Fourth for Acura, WTRAndretti at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
It was a sunny day in central California where the #40 Acura ARX-06 from Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global marched forward from eighth on the grid to fourth at the line in today’s Motul Course de Monterey IMSA run at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Starting eighth in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP field, Deletraz expertly negotiated traffic while managing his fuel and tires to crack into the top five prior to handing the #40 machine over to teammate Jordan Taylor. Taylor would continue Deletraz’s charge, working through the GTD traffic and tussling with the rival #01 car to take fourth at the line.
The sister #10 Acura ARX-06 was in recovery mode after an early penalty put Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque a lap down to the rest of the field, the penalty also necessitated an off-sequence early pit stop, leaving Albuquerque needing to save fuel in order to make the finish with just one more stop. Albuquerque would stretch the middle stint of the race to one hour, 12 minutes and continue making progress through the field once he got back on the lead lap to come home sixth.
In the production based GTD category, the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 team took a strategy gamble after an early-race yellow put them a lap down. However, the late-race yellow the team needed for their strategy to succeed never materialized and that, coupled with a late-race penalty for contact, would see Sheena Monk and Stevan McAleer finish 12th.