Five for five: Acura stays perfect at Mid-Ohio in 1-2 Sweep

The intensity of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was clearly evident on a warm spring Sunday afternoon at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Ricky Taylor (No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura DPi) came out best in a tense door-banging clash with the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac DPi driven by Renger van der Zande following a restart after the only full-course caution of the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio.

 

The clash in Mid-Ohio’s famous Esses just past the halfway point of the 2-hour, 40-minute contest left van der Zande spinning through Turn 6 across the path of eventual second place finisher Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer-Shank with Curb Agajanian Acura DPi, while Taylor accelerated away to a lead he would not relinquish.

 

The son of Konica Minolta Racing team owner Wayne Taylor crossed the finish line 2.098 seconds ahead of Blomqvist to claim his fourth Mid-Ohio victory in the last five years in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class of the WeatherTech Championship.

 

The Acura ARX-05 DPi prototype is an undefeated five-for-five at a track that Acura and parent company Honda consider a home course. Honda employs more than 16,000 women and men in the state of Ohio.

 

“It’s amazing to be in Acura’s backyard and Honda’s backyard and there were a lot of associates out here today,” said Taylor, who is a two-time DPi class champion (2017 and ’20). “It’s great to win and represent the brand, because you want to do them justice for how much support they give you.”

 

IMSA reviewed the contact between van der Zande and Taylor and declared no incident responsibility. Van der Zande and his teammate Sebastien Bourdais, who qualified the No. 01 Cadillac on pole and started the race, were philosophical after finishing fifth.

 

“I think Seb did a fantastic job putting it in the lead,” stated van der Zande. “When I got in, I struggled with the tires on the restart. I tried to keep the position, but lost control of the car by a little touch. It’s tough to keep a fast car behind when dealing with low grip.It’s a shame. I think we had a good shot at winning with a good car and a good strategy.”

 

Taylor offered his perspective on the key moment of the race. “I knew he was going to attack after the restart,” he said. “I made a strong move to the outside of Turn 4 and almost went off track. I think he might have lost it a bit in the middle and bumped me two wheels off. Then I did everything I could to carry speed into 5, but it went dead sideways. I tried to leave him a car width, but honestly, I couldn’t see whether he was at my door or not. So, I just raced as hard as I could down the hill and I saw him backwards before I turned in.”

 

Blomqvist and teammate Oliver Jarvis were downcast after finishing second to the No. 10 Acura for the second race in a row. “We lost that one,” lamented Jarvis.

“I’m kind of sick of that,” Blomqvist added. “They executed a better race than we did. But looking at the positives, we have a quick car and I think it’s only a matter of time before we win.”

 

Pipo Derani and Tristan Nunez finished third in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi, followed by Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber in the No. 02 Cadillac Racing Cadillac DPi.

 

Montoya Bumps His Way to First LMP2 Victory

In Juan Pablo Montoya’s mind, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Montoya had to nudge his way past Jonathan Bomarito twice during Sunday’s race, but the second time was good enough to lead the former DPi champion and two-time Indy 500 winner to his first Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) victory in WeatherTech Championship competition. Montoya and co-driver Henrik Hedman, in the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA LMP2 07, won by 13.652 seconds over Bomarito and Steven Thomas in the No. 11 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA that dominated all but the final stage of the race.

 

Montoya moved into second place, 13 seconds behind Bomarito, with an hour remaining. From there, he chopped into Bomarito’s advantage and made a first attempt to take the lead in Mid-Ohio’s famed Keyhole (Turn 2) with 25 minutes to go. The cars made significant contact, with Bomarito spinning before continuing. Montoya earned a pit-lane drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

 

Returning to the track behind Bomarito, Montoya closed again quickly and took the inside line into Turn 6 with 10 minutes on the clock. The cars made side-to-side contact again, but this time the pass was legal and Montoya pulled away to victory.

 

“I understand the penalty because I spun him,” Montoya said after collecting his seventh IMSA win. “I didn’t want to spin him; I thought I could pass him fair and square. Then we got the drive-through and I came out like four seconds behind and caught him. He made a mistake in traffic, he hesitated and I went for it.

“I’ve raced here, I’ve won here many times and I know traffic is the key. And he didn’t use it well.”

 

Bomarito said the first contact with Montoya damaged the No. 11 so that he couldn’t keep pace when the No. 81 was in his shadows once again. “The problem is he bent the car for us,” Bomarito said. “We had right-rear damage and the penalty just wasn’t enough. The drive-through only puts him back a few seconds and then he got back by us again to win. Disappointed, for sure. Steven did a great job. He checked out to like a 50-second lead. The team executed perfect so from that I’m super happy for everybody. We can hold our head up high.”

 

Hedman was especially pleased with his third career win because he did all the driving to set up and qualify the car on Friday and Saturday while Montoya was racing in Saturday’s IndyCar Series event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

 

“It was really fun to work with the team and try to set up the car,” Hedman said. “I was actually more nervous of hearing Juan Pablo’s opinion after warmup (Sunday morning) than to qualify. I thought if he doesn’t like the car, boy! But he liked it. We were lucky with the safety car, we got on the lead lap and then he did his stuff. That’s what he’s paid for.”

