2024 GTP SIX HOURS OF THE GLEN POST RACE REPORT
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (WTRAndretti) Acura ARX-06 GTP teams completed six hours of intense racing for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen International. Across the six hours, the weather played its hand to create a rollercoaster of conditions throughout the third IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup event.
After starting from pole position, Louis Delétraz led the field to the green flag behind the wheel of the No. 40 DEX Imaging Acura ARX-06. The first hour of the six saw multiple cautions and Delétraz kept the red and black No. 40 within pace of the leaders despite the traffic. Nearing the end of Delétraz’s double stint, the Swiss-driver was able to gain ground on the frontrunners and was able to pit from second and hand over the control to co-driver Jordan Taylor.
Settling in, Taylor continued the momentum that Delétraz had before the weather conditions decided to come into play right near the halfway mark. With off-and-on rain throughout Watkins Glen International, the six-hour endurance race quickly became about tire strategy, deciding between wet and slick tires. For nearly an hour of changing weather, Taylor and the No. 40 team found themselves slightly down the running order before a downpour brought No. 40 DEX Imaging Acura ARX-06 to pit lane.
Shifting back to wet tires, Taylor swapped positions in the driver’s seat to Delétraz and impressive work by the WTRAndretti crew sent Delétraz out into the lead off pit lane. While under yellow for heavy rain, the field eventually came down pit lane as IMSA displayed the red flag for standing water on track. After 40 minutes and the skies cleared, the field returned on track under caution. With less than 20 minutes remaining, Delétraz saw the restart and it was head down to the finish. Delétraz tried his best to hold off the charging competitors behind him and keep the nose clean to the end. As the checkered flag flew, Delétraz brought the No. 40 DEX Imaging Acura ARX-06 home in fourth place, earning their third-consecutive top five result and moving up to fourth in the championship standings.
Ricky Taylor took the green flag at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen in seventh position ready to fight the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 up to the front. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 showed strong pace and strategy despite their running order position. However, a great strategy call during early cautions allowed the No. 10 car to jump to the front of the field, running in second before ending Taylor’s stint.
Co-driver Filipe Albuquerque took over in sixth position after pit stops and began moving quickly through the field. Finding themselves in the front, Albuquerque was cycled to the rear of the GTP field after serving a drive-through penalty for pit lane protocol during the previous pit stop. As the halfway point neared and only light rain had fallen on the track, the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 team made the call to switch back to slick tires and Albuquerque found himself back as a frontrunner. With a decent amount of green flag racing, Albuquerque challenged side-by-side with the No. 7 Porsche and took the lead. Shortly after the heaviest rain of the day came and the WTRAndretti crew reacted quickly to bring Albuquerque down pit lane for wet tires and a driver change to Taylor.
Once the red flag was displayed, Taylor and the No. 10 team were right behind their No. 40 teammates in second. As the red flag conditions were lifted, the field cycled through caution laps in the final hour of the race. Unfortunately, Taylor brought the No. 10 to a stop on track after a mechanical part failure, most likely a result from contact earlier in the race, caused a wheel to detach from the car. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 team tally a tenth-place finish at Watkins Glen.
For the pair of WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 GTP teams, it’s a return to a traditional sprint race at Road America on August 4, 2024.
Louis Delétraz: “First of all, I want to thank all of WTRAndretti and HRC because we’ve had, I think, a strong weekend overall. Obviously, the result is disappointing because we just really struggled on restarts. I lost three spots on lap one of the start and three spots again on the final restart. I could hardly do better. But we still had a good race. We had pole position, great strategy and great pit stops. So, we know where to look to find that last bit of performance, and I think everyone is very motivated to find a solution and get on top of that, because I think if we fix this issue, we would have been very hard to beat this weekend.”
