Fourth for Acura, WTRAndretti at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna SecaIt 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.
“I think it was a good race for us! We went from eighth to fourth, so good progress. We were lacking a little bit of pace all weekend, but we executed very well in the race to go up the grid a little bit. We had some good fights on track—and I think we had the car to fight for P3—but it was all down to getting the traffic in the right spots. I think taking two tires was a good strategy call to make up some ground on the out lap to be able to fight. It is frustrating not to battle for the win, but we’re heading in the right direction.”
“It was a hard day for us! I don’t think the strategy was perfect how it turned out. It was just elbows out and fight, which I did. It was good fun. I think our car was fast, but unfortunately the position where I was, there wasn’t much I could do. Twice I was last and I just needed to come back. To be P6 was good in terms of minimizing the damage we were in. I just kept going and catching the next guy and passing him—and that’s all I was doing!”
