Two podiums for Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing

Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing scored two podiums at the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America with #10 win and #40 third. It was 36th victory for Cadillac and 54th IMSA class win for Wayne Taylor Racing.

📷 © Cadillac Racing. Albuquerque-Taylor win Road America

Wayne Taylor, owner of Wayne Taylor Racing: “As you know, we’ve been having such a hard time. It’s very much in my stomach. As long as you keep working harder, digging deeper and pushing everybody, it does happen. Today was just tremendous. Thank you to Mark Reuss (President of General Motors). Thank you to Rory Harvey (General Motors Executive Vice President and President, Global Markets), Eric Warren (Vice President, Global Motorsports Competition for General Motors), and everybody at GM. We could never have done this without them.

Albuquerque-Taylor win

Cadillac Racing scored their third straight victory as Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, drivers of the #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R won the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix from Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

It was the 14th IMSA class win for Albuquerque, and his last win was at 2024 Detroit Street in GTP. There were 20 starts between wins, breaking his longest career winless streak. It was his second win at Road America.

For Ricky Taylor, it was his 33rd IMSA class victory and like Albuquerque, his last win was at 2024 Detroit Street in GTP and the 20 starts between broke his longest career winless streak. This was his third win at Road America.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R

Filipe Albuquerque: “I don't know any more this feeling, it's been a while. But winning is so special. Yeah, I love Road America. Have great memories. Yeah, today was just a special day. The beginning of the race was just kind of follow along. But then when Ricky (Taylor) went on, strategy came a little bit to us. Great pit stops from the boys. Ricky putting up there on the top three, following the sister car (No. 31) in P2. You start to get a little bit nervous. Then for the end I got in, was funny because it's just like it's been such a struggle for us with pace that sometimes we doubt ourselves, what is it, what is it there, is it here? Just went down there and said just go in there and just be you, do your thing. I think everything came perfectly. We passed the 31, went to the lead. We maintained it there. Ten laps to go, okay, cruising, because it was a nice lead. Those restarts were tricky because I knew that the Porsche is very, very strong. I needed to be very focused on that. I managed to get ahead of him, caught him off guard on both restarts. It's more than a win. We've been winning more races, but this feels way more special than others, almost like a championship, because of how much we overcame and being together as a team and working hard. When you come from the bottom to the top, proving yourself to everybody that you can still do is a great, great feeling, especially just before holidays.”

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R

Ricky Taylor: “I think Filipe said most of it. Yeah, I think for all of us, it's a big relief. But nobody on the team, obviously like since changing manufacturers, we haven't performed at the level I think the expectations were. The results weren't coming and the confidence was dropping. Everybody starts doubting themselves. But I think the important thing is that the team never blamed each other. We just kept working harder and harder and harder, and the results weren't coming. So now to have a result, I feel like the way the race went, it wasn't a lucky one, the team did everything right. We were sort of in the race for the second half of the race, fighting for the win. I just think it's awesome that Filipe was in the car at the end. The relationship we've had since 2021, we work so well together on and off track. Yeah, I think to share it with him, obviously the team is tight knit, it's more than a family team. Everybody on the team feels like family at this point. I think for everybody, it's a huge relief and nice testament to the work that everybody's doing.”

Heinrich new podium this season

The two factory Porsche 963 finished the 6-hour race at Road America fell back in the second half of the race due to penalties and accidents but the JDC-Miller MotorSports customer team had better luck as the #5 hybrid prototype with factory driver Laurin Heinrich, Kaylen Frederick, and Tijmen van der Helm celebrated its second consecutive podium with a second-place finish.

#5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963

Heinrich, a former Porsche Junior, remains the highest-placed driver in the overall standings from the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer in P2. Porsche also ranks second in the manufacturers’ standings. In the manufacturers’ standings of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup – which includes the endurance races at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America, and Road Atlanta – Porsche holds first place.

#5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963

Laurin Heinrich (Porsche 963 #5): “We didn’t expect a result like this. It was clear to us even before the start that we’d have almost no chance on our own. So we were relying on others to make mistakes. That’s exactly what happened. The pace got tougher and tougher with every restart. Fortunately, we were able to stay out of all the trouble and thus score a lot of points for the championship by finishing second.” Source: Porsche

Deletraz-Taylor third

Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor, drivers of the #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, finished third after a wild six-hour event.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R

Louis Deletraz: “First of all, amazing job by the whole team this weekend. P1 and P3, so we can be very happy and proud. Thanks a lot to Cadillac, thanks to Wayne Taylor Racing.  Obviously a little bit disappointing. We've had such a good and strong race. I apologize for my mistake on the yellow, that truck was in a really bad position. I was the first one to come there. And yeah, I just took evasive maneuver to avoid hitting a safety car that was in the middle of the road and I guess that's the penalty. But we came back, we fought, we didn't give up and thanks a lot to everyone and to Jordan for the awesome job.”

#40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R

Jordan Taylor: “Another disappointing day. Another way our years have been going the past three years. We had a winning car, we let a lot of laps, which was nice, but yeah, just too bad, pressing the 40 side not to get another result, but great for the 10 car to get a win. I think our team's been, you know, on the wrong side of some unlucky yellow flags and things like that through this year. So, it's nice to finally get a result from the team. But yeah, for us on the 40 it’s disappointing.” Source: Cadillac Racing

Yelloly-van der Zande fourth with #93 Acura

The Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian #93 team maintained their second-place standings in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a fourth-place finish in an incident-filled six-hour race at Road America.

The #93 started on pole in the hands of Nick Yelloly for the second straight year, leading the opening 15 laps of the race before pitting during the first of nine cautions. Unfortunately, the #93 ARX-06 would be called for a speeding penalty during the first stop—one of more than 40 penalties doled out by the series over the course of the six-hour event—dropping them to the rear of the GTP field.

Nick Yelloly leads the GTP pack with #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 at turn 3

Yelloly and co-driver Renger van der Zande's issues were further compounded by a torque shaft sensor failure which reduced their power output and straight-line speed for the remainder of the race. Despite the setbacks, Yelloly and van der Zande would cross the line fifth on track. The duo was further promoted to fourth following a penalty assessed to the #23 for an earlier incident with the #93.

The #93 Acura MSR team remains second in the IMSA championship fight with two races left to run.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 last pit stop

Nick Yelloly (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished fourth: "We salvaged a semi-good result after dealing with a few things throughout the race. We had some torque shaft sensor issues which caused us to lose straight-line speed. We picked up the pieces and we were able to finish fourth in what was quite a chaotic race. I think we were able to maximize the package that we had in the end. Great job from the team as always and we'll keep trucking along to Indy."

Renger van der Zande (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished fourth: "It was a crazy day. We lost the torque sensors, so we had to turn down power, and from there on we were sitting ducks. We had a good car and it drove well and the team did a really nice job. We learned something at the test and it was really useful during the race. Today if we made it onto the podium, it would have been like a victory because we didn't have much fighting power. All things considered I think we should be happy with where we ended up." Source: Acura

Related Info

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. Both Porsche 963 in the lead at mid-race

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. Yelloly, Goldburg, King, Wadoux pole drivers at RA

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. Jordan Taylor fastest in wet Road America during P2

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road America. Both Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s Acuras 1-2 in P1