| May 2, 2019 Staff Report IMSA Wire Service LEXINGTON, Ohio – As is the case throughout the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio is steeped in sports car racing tradition. Heading into this weekend’s Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio, we caught up with WeatherTech Championship competitors for some of their favorite memories and recollections from past events here at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn circuit. Bill Auberlen, who will share the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 with Robby Foley in the GT Daytona (GTD) class, and Oliver Gavin – who co-drives the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R in the GT Le Mans (GLTM) class – are active drivers with the most IMSA wins at Mid-Ohio. Each have four victories, and plenty of memories. “Mid-Ohio has been very good to myself as well as BMW,” Auberlen said. “I have won a bunch of races here, and that comes down to great teams and a great car. BMW has given me such great handling and powerful machines at Mid-Ohio that it made the very technical road course a dream to drive. “Last year I ran with Turner BMW M6 GT3 and it was fast straight out of the box, but we just missed the mark by a bit. This year, I feel we are going back with an even better car. I can’t wait to unleash the twin-turbo v8 powered machine this weekend and redeem ourselves.” “Winning here in 2012 was huge for Tommy and I,” recalls Gavin. “Getting that win here was one of the victories that led to us getting the championship. That year, we had a fantastic car. I do remember that with very fond memories. It was a pleasure to drive that day, that car was. But then some of the other times that we’ve raced here, I remember I had a great race here with Jamie Melo with the Risi team. We finished second that day, but it was super close between us. “I also remember one year where Jan and I had raced hard in our first stint, but we’d got out of the car, and then Johnny and Olivier got in the car and had that huge drag race to the end of the pit lane with a bit of bumping and banging and then it carried on behind the safety car. That made for an entertaining and fun, sort of, hour or so. Jan and I were just sort of standing there going, ‘We’re not in the car. It’s not us.’” For drivers like Ricky Taylor and Laurens Vanthoor, their best Mid-Ohio memories are fresh in their minds, because they came last year. Taylor and co-driver Helio Castroneves won their first race with the new Acura Team Penske Daytona Prototype international (DPi) program in the No. 7 ARX-05 DPi, while Vanthoor took the GTLM win in the No. 912 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR with co-driver Earl Bamber. “Mid-Ohio was my first victory in IMSA,” Vanthoor said. “It was a good race and a hard-fought one. If I remember correctly, we were saving fuel and the BMW was charging quite fast. It was a stressful win. It wasn’t an easy victory, but it was a sweet one. “Mid-Ohio is a complicated track. It’s quite low grip and has some good elevation changes. After our win at Long Beach, Earl Bamber and I are looking forward to going back. We’ll be sharing a motorhome too, so that will make for good Instagram stories.” “Up until last year, this had been a pretty rough place for me, so last year was definitely the highlight,” Taylor said. “To get my first win with Penske and to be the 50th different driver to win for Penske was pretty cool so that’s definitely my highlight here at Mid-Ohio.” Both Taylor and Vanthoor raise good points. Mid-Ohio is a tough racetrack, which makes sustained success fleeting. That’s certainly the experience of Ryan Dalziel, who will share the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 with co-driver Parker Chase on Sunday. “2011 was a big win for me with Starworks,” Dalziel said. “It was the last race of the season and started off the 2012 offseason with a bang. Other than that, my IMSA results have been rough here.” Jordan Taylor, Ricky’s brother, has a similar tale. But he’s optimistic the best is yet to come this weekend for himself and No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R co-driver Renger van der Zande. “I guess I had one podium here, but qualifying-wise, I’ve had two poles here, one in 2010 and one in 2013,” Jordan Taylor said. “Qualifying’s gone well in the past, but hopefully this weekend we can get a race win and that’ll be my new top Mid-Ohio memory.” Jordan and Ricky’s father, Wayne Taylor, has what might be one of the most unique memories of racing at Mid-Ohio. It goes back 15 years, when he was sharing the driving duties of the No. 10 Pontiac Riley Daytona Prototype with Max Angelelli in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype class. “It was 2005, which is the year we won the championship and I went out to qualify,” said the Wayne Taylor Racing owner who fields the No. 10 Cadillac DPi. “Going down the back straight, suddenly the cockpit was engulfed in flame and black smoke and stuff, and I had to bail out. The guys came and when they brought it in, you would have said, ‘These guys are done.’ “(SunTrust Racing Team Owner) Bill Riley was on the phone, stuff was coming from Indy, other people that had Riley stuff, everybody came together. I don’t think we won [NOTE: the team finished third in the race]. That could have been a big game-changer for us in the championship. It was a scary moment. You’re winning so many races and then your car catches fire and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s burning to the ground and you’re just watching it.” Among those to step in and help the No. 10 team rebuild the car was their main competition in the Daytona Prototype championship, Chip Ganassi Racing. “They were the first to help,” Wayne Taylor recalled. “That was always the biggest thing for me. Racing against Chip and (Chip Ganassi Racing Managing Director) Mike Hull, those were the best years for me, because we get on really well together. If I’m in trouble, they helped me, if they were in trouble, I’d help them. It was really a great couple of years when that happened.” More memories will be made this Sunday in the two-hour, 40-minute Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio. NBCSN will televise the race live beginning Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET. IMSA Radio also will cover the weekend action on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM Radio Channel 202 (Streaming 972). Tickets are available now on MidOhio.com. |
