Filipe Albuquerque ended Wayne Taylor Racing’s two-year victory drought in a chaotic Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America.
Albuquerque, who shares the #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R with co-driver Ricky Taylor, held off a furious final push to the finish in a wild race that featured nine cautions and ended under yellow around the 4.048-mile, 14-mile natural terrain road course. It marks the first GTP class win for the duo and Wayne Taylor Racing since Detroit in 2024.
“It’s unbelievable,” Ricky Taylor said. “It’s been a long time coming. I don’t know what to say. I’m just so proud of the team. Filipe and I have been doubting ourselves. … Nobody blamed each other and knew it was coming and believed in the team as a whole. It’s been really hard, and I’m just so happy for the guys. It’s pretty cool.”
On a restart with 10m35s remaining, Kévin Estre and championship leader Jack Aitken collided while fighting for second. Both retired, and the resulting caution brought the race to an early conclusion.
As a result of the incident, JDC-Miller MotorSports ace Laurin Heinrich (along with co-drivers Kaylen Frederick and Tijmen van der Helm) ended up second, with Louis Deletraz (and co-driver Jordan Taylor) in third to give Wayne Taylor Racing a double podium.
On the heels of a victory in the last round at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Tom Dillmann and Jeremy Clarke (Inter Europol Competition) made it back-to-back wins in LMP2. The GTD Pro class saw Pfaff Motorsports capture an emotional win in the #9 Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell. And the GTD class was taken by the Winward Racing combination of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward.
The overall GTP championship gap has tightened considerably, as Aitken leaves Road America with a 128-point lead over Heinrich.
Run to the Finish…
#9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3: Andrea Caldarelli, Sandy Mitchell, Jack Hawksworth
Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images
The halfway mark began under a cycle of pit stops during the caution period after Paul Miller Racing’s crash in Turn 12.
A short-fill for Tijmen van der Helm in the #5 Porsche 963 for JDC-Miller MotorSports elevated him to the overall race lead, ahead of the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jordan Taylor in second.
Dries Vanthoor, in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 for BMW M Team WRT, was third. The Porsche Penske Motorsport duo, who were leading entering the halfway mark pit stops, came back out with the #6 of Laurens Vanthoor ahead of the #7 of Julien Andlauer.
Jordan Taylor took the lead moments after the restart with 2h41m to go, with a close call by Dries Vanthoor, who was on the wrong end of a three-wide restart and went off in Turn 1 but managed to keep it off the wall and rejoin the fight.
A drive-through penalty for the No. 5 Porsche promoted Ricky Taylor to second, giving WTR a Cadillac 1-2.
The top two remained unchanged over the next 30 minutes, with only 1.9s separating them. In LMP2, it was the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 of Tom Dillmann out front, with Parker Thompson (Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Matheisen) in second at a distant 11s behind.
Nikita Johnson (RLL Team McLaren) narrowly led Harry King (AO Racing) in GTD Pro, with Dudu Barrichello firmly in control in GTD.
Johnson pitted from the lead with 2h8m to go, handing the GTD Pro lead to King.
Just shy of two hours to go, the #31 Whelen Cadillac pitted and did a driver change, with Jack Aitken taking over for Earl Bamber. The following lap, the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport came in for fuel and a driver change, with Felipe Nasr taking over from Julien Andlauer.
Moments later, it was a full course caution as Nasr ended up beached in the Turn 5 gravel trap after contact with Aitken. While the incident was under investigation, Nasr was able to get around and return for a new rear clip and continued on.
Following a run of pit stops while the investigation was pending, Dries Vanthoor assumed the race lead after not pitting, followed by Aitken. The new running order was Dries Vanthoor, Aitken, Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac), Louis Deletraz (#40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac), followed by Renger van der Zande (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing) to round out the top five.
In LMP2, Tristan Vautier (Tower Motorsports) assumed the class lead.
The race restarted with 1h37m to go, with Dries Vanthoor weaving away with the lead, with Aitken.
The green flag was short-lived, however, as the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) was punted by the Ford Mustang of Frederic Vervisch and ended up stranded in the Turn 3 gravel trap, which brought out another caution.
Meanwhile, the investigation for the contact between Aitken and Nasr was deemed incidental contact with no penalty given. Nasr and Deletraz were each handed a stop-and-hold penalty of 60 seconds for driving too quickly near safety workers repairing the Turn 8 run-off.
The restart came with 1h26m remaining as Aitken and Albuquerque were battling for the lead as Dries Vanthoor pitted. Aitken lost the top spot and was left in a tough battle with Estre, who ended up off course and fell down to fourth with several moves trying to get around Aitken.
Albuquerque set off to a 1s lead over Aitken, with Estre taking back third after Deletraz pitted to serve his penalty, along with Nasr, who was penalized again for jumping the restart and handed a drive-through.
It ended up being game over for Dries Vanthoor, who was being serviced extensively by the team during his stop before eventually pushing the #24 BMW behind the wall.
With 1h15m to go, Albuquerque continued to lead Aitken, with Estre in third. Vautier led in LMP2, with Andrea Caldarelli (Pfaff Motorsports) ahead in GTD Pro, and Tom Gamble (Heart of Racing) leading in GTD.
Five minutes later, Estre used GTD traffic to pass Aitken and begin closing on Albuquerque. Vautier pitted near that time, handing the LMP2 class lead to Paul Di Resta (United Autosports USA).
Caldarelli pitted with 58 minutes to go, handing the GTD Pro lead to Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 of Vasser Sullivan Racing. Hawksworth pitted a couple of minutes later, which gave the lead to AO Racing’s Nick Tandy, who came in for his stop the following lap.
Laurin Heinrich, driving the the #5 Porsche 963 of JDC-Miller MotorSports, was issued a mechanical black flag while running fourth overall after the right-side door came open. Fortunately, it was within the final pit window.
The cycle of pit stops in GTD Pro saw Caldarelli return to the class lead, ahead of Tandy. Meanwhile, Aitken dove to pit lane with just over 49m to go, with Heinrich pitting the next lap, along with Estre, who took on a fresh set of left-side tires. Heinrich took on a new front nose during his service.
Estre put on a fierce defense on Aitken as Albuquerque pitted from the lead. However, the caution came out with 45m to go after Tom Sargeant suffered a hard crash after his Wright Motorsports #120 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) crashed heavily into the Turn 7 tire barrier.
The incident allowed Albuquerque to hold the lead, followed by Tom Blomqvist (#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing), Estre, Aitken, and Renger van der Zande (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing).
Blomqvist pitted under caution, along with Deletraz.
In the closing stages…
Albuquerque led the field to the restart with 27m to go, with Estre and Aitken following closely behind. Aitken and Estre passed each other over the first handful of corners before Estre reclaimed the second position.
With 20 minutes to go, Albuquerque held a 1.4s lead over Estre, who continued to be hounded by Aitken. Dillmann led in LMP2, with Caldarelli narrowly ahead of Tandy in GTD Pro, and Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis out front in GTD.
Blomqvist crashed in Turn 13 just three minutes later to bring out a full course caution.
The cleanup allowed a restart with just over 10m to go, but the #22 LMP2 machine spun at the start while Estre and Aitken came together into Turn 1, which sent the latter hard into the barriers and the former stopped off course in Turn 3.
Through the contact, Romain De Angelis (Aston Martin THOR Team) vaulted up to second, with Heinrich up to third.
However, a penalty for earlier contact was handed to De Angelis, which relegated him to fifth, and elevated Deletraz to third.
RACE
All Stats
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