think we’re happy with that. We’re happy to get back on a roll of a little positive momentum. We’re going to take a second place very happily and hopefully build on that for Road America.

“It’s definitely nice to get back to a normal weekend without drama.”

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