Wayne Taylor Cadillac win 6 Hours of Road America under FCY after huge incident between Estre and Aitken
- DIVEBOMB Sportscars Team
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
Felipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor have won the 6 Hours of Road America for Wayne Taylor Racing and the No.10 Cadillac crew. The race was headlined by a huge crash with 10 minutes to go on the final restart between Kevin Estre in the No.6 Porsche and Jack Aitken in the No.31 Cadillac.
The two collided as they headed for turn 1 at high speed, and went careening off into the barriers at a very scary speed. Both drivers were thankfully okay, but that incident meant the race was completed under the FCY.
Second on the road was the No.23 Aston Martin Valkyrie but they were given a drive-through for an incident that took the No.93 Acura out of the race late on, with the No.5 JDC Miller Porsche picking up the pieces to finish second. Third was the second Wayne Taylor car, the No.40.
LMP2 was won by Tom Dillmann, Bijoy Garg and Jeremy Clarke in the No.43 InterEuropol car, in a hectic race where at one stage five LMP2 cars found themselves spun off at the final corner.
GTD Pro was won by the No.9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario of Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell, the Temerario's second win ever after the first by Mirko Bortolotti in DTM.
GTD was won by Phillip Ellis, Inde Dontje and Russell Ward in the No.57 Winward Mercedes. Ellis won the race with a thrilling overtake around the outside of Kenton Koch in the No.023 Ferrari at turn 1 in the final half an hour.
As it happened
Before we even got going John Farano in the No.8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 was due to start from towards the rear of the class, but he had an off to the inside of the final corner as we were just about to go to green. He re-joined and took his position on the grid back.
It was clean away at green from Nick Yelloly and Tom Blomqvist in the No.93 and No.60 Acuras, with Louis Deletraz in the No.40 Cadillac jumping from fourth to third, ahead of Sheldon van der Linde in the Spider-Man liveried No.24 BMW.
It was a slow getaway from Daniel Goldburg in LMP2, dropping to fourth in his pole-sitting No.22 United Autosports car. Misha Goikhberg in the No.52 Bryan Herta Autosport car took the lead, ahead of PJ Hyett in the No.99 AO and Jeremy Clarke in the No.43 Inter Europol cars.
Both GTD classes had clean starts too. Harry King held on to pole in GTD Pro in the No.77 Porsche, ahead of Neil Verhagen in the No.1 Paul Miller BMW. GTD pole was held by Lilou Wadoux in the No.21 AF Corse Ferrari, with Zachaire Robichon in the No.27 Aston Martin giving chase.
Further back in the GTD Pro class, Andrea Caldarelli in the No.9 Pfaff Lamborghini was forced wide by Daniel Serra in the No.62 Risi Competitzione Ferrari, the Temerario driver forcing his way back on and colliding door-to-door with the Ferrari. Both cars kept going though, with Calderelli taking the place.
At the back of GTD, Sheena Monk's No.16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang had a drive-through penalty because the team worked on the car after the 10-minute board on the grid, which is not permitted in the regulations.
She served the penalty on lap 2, and because of which was a large distance off the back of the field. That meant that the prototype fields caught her very early. As Tobi Lutke in the No.11 TDS Racing LMP2 was going past, the two collided and Monk went off with suspension damage at the high speed kink.
She hit the wall on the outside, where the car came to a rest. That brought out the races' first Full-Course Yellow (FCY) and brought an end to the Gradient team's race. The FCY was brought out within the first 15 minutes of the race, so it was classed as a 'short yellow' meaning the pit lane would remain closed.
On the restart, Goldburg's day went from bad to worse. He lost the car in the same way Farano did on the main start, but he lost it on the grass on the inside and spun back across the track. He narrowly missed a big collision with Lutke who was passing by, and was able to get back going, albeit behind all of the GTDs.
Otherwise everyone else in the field was clean away, with the order remaining relatively single file.
With 35 minutes elapsed off the clock, Jon Field in the No.37 Intersport Racing LMP2 went straight on at the Carousel and into the wall at very high speed. The Oreca 07 was completely destroyed, but thankfully Field was able to get out of the car by himself without any assistance.
As expected, the races second FCY was called. This time the pits did open. Barring Marco Wittmann in the No.25 BMW, every single prototype took the opportunity to pit. In GTP, some cars took tyres, and some didn't.
The No.7 Porsche Penske car won the battle off pit lane, ahead of the No.40 Wayne Taylor Cadillac.
There was a tight moment behind on pit exit, with the No.31 Cadillac, No.60 and No.93 Acura both tried to join the fast lane as the No.24 BMW was heading for the one-car-wide pit exit. The quartet somehow didn't collide, and the No.60 got out in front, ahead of the Cadillac, the sister Acura and the BMW.
However, Race Control didn't like the look of the incident, and call the cars to re-order themselves with the No.24 going to third ahead of the No's. 60, 6, 31, 93, 40 and 23.
All of the GTD Pros and the GTDs also pit, with almost a similar situation on pit exit. However, only the No.4 Corvette and No.14 Lexus were asked to swap positions.
