Ricky Taylor and #FilipeAlbuquerque continued Acura’s winning ways at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and stretched the #acura ARX-05 prototype winning streak here to five years in a row in today’s #IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.
Starting second, Albuquerque moved into the lead at the start, and battled both fellow #acura racers Oliver Jarvis and #tomblomqvist in their Meyer Shank #racing ARX-05, and the #01 Chip Ganassi #racing entry of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande throughout the first half of the endurance contest. A mid-race caution flag saw Taylor and van der Zande go wheel to wheel, with van der Zande eventually spinning and Blomqvist quick to capitalize as the #acura duo then ran 1-2 to the finish.
Today’s victory is the fifth in a row for #acura at Mid-Ohio, as the manufacturer is undefeated here since returning to prototype competition in 2018. It also completed a weekend sweep for Honda Performance Development, the competition arm of American Honda in North America. On Saturday, Honda drivers Colton Herta and Simon Pagenaud finished 1-2 in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After five of 10 races, #acura moved into the lead of the DPi Manufacturers’ Championship, with Wayne Taylor #racing, Taylor and Albuquerque moving to the top of the teams and drivers’ championships, respectively.
Acura NSX GT3 Evo22
In the production-based GTD class, the #51 Rick Ware #racing #acura NSX GT3 Evo22 driven by Aidan Read and Ryan Eversley, went off-sequence in their pit strategy mid-race, and led a significant portion of the second half of the two-hour, 40-minute contest. But a pit lane infraction during their final scheduled stop resulted in a drive-through penalty, and an unrepresentative 10th place finish.
IMSA Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio #acura Race Results
DPi Manufacturers’ Championship (unofficial, after 5 of 10 rounds)
Quotes
Ricky Taylor (#10 Wayne Taylor #racing ARX-05) Race winner, second consecutive win for Wayne Taylor #racing in 2022; third victory for #acura: “I can’t say enough about my teammate. At the beginning [of the race], the tire pressures just went crazy [high] and I don’t know how he drove the car. Because I got an improvement [fresh tires and adjusted pressures] and I was still struggling. But at a track where we needed to get everything right, the team executed perfectly. They just nailed it. Great teams just find a way to win. We might not have been the fastest in qualifying, but this just goes to show how strong our team is, that we find a way to win, no matter what.”
Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Wayne Taylor #racing #acura ARX-05) Race winner: “What an amazing race. I’m so happy about this group of #people [at Wayne Taylor #racing and HPD], just an amazing job by everyone. We had a great start, but then the car was super, super tricky on old tires, and I was really worried. But the car came a little bit back to us [after the first pit stop] and Ricky just pulled it off, he was amazing. A perfect job by everyone at the Konica Minolta #acura team.”
Tom Blomqvist (#60 Meyer Shank #racing #acura ARX-05) Finished second: “Close again, but not quite enough. That was a crazy race, actually. We were running good, the car looked quick. But we got caught out at our first stop. We stalled, basically. We looked like we had the lead going out of pit lane, we just got that wrong. That put us back in third. We had good pace. On the restart [following a caution period], I struggled a bit with the tire buildup, but I still managed to hold the position because the car was quick. Then I got caught in traffic and two Cadillacs managed to get by. The team did a great strategy to bring me in early [for the final scheduled pit stop]. I did some good out laps and managed to clear them again. They saved our race! Two little errors possibly cost us the win. The positive is, we have a very quick car the last few races. We just have to iron out our mistakes and the wins are going to start coming."
Daniel Bella (Supervisor, Trackside Operations, Honda Performance Development) on today’s 1-2 finish for #acura, and fifth consecutive victory, at Mid-Ohio: “This was a fantastic day, and a great weekend overall for #acura, HPD and our teams here in Mid-Ohio, especially coming from a 1-2 sweep at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (earlier this month), and a Honda 1-2 finish yesterday at Indianapolis. The DPi class produced a great race today, with a long, wheel to wheel battle with the #01 car. For the record books, this is back-to-back wins for Wayne Taylor #racing here at Mid-Ohio, and the ARX-05 is undefeated here in DPi competition. For their part, Meyer Shank #racing has the fastest race lap [Tom Blomqvist] and ran strong all day long to finish second. A great way to end the day, and a winning weekend for HPD.”
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