Wayne Taylor Racing has taken its second victory of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship by winning a closely contested Acura Sports Car Challenge Presented by the TLX Type S at Mid-Ohio.
The race was led by the #55 Mazda RT24-P of Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis for the first half of the two hour and forty minute contest, whcih started from pole.
The Mazda lost the lead, however, during pitstops under yellow caused by the #16 Wright Motorsports Porssche 911 GT3 of Patrick Long spinning off the track.
The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-VR of Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani responded quickly and pitted mere moments before the yellow was called, allowing it to jump the rest of the field and move to the front of the field.
The Mazda dropped to third when it was leapfrogged by Ricky Taylor in the #10 Acura ARX-05 during that round of stops.
Taylor then seized on the lead by wrestling past Nasr after the restart. The race then came down to an extremely tense conclusion as the DPi runners had to fuel save significantly to make it to the end.
On the final lap, Nasr then put enormous pressure on Taylor for a victory challenge, but Taylor withstood the challenge to take victory by 0.368s.
It was the second victory for Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, after winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.
Nasr and Derani took second place, while Jarvis and Tincknell took a late third when both the #01 Cadillac and the #60 Acura had to make late stops for fuel.
Riley Motorsports dominate LMP3
Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga won the race in LMP3 after starting from pole in the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320.
Robinson led the race early on, but briefly had to run second after being passed by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier in the hands of Dan Goldburg.
The #74 Ligier was then able to regain the lead during the first round of stops, with Fraga then taking the car to the flag for the team’s second win of the season.
Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh took second in the #38 Ligier, with the #91 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 of Jim Cox and Dylan Murry completing the podium.
Colin Braun and Jon Bennett took fourth in the #54 CORE Autosport Ligier despite a late meeting with the wall for Braun, while the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier of Lance Willsey and Joao Barbosa completed the top five, one lap down.
Turner Motorsports snap Lexus’ Ohio win streak
Robby Foley and Bill Auberlen took the class win for Turner Motorsport in GTD, bringing Lexus’ three-year undefeated streak at Mid-Ohio to an end.
The #96 BMW M6 GT3 started the race from second place behind the polesitting #14 Lexus RC F GT3.
The hope for a fourth consecutive win in Lexington quite literally fell apart for Vasser Sullivan Racing when the car then suffered a suspension failure in the hands of Jack Hawksworth.
This allowed the blue-and-yellow BMW to inherit the lead, which it would not relinquish for the remainder of the race.
Zach Veach and Frankie Montecalvo came home in second place in the #12 Lexus RC F GT3, while the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers completed the class podium.