 

With the win, Hedman and Montoya took an unofficial nine-point lead over No. 18 Era Motorsport drivers Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel in LMP2.

 

Braun Squeezes Last Drops of Fuel from CORE Ligier to Win in LMP3

Colin Braun knew the drill; he’s done it before. Faced with a comfortable lead but an uncomfortable fuel level in his No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320, he knew he had to keep pushing while meeting a fuel mileage number to hang on for the win in Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3).

 

Braun did just enough – he said the No. 54 sputtered on the cooldown lap after the

finish – to take the class victory with longtime co-driver Jon Bennett. It’s career win No. 21 in IMSA for Braun and No. 19 for Bennett, but the first for either driver at Mid-Ohio.

 

Braun made his final stop during the only full-course caution with 80 minutes remaining. Other LMP3 contenders opted for a later splash of fuel. The CORE crew nervously gutted it out without pitting again.

 

“They gave me a target fuel number to try to hit,” Braun said. “I was trying to get through a couple guys ahead of me on the restart, so we got clear of those guys and then went into fuel-save mode and just tried to command the race. Total team effort from the guys at CORE.”

 

The official margin of victory was one lap because Braun was just ahead of the overall winning No. 10 Acura when the checkered flag waved, so he was able to complete an additional lap while his closest competitors could not. The No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier, driven by Ari Balogh and Garett Grist, finished second, with the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier shared by Jarett Andretti and Gabby Chaves taking third.

 

“Winning never gets old but I really appreciate the wins that are a true team effort,” Bennett said. “We had spectacular pit stops, amazing strategy, fuel saving and really knew how to work our way through the race. Then, of course, Colin was magic in the race car once again. I’m really proud of the win.”

 

Grist and Balogh unofficially lead Braun and Bennett by just seven points in the LMP3 standings.

 

No. 96 BMW Awarded GTD Win, Auberlen and Foley Go Back-to-Back at Mid-Ohio

Bill Auberlen thought it was too good to be true for the car that crossed the finish line first Sunday to win the GT Daytona (GTD) portion of the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio. It turns out that it was.

 

The No. 70 inception racing McLaren 720S GT3 had its maiden IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory nullified when the car was found underweight in post-race technical inspection. The No. 70 was moved to the rear of the class finishing order, which advanced Auberlen, Robby Foley and the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 to the victory.

 

The win pushes Auberlen’s all-time record victory total in IMSA’s top-level series to 65, six of those coming at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Foley picked up career win No. 7 as he and Auberlen repeated their Mid-Ohio GTD triumph from 2021.

Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW moved up to second place in the results, with the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 shared by Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz taking third to round out the podium.

 

Auberlen said this isn’t the first win he’s been handed after the trophies were handed out. “I think so,” he said, “and I’ve lost a win like this too. I’ve had them come and take the trophies away and I’ve had them give the trophies to me. I’ve already had a call from Bryan Sellers. He’s like, ‘Where’s my second-place trophy?’ I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, I need the first-place trophy!’”

 

The situation unfolded when Jordan Pepper coaxed 56 laps (six under the only full-course caution of the race) out of the No. 70 McLaren in its final stint on the 2.258-mile 13-turn road course to take the checkered flag first, passing Sellers, Auberlen and five others along the way to move from eighth place to first in the final hour. The No. 96 BMW crossed the line second and the No. 1 BMW third.

 

A pact made between the two BMW teams kept them close behind the McLaren.

“Bryan Sellers and I made an agreement on the radio – our teams were talking – that we were going to work together to save as much fuel as we could and leave it to about a lap and a half at the end,” Auberlen explained. “That’s how much fuel we would have that we could race at least one lap to try to defend. The McLaren caught us too early, so we had to just let him by, and we thought for sure he wasn’t going to make it, no way. Turns out he’s underweight, and we did the best we could. We barely finished with fuel.”

 

It was early race strategy that put the No. 96 in position to gain the first WeatherTech Championship win for the new BMW M4 GT3. Foley started from fourth position but was called in for an early pit stop to put on new tires and have clear track while the leaders were turning slower laps in traffic on older tires.

“It’s awesome,” Foley said. “Two (wins) in a row at Mid-Ohio is good. … Our general strategy worked out quite well. We stopped first, got on new tires early and then kind of banged out some good laps in clear air, which put us in a good position for the end of the race.”

 

On a day when Jan Heylen and Ryan Hardwick brought the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R home a distant ninth in the revised results, the GTD standings have a new leader in Stevan McAleer and the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes, which finished sixth Sunday with co-driver Mike Skeen.

 

McAleer holds a 12-point advantage over Heylen and Hardwick heading into the next round of the season, the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park on Saturday, June 4. Foley and Auberlen are 76 points behind McAleer.

Sellers, Snow and the No. 1 BMW retained the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup lead, 34 points ahead of Auberlen, Foley and the No. 96 BMW.

 

“Great to get the first win in this new car for Turner,” Foley said. “Everybody did a great job. Don Salama on our pit box was calculating fuel numbers down to the tenth of a liter, so it was getting pretty insane. Great day.”

 

The next race for the DPi class is the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit on June 4.