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Wayne Taylor Racing Tops IMSA Action At Long Beach

Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP leads a pair of Ford GTs in the late going. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP leads a pair of Ford GTs in the late going. [Joe Jennings Photo]

By Joe Jennings

Long Beach, Calif. – Driving the Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, Ricky and Jordan Taylor drove the family car to victory, winning the Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix of Long Beach by 2.959 seconds and leading 72 of the 75-lap race, except for the three laps consumed by the single pit stop for fuel, tires and a driver change.

The race marked the third event of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and it also marked the shortest race of the young season, being only 110 minutes in time, which is in sharp contrast to the far lengthier Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring previously run.

The winning move came in the first turn of the initial lap when Ricky Taylor out-maneuvered Christian Fittipaldi to take the lead, a lead they maintained throughout, only challenged during a mid-race caution flag that bunched the field.

Ricky Taylor planned the winning move for hours on end, and his plan paid off. “I thought about the move all night, and it just about worked out as planned. We knew we had to make a move early as it is so hard to pass here,” he said. “I managed to get by in the first corner and then it was about managing a gap and not making any mistakes.”

Added his elder brother, “My race was more stressful than in the last two years. Once I went out of the pits, I had the No. 5 on my tail the whole time. If Ricky hadn’t gotten him at the start, it would have been tough to get around him. Once we got track position, I was able to maintain a gap.”

Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa held on for second and the sister Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Dane Cameron and Eric Curran took third.

Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson raced to victory in the PC Challenge Class.

In the GTLM class, the factory Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet took the win over the Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin. Third in class went to the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella.

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