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Wayne Taylor Racing's reign of Daytona Prototype international terror continued at Circuit of The Americas as the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R earned its fourth consecutive victory to remain unbeaten in 2017. With a lead of more than one minute in hand over the field with 30 minutes left to run, Ricky and Jordan Taylor toyed with the opposition – including the identical Action Express Racing Cadillacs – which had no answer for the siblings.
Never hurried or pressed to hand over the lead, Jordan Taylor crossed the finish line with 18.8s over Dane Cameron in the No. 31 AXR Cadillac and 19.8s over Joao Barbosa in the sister No. 5 AXR Cadillac.
It looked like the insurgent Ryan Dalziel in the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi, which recovered from a first-lap spin, would claim third, but a dramatic, fiery exit with less than 10 minutes to go in the 2h40m race ruined his day and promoted Barbosa to give Cadillac a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium.
"Wow, these guys are phenomenal," said Ricky Taylor, whose team has won a combined 40 hours and 20 minutes of Prototype competition starting with the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January. "That was the best car I've ever had. The guys did a fantastic job. To control the race from the front to the back is amazing. I'm enjoying it while it lasts."
With their COTA victory, the Taylor brothers authored the first four-race win streak in WeatherTech Championship history, and with 11 wins since IMSA was relaunched in 2014, the Floridians have become the winningest drivers in series history.
If the WTR win looked like a foregone conclusion from the moment the green flag waved, the GT Le Mans class kept everyone guessing until smart (or lucky) pit stop timing for the No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R spoiled what had been an all-German party through the first 55 minutes.
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Trailing behind the leading BMWs and sole remaining Porsche after a silly Lap 1 incident wiped out half the GTLM field, the No. 3 was stopped somewhat early and benefitted as a stalled GTD car triggered a caution while the Nos. 24 and 25 BMW M6s and the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR had yet to pit.
As the trio trundled down pit lane under yellow for service, Antonio Garcia rolled by in his Corvette, assumed the lead, and held a comfortable margin until Dalziel's late caution. Even with the Nissan-related restart, the Spaniard was able to keep the lead and finish 2.4s clear of Alexander Sims in the No. 25 BMW and 13.9s ahead of John Edwards in the No. 24 M6. It marked the third straight
"A brilliant result, really," Garcia's teammate Jan Magnussen said after scoring Corvette Racing's 105th win – and third straight. "It was a case of staying out of trouble."
"On pure pace we didn't have the best car," Garcia conceded. "But it is not the first time we have won here not being being the fastest. It was a perfect call to pit just before the second yellow. That gave us track position. It feels like we put a lot of pressure on our competitors and they started to make mistakes. I'm very happy with that if that is what it takes."
Along with WTR and Corvette, more streaks were maintained in GTD and PC. Riley Motorsports and its Mercedes-AMG GT3 armada took its third consecutive win as Jeroen Bleekemolen and Texan Ben Keating in the No. 33 entry added to their Sebring victory and the recent Long Beach win taken by their teammates in the No. 50 Mercedes-AMG.
It's kind of hard to believe," said Keating, who celebrated his fourth COTA home track win in five years. "I love this place. We've been trying to work on a car that was consistent, that held those Continental tires under it for the full hour of the stint."
In what proved to be the only class that wasn't settled before the halfway mark, Holland's Bleekemolen held off Scuderia Corsa's Alessandro Balzan in the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 by 2.0s and the rapid No. 75 SunEnergy Racing1 Mercedes-AMG driven by Tristan Vautier, who crossed the finish line 3.4s back from the No. 33.
The three-car PC class was a one-car affair as the pole-winning No. 38 left the other entries behind as birthday boy Pato O'Ward and teammate James French sealed Performance Tech Motorsports' third straight win of the season. The No. 26 BAR1 PC was a full lap behind at the finish.
"It feels great," French said. "We were able to keep our nose clean the entire time. Hopefully we can keep the streak going."
IMSA's year of the hot streak will cool for the rest of the month and return the first week of June in Detroit.
NEXT PAGE: Full race recap, videos and results.
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Beautiful blue skies met IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams Saturday at Circuit of The Americas as the green flag waved over the field, but it didn't take long for misfortune to visit three of the leading GTLM contenders. Dirk Muller in the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing GT turned into Giancarlo Fisichella in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 atop Turn 1, with the Ferrari then spinning in front of Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R.
The hard hit from the Corvette ended the Ferrari's day on the spot. The Corvette drove into its garage for repairs and then retired, the No. 66 trailed slowly back to the pits, the sister No. 67 Ford also incurred damage in the melee and the Porsche GT Team No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR took damage in Turn 1. From one forceful move by the Ford, more than half of the GTLM grid was knocked out just seconds into the race.
"Somebody touched me in Turn 1, I lost control of the car and the guy behind me came into my car," said Fisichella, who watched teammate Toni Vilander crash out on the first lap at Long Beach. "Another race finished after one lap, one corner."
For good measure, Scott Sharp in the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi was hit and spun entering the Esses on Lap 1 by Marc Goossens in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Riley/Multimatic Mk. 30-Gibson and fell behind two PC cars. Elsewhere in the Prototype class, the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Ligier JS P217-Gibson failed to take the start after suffering electrical problems on the pace lap.
