Wayne Taylor Racing led a 1-2 Acura finish in Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results of the Sahlen’s Six Hours at Watkins Glen International, where the manufacturer won for the first time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series.
The No. 10 ARX-05 of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor took over the points lead from the No. 60 Acura of Meyer Shank Racing, which started from the pole with co-drivers Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis but finished second by 0.861 seconds.
With the 48th win for Wayne Taylor Racing and the team’s fifth at Watkins Glen (though the first in the track’s six-hour race since 2011), Albuquerque and Taylor took a 17-point lead after entering the race at a 13-point deficit.
RESULTS: Click here for overall finishing order l Click here for the class breakdown
POINTS: Standings after Watkins Glen
After a red flag for more than an hour because of lightning, the race resumed for a 20-minute sprint to the finish. Albuquerque took the lead while making contact with Blomqvist.
“It was crazy,” Albuquerque said. “I had to save fuel, so therefore I could not warm up the tires and the brakes before the restart. So, I had to restart with cold tires and brakes. I knew this was the one and only shot to overtake Blomqvist. I just put my foot down and we ended up side by side and I just sent the car into the corner. It went over the curb, and it ended up working.”
The No. 10 team has won three of the past four races with other victories at Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio.
Blomqvist and Jarvis combined to lead 77 laps while staying in the top two for the entirety of the race.
“It’s definitely a tough way to finish the race especially after we were so strong all weekend,” Blomqvist said. “(The No. 10 Acura) had an advantage all week on sector speeds. They did something slightly different to us on the setup, running less wing, so they were quick in sector one.
“It just meant we were vulnerable in our starts. Every other restart I did what I could to defend, and that time (the final restart), he was just a little bit closer. They were also way less on fuel, so they weighed like 15-20 kilos lighter than us which also helped them on straight line speeds.
“Luck was on their side today, but we had a perfect race. We’ve had the quickest car all weekend long, and things didn’t fall our way.”
The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande finished third.
In other divisions:
LMP2: With drivers Scott Huffaker, Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating, the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports scored its 27th career victory and second this season.
LMP3: With drivers Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson and Kay van Berlo, the No. 74 of Riley Motorsports notched its second victory of 2022.
GTD PRO: Because of a drive-time penalty to the No. 25 BMW M4 GT3, the Heart of Racing was declared the winner with the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas. Both drivers won for the first time at Watkins Glen as the team earned its second victory this season.
GTD: Because of a drive-time penalty to the No. Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, Heart of Racing’s No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 earned its first victory this season. It also was the first win at Watkins Glen for drivers Ian James, Roman De Angelis and Maxime Martin.
STATS PACKAGE FOR IMSA SAHLEN’S SIX HOURS AT WATKINS GLEN:
Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)
Fastest laps by driver and class after race
NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will return to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the first time in three years at 3 p.m. ET on July 3 with coverage on Peacock. The Chevrolet Grand Prix will feature the DPi, LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD classes.
