- Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 scores third consecutive front row start
- Magnus Racing notches season-best result in points qualifying for GTD
Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor scored the team’s third consecutive front row start in today’s qualifying for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America.
Taylor and co-driver Filipe Albuquerque will start the race from the outside of the front row, second, after setting a time of 2:08.677 in damp conditions around the four-mile circuit.
The second Acura ARX-05 from Meyer Shank Racing will start sixth in class after driver Olivier Pla made contact with the wall, while avoiding another spun prototype, during the qualifying session.
In the production-based GTD class, Andy Lally and Magnus with Archangel scored their best result of 2021 when Lally set the sixth fastest time in the championship points-awarding second session. Co-driver John Potter had control of the #44 Acura NSX GT3 Evo during the first session, to set starting position, and claimed the 14th fastest time.
The Compass Racing’s duo of Jeff Kingsley and Mario Farnbacher will start ninth for tomorrow’s two-hour, 40-minute event. Till Bechtolsheimer and Marc Miller will roll off 12th in their No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo for Gradient Racing.
Road America Qualifying Results
- 2nd overall - #10 Ricky Taylor, Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
- 6th overall - #60 Olivier Pla, Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
- 9th GTD - #76 Jeff Kingsley, Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
- 12th GTD - #66 Till Bechtolsheimer, Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
- 14th GTD - #44 John Potter, Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo
Quotes
Ricky Taylor (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing ARX-05) pole qualifier; race co-driver will be Filipe Albuquerque: “A bit of a tricky qualifying. Damp conditions on wet tires. I’m really thankful that Filipe gave me some great tips before qualifying and the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 team worked together. I did some laps in the rain yesterday, but Filipe gave me tips on what it took to go faster and we ended up P2. The #31 [Action Express] team did a great job nailing their lap and getting the pole. It was difficult, and we were up against all our championship rivals in the top three. Tomorrow looks like it could be wet, dry, or mixed conditions and we’ll have to prepare for anything. The #10 Konica Minolta Acura has been really strong in the dry and I think we’ve shown we can be in the mix in any conditions.”
Andy Lally (#44 Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo): set sixth fastest time in GTD points qualifying: “The guys gave me a really good car. We took a shot [at estimating the proper tire] pressures, because we were expecting the rain to increase [as qualifying continued]. The car was awesome on the out lap, but we lost a little bit of rear grip in the following laps because we over-pressured the rear tires. With the track not fully wet, it was just a bit damp in some places, we overheated the rears by the third lap, so were unable to improve on our time. But this qualifying is definitely progress for us, so that’s nice to see. We’re kinda hoping for rain tomorrow, too!”
Fast Facts
- Acura Motorsports has scored eight victories at Road America, most recently in 2020 with front-row starter Ricky Taylor and co-driver Helio Castroneves.
- All three Acura NSX GT3 Evo teams are on track this weekend at Road America, with Sprint Cup participants Gradient Racing and Compass Racing joining full-season championship entrant Magnus with Archangel for only the third time this season.
Where to Watch the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America
Same-day US television coverage from Road America begins at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday on the NBC Sports Network. Live flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available NBC Sports Gold TrackPass, on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App with NBCSN authentication.
Fans can listen to audio commentary via IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and XM Radio; and follow the race live via in-car cameras, IMSA Radio and timing & scoring available worldwide on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile device App.
Acura Motorsports social media content and video links from Road America can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).
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