Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor win from pole at Laguna Seca; IMSA results, points

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IMSA points, results Laguna Seca: Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Acura ARX-05 of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor won for the third time this season Sunday in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

With the victory from the pole at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Albuquerque and Taylor extended their points lead to 100 points over the No. 31 Action Express Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr, who finished third Sunday.

Albuquerque handed over the wheel with 90 minutes left in the two-hour, 40-minute race, and Taylor built a lead as large as 20 seconds while also avoiding a crash between two LMP2 cars on the last lap.

RESULTS: Click here for the finishing order at Laguna Seca l Results by class

The No. 10 Acura won by 14.875 seconds over the No. 01 Cadillac of Kevin Magnussen and Renger van der Zande. The No. 55 Mazda finished third.

It was the third victory at Laguna Seca for Wayne Taylor Racing and the third consecutive at the track for Acura.

“Everybody before the weekend was saying, ‘the Jaws music is playing, they’re under pressure now,’ ” said Ricky Taylor. “We felt like we were in control. We’ve had strong cars and the team’s been executing well, but things haven’t quite been going our way. But we’re the only ones that knew it. Today, I was really proud of the team. They responded to the Jaws music and the pressure by executing perfectly. The car was dominant.

“This is one of those wins that we have to remember and strive for in the future.”

Said Albuquerque: “What a dream weekend. I love this weekend. Pole position and the win. There is nothing else we can ask for.”

OTHER CLASS WINNERS:

LMP2: Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen extended their LMP2 points lead by winning in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07. It was the team’s third class victory this season and fifth at Laguna Seca.

GTLM: Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy scored their first full-points victory of the season in the No. 4 C8.R Corvette. The duo had won the Motul 100 qualifying race for the Rolex 24 and the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic exhibition in Detroit.

GTD: With its second consecutive victory and series-high third this season, the Pfaff Motorsports No. 9 Plaid Porsche 911 GT3R of Laurens Vanthoor and Zach Robichon moved to second in the standings, 27 points out of the lead. It’s the team’s fifth career triumph and first at Laguna Seca.


POINTS

With two rounds remaining in the 2021 season, the points leaders in each division are:

DPi: Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor

LMP2: Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen

GTLM: Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor

GTD: Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley

Click here for the unofficial standings after Laguna Seca


STATS PACKAGE FOR THE HYUNDAI MONTEREY SPORTS CAR CHAMPIONSHIP AT WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA:

Fastest laps by driver

Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)

Fastest laps by driver and class after race

Fastest lap sequence

Leader sequence

Lap chart

Race analysis by lap

Stint analysis

Best sector times

Race distance and speed average

Time cards

Pit stop time cards


ROUND 1Points and results from the Rolex 24 at Daytona

ROUND 2Points and results from the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

ROUND 3Points and results from Mid-Ohio

ROUND 4Points and results from Detroit

ROUND 5Points and results from the Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen

ROUND 6: Points and results from Watkins Glen WeatherTech 240

ROUND 7: Points and results from Lime Rock Park

ROUND 8: Points and results from IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America

NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will head to the streets of Long Beach for a 90-minute race on Sept. 25 (5 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold).

IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024

IndyCar video game 2024
IndyCar
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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”