(Photo: Stephen Conley | The Podium Finish)
When the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio went green, most were ready to pencil in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac into the number one position. But, just before the halfway portion of the two-hour, forty-minute event, contact between the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura and the Cadillac driven by Renger van der Zande at the crest of the hill in Turn 5 sent the Cadillac spinning and out of contention.
Van der Zande declined to comment after the race, but both he and co-driver Sebastian Bourdais, who came by victory lane to congratulate Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, seemingly brushed it off as a typical racing accident and didn’t show any ill will towards the No. 10 Acura team.
Albuquerque said after the race that it was a challenge to drive early.
“Starting off on the qualifying tires and realizing there were still more than two hours drive, it was really bad on old tires and I was struggling for sure,” Albuquerque said. “I really had to explain to the engineers what Ricky needed to expect, where to back off and how to manage to tire degradation.
“The team did that brilliantly and Ricky drove it perfectly.
“The entire team has to be proud of this win, big fights today to overcome and we pulled off a big win.”
For Wayne Taylor Racing drivers Taylor and Albuquerque, they both said today was a hard drive. Taylor said they knew this was one of their tracks and that they would run well, but it was a challenge early on.
“Next week in Detroit, it will be on us to upset them (the 01 Cadillac),” said Taylor. “We know our struggles for the Acura are on the tight street circuits, so to get the points lead this week, come off back to back wins, we’re pretty confident in the way the rest of the season plays out.”
Taylor wouldn’t have it easy with the Acura of Michael Shank Racing in the final 20 minutes of the race.
“There were two main incidents that really allowed it to get that close,” Taylor said. “The first one was when the LMP2 leader spun right in front of me and I lost five or six seconds.”
That really closed up the gap, but it also put the No. 60 Acura in a little bit of traffic and allowed Taylor to stretch the lead back out.
(Photo: Stephen Conley | The Podium FInish)
Taylor said the second incident in the final couple of minutes was actually his mistake in Turn 9, (overdrove the corner).
“That one really put [Blomqvist] right on my gearbox.”
After a couple of moments of a close battle and the hometown team being able to nearly taste victory, Taylor settled back in and ran his race to the finish.
“I was really confident in the car in clean air and I could pull the gap, but you never know how the traffic is going to work out here at Mid-Ohio.”
Taylor added that on this tight race track, you can get either really lucky or very unlucky, which he has been on both sides of. Luckily for the Wayne Taylor Racing driver, luck was shining like the bright Ohio sunshine and he found open track all the way to the finish for the second straight year at Mid-Ohio and the second straight week on the IMSA schedule.
Next up is the Streets of Detroit, where Taylor says they need to steal a victory. Both Taylor and Albuqurqe agree that they’ve been extra aggressive the last couple of weeks, and if they do that the rest of the season, they are confident about holding the points lead the rest of the way.
