He’s Won Three Straight in the Acura ARX-05; the Fourth Would Come in the New Acura ARX-06 GTP
May 10, 2023
By David Phillips
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Although any motorsports double is special, it’s hardly unprecedented for a race driver or team to score back-to-back victories on a given track or in a given event. But three in a row? Hat tricks are hard to come by, indeed. In 61 years, for example, Peter Gregg is the only driver to win three straight Rolex 24 At Daytona races. More recently, Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Paul Miller Racing scored their third consecutive win on the streets of Long Beach in April. But four in a row? It’s virtually unheard of … or is it? This weekend’s Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N sees Ricky Taylor shooting for a grand slam at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, having finished atop the podium in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s last three visits. The first win in Taylor’s hat trick came in partnership with Helio Castroneves and Team Penske in the Acura ARX-05, while the most recent two triumphs came while sharing the wheel of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 with Filipe Albuquerque. Although that 2020 win carries an asterisk in Taylor’s mind, there’s no denying he, Albuquerque & Co. have had WeatherTech Raceway’s number the past two years. “That first one was a gift,” says Taylor, recalling how their sister Team Penske car deliberately relinquished the lead on the white-flag lap, enabling him and Castroneves to enhance their championship chances. “But it’s always been a good track for Acura. The ARX-05 had good downforce and liked to be run very low. It’s one weakness was tire degradation, but Laguna has pretty high tire degradation (for everyone), so the high downforce outweighed the tire degradation to some extent.” This year it’s a whole new world with the Acura ARX-06, part of the new hybrid-powered Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class. “So far, the new ARX-06 seems to be pretty good on tire degradation and it has high downforce, so I hope it’s a little bit more of the same this year,” Taylor adds. “But we don’t know enough about the other GTP cars (BMW, Cadillac and Porsche) to know for sure.” Although Taylor and WTRAndretti may not know as much about the competition as they might like, they’ve begun getting a good sense of what they have in the Acura ARX-06. “It’s taken all three of the first races to get a feel for what the car likes,” Taylor says. “We’ve gotten a taste of all three kinds of tracks, be it the smooth road course at Daytona, the fast corners and bumps at Sebring and then the street circuit at Long Beach. So we’ve tasted most of the big items and at Laguna we’ll see where that fits in with the other three.” Mention WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to any red-blooded race fan around the world and two words come to mind: “The” and “Corkscrew.” But while the signature section is a special challenge to race drivers, ultimately, the rollercoaster left/right is just two turns out of 11 on the 2.238-mile rollercoaster of a racetrack. “Of course, the Corkscrew is iconic,” Taylor says. “There’s nothing else like it in the world. But every turn at Laguna has its own sort of character. Getting off Turn 11 (and onto the front straight) is pretty tricky. There’s a lot going on and the best grip is actually on the exit curb, basically off the track. I really enjoy Turn 9. It’s almost like an oval track turn where you’re constantly adjusting your line depending on the changing conditions and what the car is like. If it’s understeering you might have to open up the entry a bit. If it’s loose, you might turn in early to use the front a bit more. It’s just a really cool corner – and it’s fast!” Speaking of fast, WTRAndretti hasn’t lacked for speed in the debut season of the GTP class. Albuquerque won the Motul Pole Award at Long Beach, and the No. 10 hasn’t qualified worse than third and has led every event. The only thing they haven’t done is lead the final lap. “It’s no secret we’ve had the pace to win,” Taylor says. “At Long Beach, we had so much pace and then we were trying to fight back and I made a mistake. To win at Laguna, I think we just need to use our pace and control the race from the front. Fighting from the back is always going to be difficult, so I think shifting how we value track position at these races and how much risk we take on pit stops is important along with how much energy to put in the car and whether to take tires or not. So I think it’s that and just be a bit cleaner.” While attention has, naturally, focused on the GTPs’ state-of-the-art hybrid technology, this year’s rules limiting the number of tires available in qualifying and on race day have already impacted competition. Starting this weekend, GTP teams will be limited to three sets of tires for qualifying and the race at sprint races. “It’s been a lot of fun,” Taylor says. “We don’t have enough tires to just slap a new set on on every stop, so as difficult as it can be to drive around on double- and triple-stinted tires, it’s a really cool strategy aspect that we can play those cards. It’s a matter of risk; how much are you willing to risk and when in the race are you going to play those cards.” Typically, the WTRAndretti team and its drivers are atop the standings after strong performances in the opening rounds. Not so this year. Thus, the timing couldn’t be better for Taylor in his quest for a fourth straight “W” on the Monterey Peninsula. “The team always seems to win Daytona and then sort of control that championship lead the rest of the year,” he chuckles, “and we’ve lost the championships the last three years by probably a combined 10 points. So, it hasn’t been working! “We haven’t won early this year but I don’t think we’re panicking yet. I think my urgency at Long Beach to go for the race win was a bit too much, but it was a big race given that it’s the home race for Honda, Acura and HPD and I tried to do too much. That’s a lesson for me personally to have a calm head and not to go for the win every weekend. The fact we’re still in the championship fight is a miracle, so (still a) long way to go and I think we’ve got such a strong car that I’m confident the wins will come.” Motul Course de Monterey practice takes place Friday. Qualifying streams live on Peacock and IMSA.com/TVLive at 3:50 p.m. ET Saturday. NBC network has live race coverage beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday. |
