Ricky Taylor suggested to media that drivers returning from last week’s rain-soaked 24 Hours of Le Mans are prepared for the Six Hours of the Glen with its likelihood of rain across the whole weekend.
When asked about the threat of wet weather in a pre-event media call, the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti driver said:
“So Louis [Deletraz] – funnily enough – is the only one [out of the four WTRAndretti drivers entering the Glen] that’s driven the car in the wet, which he qualified on the pole at Petit last year in the damp and it didn’t look bad.
“I think all the guys coming back from Le Mans are fresh and ready to go with plenty of rain experience in the GTP cars.
“So yeah, we’ll be there but it’s a little bit of an unknown.
“So it looks like rain – at least on our forecast – almost every single session this weekend.
“I think all of us want to drive as much as we can, just to get a feel for it. But yeah, it’s been a great year for Acura with the two wins on two circuits, which have some similarities and some differences. I think we’ve been strong almost everywhere.”
There will be 13 drivers competing in IMSA’s GTP category who completed last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans which was largely characterised by wet track conditions.
Furthermore, 10 of the 13 fundamentally drove the same LMDh machinery which they will pilot this weekend, such as Phil Hanson who drove a JOTA Porsche 963 in France and will drive a JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 at Watkins Glen.
He noted how data analysis showed they were the slowest GTP car in Detroit, despite winning with co-driver Felipe Albuquerque in the #10 Acura ARX-06.
Detroit’s 90-minute race was eventful after giving way to five caution periods, although Taylor made a cunning, race-winning move which ended a 22-month winless streak.
An Acura has won two races this year: Firstly at the 12 Hours of Sebring with the #40, and more recently at Detroit with the #10.
Despite this, Taylor was keen to state that they are pushing for improvements as himself and Albueruque reside sixth in the standings on 1430 points, in comparison to the leaders Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr on 1669.
“Watkins is historically a good track for us,” he continued with the race this Sunday 30 June.
“We had some reliability issues last year, but the car was really quick.
“The one thing about the Acura is that it’s really efficient when you can run it really low and Watkins Glen is such a smooth track, and so that really caters to what we like.
“And also, it’s one of the higher energy tracks that we go to. So we’ll be running the hard tyre [if it is dry].
“It’ll be hard to warm up as usual… it’s supposed to be in the 90s [+32 degrees Celsius] if it’s dry.”
