Taylor Wins At Long Beach For Cadillac, ESM Second
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Wayne Taylor Racing overcame five caution periods to win the tumultuous IMSA Bubba Burger Sportscar Grand Prix from Long Beach Saturday – taking their third win in as many races in 2017 and continuing a string of good results for the Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Ricky Taylor started from pole position in the No. 10 Konica Minolta DPi-V.R and kept the car in the lead, however the team found themselves behind the No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier-Nissan of Ryan Dalziel after pitting for a driver change.
The ESM team opted to take a short pit stop in exchange for track position and Dalziel quickly found Jordan Taylor putting the pressure on. Traffic made it hard for the ESM Nissan to hold its lead and Dalziel was passed by Taylor with just five minutes remaining, handing the WTR squad yet another win after they drove to victory in Daytona and Sebring earlier this year.
“We knew we were exiting the pits in second behind the No. 2 car,” Jordan Taylor said post-race. “As soon as we restarted and got strung out, I knew the 2 car was fast and I would need to use traffic to get by him. As soon as we hit traffic, it was a Chess match to see who would go which way. He went to the inside into Turn 1 and I went to the outside and my line worked. As soon as we got in the lead, I knew it would be hard for him to get by me. We are three for three, winning Long Beach, Daytona and Sebring!”
It was a much tougher outing for the two other Cadillac DPi-V.Rs of Action Express Racing. The No. 5 Mustang Samping AXR car of Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa fell out of winning contention after Fittipaldi made contact with a GTD and spun into the barrier. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering AXR sister car of Dane Cameron and Erica Curran ran wide at Turn 8 while fighting for podium position, bringing an end to an all around bad weekend for the No. 31 crew.
“It was a weird race,” Cameron said. “We got cycled back in the GTD field on that restart when I got in the car. It was a feisty and crazy restart. The car was ok, I was fighting for position. I was in the thick of the fight looking for A podium finish or a win today. I made a mistake in Turn 8 and hit the inside wall and that sent me hard into the outside ending the day. I am disappointed to throw that one away. Difficult start to the year. Time to turn the page at Austin. Thanks to Cadillac and the Whelen Engineering team for a safe car, I am fine.”
Click here for full results from the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Challenge Bubba Burger Grand Prix from Long Beach. IMSA heads to COTA next in Austin, Texas for the Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown on May 6th, 2017.
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