Wayne Taylor Racing takes points lead at Watkins Glen
Filipe Albuquerque
gave Wayne Taylor Racing its third consecutive IMSA sports car victory by holding off rival Acura team Meyer Shank Racing in the six-hour endurance race Sunday at Watkins Glen International at Watkins Glen, New York.
The race was redflagged for an hour because of a lightning strike near the track and IMSA returned under a yellow flag with 35 minutes remaining. The green waved with 20 minutes to go and Albuquerque used an aggressive restart to snatch the lead from Tom Blomqvist of Shank.
The two were in a spirited battle until the final five minutes, when Sebastien Bourdais in a Cadillac for Chip Ganassi Racing made a run on Blomqvist. The two were battling for second on the final lap but Bourdais had to bail out on an attempted pass because of lapped traffic clogging the track ahead.
That race for position gave Albuquerque breathing room. Albuquerque had been trying to save fuel in the No. 10 Acura to get to the checkered flag, so the challenge Bourdais put on Blomqvist helped.
The Wayne Taylor team is in a tight championship battle with Shank in the DPi class and consecutive wins at Laguna Seca, MidOhio and now Watkins Glen has given Albuquerque and co-driver Ricky
a 17-point lead in the standings.
The Ally-backed Cadillac of Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller and Kamui Kobayashi finished sixth. The car runs only the four endurance races on the IMSA schedule, and Johnson missed the Twelve Hours of Sebring because of an IndyCar conflict.
Defending class champion PR1 Mathiasen won the LMP2 class in part because of a late penalty on DragonSpeed, which was on its way to its third victory in five races this season. IMSA said Juan Pablo Montoya left the pit stall with equipment on a stop prior to the weather delay; he had turned the car over to his 17-year-old son, Sebastian, when the race resumed and Sebastian had to pit from the lead to serve the penalty.
NHRA
Mike Salinas won the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio, on Sunday to take the Top Fuel points lead from Brittany Force.
Salinas won for the fourth time this season and seventh overall, beating Josh Hart in the final with a 3.706-second run at a track-record 333.58 mph.
“It’s amazing,” Salinas said. “[Crew chief] Rob Flynn brought a calmness to this team, and everyone has a voice. I think that is unprecedented and that’s been pretty awesome. We’ve earned the right to be out here and race against these guys, and we belong here. It’s a good thing because we’ve got a great team and I’m learning how to drive.”
Robert Hight won in Funny Car, Erica Enders in Pro Stock and Angelle Sampey in Pro Stock Motorcycle in the 10th of 22 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.