Acura Runs Fourth at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna SecaIt was a fourth-place finish for Acura at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque finishing just off the podium in their #10 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 GTP machine.
It was a fourth-place finish for Acura at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque finishing just off the podium in their #10 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 GTP machine.
It was a fraught race in the premier GTP division, with incidents, traffic and yellow flags impacting the entirety of the two-hour, 40-minute Motul Course de Monterey event, fourth round in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The #10 Acura ran as high as third during the event, following a fantastic pit stop by the team, but would cross the line in just fourth place.
After starting third, Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura ARX-06 would find its way to the front of the field on lap one in the hands of starting driver Colin Braun, and would lead a total of 21 laps during the race. But Braun and co-driver Tom Blomqvist struggled with tire wear through the middle stint of the race and would cross the line in sixth place.
The 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next travels cross country to the scenic Finger Lakes region of upstate New York for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, June 23-25.
What a crazy race! Up and down a lot. When I got in the car we were like P8, almost last. We recovered well, at one point we were P3 and I was really, really comfortable with the car that we had. I was catching everybody and I was like ‘oh we’re going!’ So, I was super motivated because when you’re going forward it’s cool. But then in the last stint I think maybe behind the Porsche and the BMW my tire pressures went sky-high and I was just a passenger at that point. I couldn’t really do anything about it, I was sliding all over the surface. We learned a lot again about the car and the setup. It’s still a positive to finish P4, Ricky did an amazing start and a good job in qualifying. So, we keep going forward.
It was a great start! I timed it well, got into second and hoped everyone else would lock up their tires, which they did and it worked out. I was really happy with that. There’s so many complex strategies going on that it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on from the driver’s seat. Our game plan was to have the strongest tires we could at the end, so I think we took a hit in the middle. It didn’t pan out for us with how the yellows fell. We had good speed and the guys did great on pit lane. It just didn’t play out how we needed it to, and we got what we got.