Clarke in the No.43 Inter Europol car took the lead in LMP2 from the stops, ahead of Goikhberg and Hyett. King and Verhagen held one and two in GTD Pro, while Robichon took the lead in GTD. His Aston Martin was ahead of Russell Ward in the No.57 Winward Mercedes, and Francois Selldorff in the No.96 Turner BMW, before we got to former leader Wadoux in fourth.
On the restart, more LMP2s spun off in the final corner. A couple of cars spun off on their own, sending three cars behind them sprawling and spinning across the track in avoidance. The No.2, No.8, No.22, No.79 and No.18 were all off the track.
That split the LMP2 field into two backs, as six cars had avoided the incident, but the five listed all fell behind the GTs. Speaking of the GTs, they also sprawled out across the track as they found a pack of stricken LMP2s in their way.
That shook up the orders quite a lot. Thomas Preining in the No.911 Manthey Porsche took the lead in GTD Pro, with King holding on to second and Tommy Milner in the No.4 Pratt Miller Corvette in third. In GTD, Robichon held the lead, with Ward in second, but Wadoux up to third and Selldorff down to sixth.
Meanwhile the No.93 Acura, No.5 JDC Porsche and No.59 McLaren all got drive-through penalties for speeding in the pit lane during the yellow. The No.22 United car also had salt poured on their wounds, with a drive-through for having crew members over the wall before the car stopped.
Back at the front, the battle for second in GTP was heating up. Felipe Nasr in the No.7 Porsche was defending hard from Sheldon van der Linde in the No.24 BMW, the two side-by-side almost all the way from turn 5 to turn 7. The South African went for a move, but couldn't quite make it stick and was put off his line.
That allowed Deletraz in the WTR Cadillac to go for a move and get into third. He was quickly on the back of the Porsche and sent a move into turn 5. The Porsche tried to come back in the short shoot to turn 6, but got blocked off by the No.40.
Deletraz would soon regret that move though, as he was given a drive-through penalty for blocking. Putting them down to the back of the order. However, during that battle, Deletraz was pushed slightly wide by the Porsche, which was given a warning for that move.
Meanwhile, the No.25 that hadn't pit was enjoying this battle, as Wittmann managed to extend his lead out front. Finally, though, van der Linde worked his way past Nasr and unleashed his pace. The BMWs ran one and two with an hour and a quarter passed, with van der Linde demolishing the gap to the sister car and opening up 13 seconds between himself and Nasr.
The No.25 pit an hour and 23 minutes into the race as the gap between the race leader and the sister car closed down to a second and half and dropped down to 11th in class.
The GTD pole-sitting No.21 Ferrari, running third at the time, received a drive through penalty for power spikes and dropped down to 14th in class.
The GTD Pro leaders, the No.911 Manthey Porsche, were given a mechanical back flag due to illegal tyre pressures, forcing them to make a pit stop to swap tyres, leaving them eighth in class.
The No.7 Porsche was among the first of the GTP top five to make their second stop, the gap between them and the No.24 BMW opening the lead gap up to over 30 seconds. The sister car, the No. 6, was next in pit lane and exited ahead of the No.7.
When the No.24 came in, they exited comfortably in the lead again, with more than 22 seconds separating van der Linde and Philip Eng in the sister car. The No.31 Cadillac was third, more than 30 seconds back, and the Porsche duo were more than 36 seconds behind the leader by then.
9 minutes past the 2 hour mark, the lead battle in LMP2 started heating up, with the No.43 Inter Europol and the No.99 AO Racing separated by no more than three tenths as the pair hit heavy traffic. The battle died down after they had cleared the traffic, but the AO Racing car was still within touching distance of the class leader.
Meanwhile in GTP, No.25 BMW in the offset strategy pit from second but was given a drive through for speeding in pit lane.
Yet another Full Course Yellow was brought out as the No.34 Ferrari hit the wall and stopped on track after an attempt to drag the car back to the pit lane proved to be futile.
When the GTPs came in for their stops under FCY, it was flashbacks to earlier in the race as the No.7 Porsche jumped the No.24 in the pits after the former underfueled. LMP2 had a lead change as well as the top two, the Inter Europol and the AO Racing cars, pit twice under FCY to maximise fuel load, promoting the No.04 CrowdStrike Racing and No.52 Bryan Herta Autosport cars into the top two.
The No.77 AO Racing Porsche led GTD Pro once again after the pitstops and the No.27 Aston Martin led the way in GTD.
The cars got away well at the restart, the leaders managing to hold positions. While the racing up front stabilised quickly after the restart, the No.43 Inter Europol received two major penalties: a 60-second stop penalty for exploiting emergency service and a drive-through for making a tyre change without the necessary crew members.
In GTP, the No.31 Cadillac and the No.23 Aston Martin received a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Just shy of the halfway mark, the No.1 BMW crashed out and stopped on track, bringing out another FCY.