With the carnage removed, IMSA went back to green and polesitter Ricky Taylor pulled a quick 2.5s advantage over Johannes van Overbeek in No. 22 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi by Lap 4. By Lap 6, it was out to 4.3s; Lap 7 saw the lead extend to 5.0s, and by the end of Lap 8, 6.4s separated the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R and the ESM Nissan. It reached 8.1s after Lap 9.
With Taylor having checked out up front, James French controlled PC in his No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry by 8.0s over Stefan Wilson in the No. 26 BAR1 PC, BMW had a 1-2 in GTLM with the No. 911 Porsche in tow, and GTD polesitter Mathieu Jaminet held the point in his Alegra Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R with 6.7 seconds over Madison Snow in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 after 11 laps.
The No. 55 Mazda RT24-P DPi pitted to have an electrical misfire in the engine bay diagnosed which took another Prototype out of contention, and despite holding a clear advantage over the rest of the class, Taylor continued to press and put van Overbeek's Nissan 13.9s behind after 13 laps. Diving for the pits on Lap 14 after suffering nose damage from contact with the No. 75 GTD Mercedes-AMG, the Nissan surrendered second as Taylor led the Action Express Racing Cadillacs.
Patrick Pilet split the BMWs on Lap 16 after motoring past Alexander Sims in the No. 25 M6; GTLM leader John Edwards was a further 3.9s up the road for the Frenchman to pursue. On Lap 18, Jaminet stretched his GTD lead to 9.5s on while French put 18.4s between himself and Wilson in PC. Taylor, on a planet of his own, held a 22.3s margin over Eric Curran.
Mazda's troubles were doubled when the sister No. 70 pitted with turbo problems. Both cars were dropped from contention by the 45-minute mark.
At the end of Lap 23, Taylor pitted with a 27.4s lead and stayed in the car as Curran stopped behind him and handed over to Cameron. The somewhat slow stop by the No. 31 allowed the sister No. 5 AXR Cadillac with Barbosa and Goossens in the No. 90 VFR Riley/Multimatic to knock Cameron down to fifth. Cameron overtook Goossens just before the No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini stopped on track and triggered a full course yellow with 25 laps down and approximately 1h45m remaining.
Taylor held 32s over Barbosa at the time of the caution to lead Prototype; Pilet's Porsche moved ahead of Edwards' BMW in GTLM prior to the yellow; French held 54s over Nick Boulle in PC; and with the No. 93 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 driven by Katherine Legge having failed to pit before the yellow, it held the lead over the Alegra Porsche until it stopped for service.
Once the top three GTLM cars pitted and completed driver changes, Martin Tomczyk in the No. 24 regained the lead by about one foot leaving the pit stall over the Dirk Werner in the No. 911 Porsche; Bill Auberlen in the No. 25 BMW pulled away from the pits with the fuel hose attached and lost time having it sorted by the team. He would be asked to serve a penalty for the infraction. The No. 3 Corvette C7.R, which had pitted before the yellow, inherited the lead with Garcia at the controls.
The return to green with 1h30m left saw Taylor motor away and put 7.5s over Barbosa, who was under constant fire by teammate Cameron, on Lap 35. IMSA announced harsh penalties for the second- and third-place GTLM entries as the No. 24 BMW and No. 911 Porsche were hit with stops+plus 60 seconds for running the red light at the end of pit lane; Andy Lally in the No. 93 Acura was also invited to join the GTLM cars for committing the same offense. All three drivers served their penalties with 1h15m left in the race.
By Lap 40, Bleekemolen demoted the No. 48 PMR Lamborghini and the leading Alegra Porsche and the Dutchman slowly sprinted away, putting 3.4s between himself and Alegra's Daniel Morad by Lap 43.
Ricky Taylor's lead over Barbosa sat at 9.2s as the clock wound down to the one-hour mark, and continued to expand as the stint continued toward the final stop and handover to Jordan Taylor. Pitting on Lap 49, the Taylor brothers traded places as the No. 5 AXR Cadillac coasted slowly – out of fuel – to its pit stall and fell from second to fifth with the delay. It left Cameron in the No. 31 AXR Cadillac to mount the charge with 48m left.
Garcia had no worries in GTLM as his No. 3 Corvette held 26.4s over the rest of the class, but Bleekemolen was no longer having an easy time in GTD as his Mercedes-AMG dealt with the speedy No. 48 PMR Lamborghini which was less than one second behind with 42 minutes remaining.
A combination of traffic and pace gave Jordan Taylor a 10.4s cushion over Cameron after 53 laps and moments later, the No. 31 AXR driver pitted for a splash of fuel to get his final stop done early. Cameron emerged 53.0s behind Taylor.
Taylor hit pit lane with 29m20s left for his own final stop while holding a 1m1.3s lead over Cameron and Ryan Dalziel. Thanks to the giant lead, Taylor came out with a 27.0s advantage to manage to the end.
With the four class winners set in motion to the checkered flag, the only drama in the waning moments came when a small fire broke out under the right rear bodywork with Dalziel's third-place Nissan. Left out by his team, the back of the car erupted in flames at the nine-minute mark which triggered another full-course caution. Dalziel leapt from the car without injury once it came to a halt.
IMSA rushed the car off the circuit and went back to green with five minutes to run. Taylor shot to a 7.0s lead on the first lap, 12.6s on the second held on for the win as all four class leaders going into the caution kept their positions.