WTR Seeking Elusive First Road America Win

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Should Wayne Taylor Racing be victorious this weekend at Road America, it will achieve an IMSA milestone in becoming the only current top-class prototype team to have won overall on every active circuit on the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar.

The current DPi points-leading squad entered the season with two tracks left on its ‘bucket list’ — Mid-Ohio and Road America — and checked off the former with a fuel-mileage thriller in May that extended Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque’s points lead at the time.

WTR is currently tied with Action Express Racing in having won races on all current WeatherTech Championship circuits except for one, with AXR having been winless at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca dating back to the team’s formation in 2010.

Taylor and Albuquerque head into Sunday’s two-hour and 40-minute race with a narrow 81-point lead over Mazda’s Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis with four DPi races remaining on the calendar.

“Now that we have a narrow lead in the championship, we just have to take it race by race,” said team owner Wayne Taylor. “Everyone is just so competitive that it is difficult, so we have to keep our nose clean.

“Road America is one of our favorite tracks because it’s very much like a European track, but it’s the one race that we have never won at.

“Ricky and Filipe have both raced there which is great and everyone is upbeat about it.”

Ricky Taylor emerged victorious at Road America last year with Acura Team Penske, in his sole win on the four-mile Wisconsin circuit to date. 

While having been winless since Mid-Ohio, Taylor is riding a two-race pole-winning streak into Road America this weekend.

“So far this season we’ve had some strong runs controlling the points situation,” he said. “When we get to Road America that’s somewhere where the Acura really excels.

“Last year Wayne Taylor Racing finished second and the Acura won, so I think the combination of the two should bode well for us.

“Road America is always a tough race for managing traffic, but when you’ve got pace it makes everything a little easier.

“Hopefully we keep building on the momentum of this season. We want to win races and hopefully we can win at Road America.”

Albuquerque, who has made three previous starts at the Wisconsin circuit, agreed in saying it’s a track that suits its ORECA-based Acura ARX-05.

“We are seeing that strategy is playing a big role with a mix of luck this year too as the competition is so close,” he said.

“We’ve only have had one race where we haven’t been to the podium this season and that shows our performance and execution from the entire team.”

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