With about two hours remaining, some teams in GTP began to play some strategy games. The No.31 Cadillac and No.7 Porsche pit a lap apart from each other, despite still having around 30% of their energy left. They were looking to count backwards on their stops, and get it to the end.
The No.7 wouldn't get to see that strategy out though. Nasr was battling with the newly installed Jack Aitken in the No.31, and the Briton hit the Porsche on the rear and sent him spinning off at turn 6.
Nasr spun into the runoff, with just his rear tyres in the gravel. His Porsche 963 is rear-wheel drive though, so he was beached. The incident was deemed a racing incident by race control and it brought out the FCY with just under 120 minutes remaining.
Both the No.7 Porsche and the No.40 Cadillac had strange moments, where both went wide onto the grass at turn 5, a corner where track marshalls were working. Race control didn't take too fondly of that, giving both 60 second stop-go penalties.
Most of the field decided to pit under the yellow, so going back to green it was the No.24 BMW leading, who had not pit, that led the way from the three Cadillacs. The No.31 ahead of the No.10 and No.40 Wayne Taylor machines.
In LMP2 the No.8 Tower car led from the No.22 United Autosports, while GTD Pro was headed by the No.9 Pfaff Lamborghini and the No.14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. Finally, GTD was led by the No.27 Aston Martin and the No.96 Turner Motorsport BMW.
The No.13 13 Autosport Corvette was third in that class, but went off into the gravel just as the field was about to take green.
Corvettes didn't have a good restart, with Alexander Sims in the No.3 Pratt Miller Corvette finding himself in the gravel at turn 2. Sims was on the outside of the three wide moment with the No.911 Porsche and Frederick Vervisch in the No.65 Ford Mustang.
Three into one did not go, and Vervisch hit Sims and sent him spinning into the gravel. The Corvette's rear-right was punctured and the car was beached, so with no way to recover that was the end of the race for a big contender in GTD Pro.
When we went back to green after the ensuing yellow, the two BMWs and the No.60 Acura came straight into the pits, so the No.10 Cadillac of Albuquerque led the way from Aitken. Next came Kevin Estre in the No.6 Porsche, who went wide while side by side with Aitken.
Both BMWs had mechanical troubles, dropping them out of contention in a race which they ran 1-2 in at one stage. It turned out that the No.24 had permanent issues, and they wheeled it back behind the wall to signal the end of their race.
With 70 minutes remaining, a battle broke out for second overall between Aitken and Estre. The championship leader lost out to the Frenchman through traffic. That pairing was around 1.2 seconds off the leading Cadillac.
Laurin Heinrich in the No.5 JDC Porsche had an issue, with a bit of debris hanging off his front bumper, but also the door of his Porsche 963 being open as he circulated on track. During his final pit stop, the door was shut and the front nose was changed.
With 45 minutes to go, the No.120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Tom Sargent had an incident at turn 7. He took too much inside kerb and went bouncing off the track, careening into the barriers.
The FCY for that incident was called as the No.10 Cadillac was in pit lane, so they got a cheap stop and were able to hold the lead of the race, with enough fuel to make it to the end.
Estre was second after a battle with Aitken when the two emerged from their final stops before the yellow. Tom Dillmann led LMP2 in the No.43, but unsure if he could get to the end on fuel. In GTD Pro is was the No.9 Lamborghini leading the way with the No.023 Ferrari leading GTD.
Aitken had a run on Estre on the restart down towards turn 5, but Estre was better on the brakes and held the place.
Back in GTD, Phil Ellis in the No.57 Winward Mercedes was putting pressure on Kenton Koch in the leading No.023. Ellis got the run down the main straight, Koch defended the inside, but that didn't bother the Mercedes on his outside. Ellis went all the way around the outside to take the lead with under 25 minutes remaining.
With 17 minutes to go there was another yellow for the No.60 Acura of Blomqvist, who hit the wall at high speed in the final sector. He was hit by the No.23 Aston Martin, who was later given a penalty for incident responsibility.
With 10 minutes to go on the restart, Albuquerque led in GTP from Estre and Aitken, with Roman De Angelis in the No.23 Aston Martin behind. In LMP2, Dillmann was able to make it on fuel with this yellow, so he led from Alex Quinn in the No.04 and Paul Di Resta in the No.22
That wouldn't last long though as he spun in the final corner before the restart, one of many LMP2s to do so today.
All eyes went to turn 1 though, as Estre and Aitken collided at very high speed into turn 1. Both cars went flying off into the runoff, and out of the race. Aitken perhaps went for a gap that didn't exist, but Estre also came across the track, so it was unclear who was at fault.
The race finished under the FCY, with the No.10 Cadillac winning from the No.5 Porsche. The No.23 Aston Martin was second on the road, but got a late penalty for incident responsibility with the No.93 Acura, so it was two Wayne Taylor cars on the podium with the No.40 in third.
The No.43 Inter Europol won LMP2 after some fuel saving from Dillmann, with the No.9 Lamborghini and No.57 Mercedes holding on in GTD Pro and GTD respectively.
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