On a tight street course where passing was considered to be at an absolute premium, Ricky Taylor proved it was possible in scooting past Mathieu Jaminet to deliver not only the first victory for the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 of the season, but the first GTP victory for Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque. For the team that had gone without a win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since 2022, claiming the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in the first IMSA race on the downtown Detroit street circuit was an emotional occasion.
Meanwhile AO Racing’s Sebastian Priaulx and Laurin Heinrich scored their second-consecutive victory thanks in large part to every car that made it to the front of GTD PRO having an issue, starting with alternator trouble for the polesitting No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, Antonio Garcia pulling the car into the pits for a lengthy stop right after the race start.
No surprise for a tight, 1.654-mile, nine-turn street circuit, the 100-minute race was marked by a surfeit of contact and full-course cautions, five in total, including one with a full track blockage after Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R hit and spun Richard Westbrook in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 int he tight Turn 1. Many of the incidents affected frontrunners in both GTP and GTD, either as victims or perpetrators.
Starting fourth, Albuquerque made the first move toward the front at the green flag, getting a “buy one, get one free” as he described it by passing both Dane Cameron in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, who was slowed getting passed by Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, and then getting by Bourdais as well. But in the early stages of the race, he had nothing for Nick Tandy in the No. 6 PPM 963.
“We were happy about this weekend,” said Albuquerque. “We had more pace than in the past, in other races, so we knew we could do well. But to be honest, after what’s been happening to us, we need to be humble and we’ve got to start somewhere, so a podium would be good for us. But in the end of the day, we are racers, we go where it takes us and whatever the opportunity takes. The start was a good example of that.”
Albuquerque was gifted the lead a short time later, but Taylor would have to get it back with his pass. Although the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 had started on the pole courtesy of Tandy, the fact that Jaminet had the lead to lose was nothing short of remarkable and the result of a stroke of luck. Tandy had made contact with Daniel Serra in the No. 35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 under braking for Turn 3 and spun the Ferrari. Determined to have responsibility for the incident, the No. 6 received a drive-through penalty, handing the lead to Albuquerque.
Dropped through the field, Tandy stayed out long after most of the GTP field pitted, most of which started as soon as the window to make it to the end of the race on fuel opened. Having cycled to the lead, he put in quick laps at the front. Pitting with just over an hour left, PPM was blessed with a massive gift — a full course caution for the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 stopped on the Jefferson Ave. straight. That allowed Mathieu Jaminet to emerge from the stop in the lead, also helped by the fact that the Porsche needed less fuel to make it to the end.
It looked like Jaminet had what he needed to keep the point, but shortly after the penultimate restart, Taylor clearly had something for him. With Taylor sticking to the back of the Porsche, Jaminet seemed to let his guard down as the pair passed a GT car on the Jefferson Ave. straight. Taylor saw his opportunity and took it, diving to the inside and taking the line away from the Porsche on the entry to Turn 3.
“The Porsche was really strong on short runs on restarts,” explained Taylor. “So the longer it went, we could kind of claw our way back. The Acura guys and the whole team has made a really strong car in the braking and that was really where we’re able to do it. I think had it not been for that one GT car, if we’d had all those restarts after and the way the race went, that was probably my last shot to get him and I’m really relieved that that we took advantage of it because it was still quite a long ways to go. You would have thought there would have been more opportunities, but with how good they were on restarts, I don’t think I would have had another chance.”
Jaminet made no attempt to hide his disappointment with finishing second in a race that he believed the team should have won.
“I caught traffic at the wrong spot, Turn 1 and Turn 2, that gave him a shot and I underestimated how close he was,” Jaminet said “We were struggling a little bit on the brakes and it seemed to be their strength, so he used the opportunity and did a good move and kind of made it stop. Congrats to them. From my side, yeah, not happy with myself because this is definitely not one of my my best drives today. So something that will work on for the for the future that this doesn’t happen again.”