• Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor finish third in Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05
  • Albuquerque fights off challengers on late restart to secure podium
  • Till Bechtolsheimer, Marc Miller score Gradient Racing’s first GTD podium

 

DETROIT (June 12, 2021) – Acura battled its way to a pair of podium finishes in Saturday’s IMSA Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle, as Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor fought to a third-place finish in the #10 Acura ARX-05 prototype, while Till Bechtolsheimer and Marc Miller scored the first IMSA GTD podium for Gradient Racing’s #66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo.

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Pit strategy paid dividends during the mid-race driver changes, as starting driver Taylor stayed out two laps longer than his DPi competitors before making Wayne Taylor Racing’s only pit stop of the race. Those quick laps, combined with a fast swap to Albuquerque, vaulted the #10 WTR Acura from fifth to third with 45 minutes to run.

 

Albuquerque came under pressure from the Mazda prototype of Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval’s Cadillac for the final 30 minutes of the race, but held serve until the stricken BMW of Bill Auberlen brought out a full-course caution with 10 minutes to run. The yellow flag period resulted in a restart with just three laps left in the contest, but Albuquerque was again equal to the task, holding off Jarvis and Duval to claim the podium finish.

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The similar Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 of Olivier Pla and Dane Cameron chased the WTR Acura through the first half of the event, and rebounded from a quick late-race spin to be running with the leaders on the final restart, ultimately finishing sixth.

 

Acura NSX GT3 Evo

In the production-based GTD category, the Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo in the hands of Miller and Bechtolsheimer earned the Austin, Texas-based team its best finish in GTD racing, climbing through the pack to score a third-place result. Finishing driver Miller had his hands full on the final restart, as a pair of Lexus drivers posed a late challenge to cross the finish line fourth.  The Gradient duo was then elevated to a third-place result, following a post-race penalty assessed to the #39 Audi for a refueling infraction.

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Jeff Kingsley and two-time defending class champion Mario Farnbacher bounced back from first-lap contact to run their Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo in the top five before a mechanical problem – likely resulting from the early-race contact – dropped the pair to 10th.

 

Chevrolte Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle Race Results

  • 3rd overall - #10 Ricky Taylor & Filipe Albuquerque, Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
  • 6th overall - #60 Olivier Pla & Dane Cameron, Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
  • 3rd GTD - #66 Mark Miller & Till Bechtolscheimer, Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
  • 10th GTD - #76 Mario Farnbacher & Jeff Kingsley, Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo

 

DPi Manufacturers’ Championship (unofficial, after 3 of 10 rounds)

1. Cadillac       1,475

2. Acura           1,444

3. Mazda         1,349

 

Quotes

Ricky Taylor (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05) Third place in DPi: “This was a fantastic day for everyone at the No. 10 Konica Minolta team. Today was a damage control day that turned into a very good points day. Third place was like a win for us. The Cadillacs were extremely strong. Filipe did an outstanding job to hold the third spot while battling some technical issues and this was just a great day. We’ll go on to Watkins Glen, which should come back more in our favor, and continue pursuing this championship.”

Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05) Third place in DPi: ““We knew that we were not, maybe, the quickest, but we pulled out third place. We had a little issue with our car halfway through the stint, so I had to start defending my position. Great strategy and great start from Ricky in the beginning. And today we came out with the P3, but it felt like a win, because we know we are not going to win all of them, but a podium at a track that is not our best--we are really, really happy about it. Bring on Watkins Glen, which is a track that suits our car better, and let’s try and grab a win!”

Marc Miller (#66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo) finished third in GTD: “We struggled early with the Indy Car rubber being on the track, but as we got deeper into the first stint, it got better and the setup really started working for us. Mid-race and in the late laps we felt really strong, the Acura NSX GT3 Evo really fought hard. The Gradient Racing team is getting better every week. At the end, we were really strong in the back half of the course, but we had trouble in Turn 2. So I had to stay on the inside there to hold off the Lexus entries, but we did it. There are some really good drivers in this series, so it feels good for a smaller team to come out and do as well as we did today.”

Next

The fabled road course in Watkins Glen, New York is the next stop in the 2021 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.  The series will run races on consecutive weekends at Watkins Glen, with same-day, tape-delayed television coverage of the six-hour event on the NBC Sports network.