IMSA: Taylor brothers dominate COTA

Ricky Taylor turned his pole position into a healthy lead and his brother Jordan built upon that advantage to score the third win of the year for Wayne Taylor Racing at IMSA's Lone Star Le Mans event at Circuit of The Americas. The team's No. 10 Corvette DP led a 1-2-3 for the Bowtie and its signature prototype as the Action Express Racing duo of Dane Cameron in the No. 31 entry (-1.421s) and Joao Barbosa in the No. 31 AXR car (-47.256s) completed the podium.

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The Taylors were only challenged in the final laps of the piping hot 2h40m race contested under 91-degree temperatures and significant humidity. Blood pressures spiked after Jordan spun on his own exiting the final corner with 37 minutes remaining. The Floridian's 13-second lead was whittled down to four once he got pointed in the right direction, and with a new chance to go for the win, Cameron went on the offensive. The Californian chased his coastal rival and drew Taylor's lead to as little as 1.2 seconds with 25 minutes left on the clock.

Cameron carved into Taylor and took the lead down to 0.321 seconds with 15 minutes to run and was able to draw alongside the WTR car in one corner, but faded in the final laps as a fully composed Taylor crossed the line without extreme pressure.

"Coming into the race, during the strategy meeting we talked about going for the win or going for the points. Today was all about the win," Ricky Taylor said of WTR's strategy. "Man, [Jordan] pulled a little bit of a Danny Sullivan with the spin-and-win. Thank you so much, this is awesome."

In PC, Starworks Motorsport's Renger van der Zande threw his hands in the air while crossing the finish line ahead of PR1/Mathiasen's Tom Kimber-Smith (-0.844s) and James French in the Performance Tech Motorsports entry (-10.254s). As the points leaders coming into COTA, van der Zande and teammate Alex Popow did themselves a favor by extending the gap to Kimber-Smith and Robert Alon after taking their fourth win of the year.

"When I came out of the pits, we were like fourth, and there was an overlay of strategies with pit stops," van der Zande said. "I pushed really hard on the out lap and was able to pass Tom Kimber-Smith on his out-lap. Then I had to push really hard to keep him behind me for the next 52 minutes which was the key to the race.

"For the championship, we are getting close. If we finish seventh at Petit and anyone else wins, we can still get the championship. Alex has to do the drive-time and then we'll see if we're in the position to go for the win."

The happiest team in Texas on Saturday afternoon was the factory Porsche North America team, which earned its first win of the year in GT Le Mans with its Porsche 911 RSR and made it a 1-2 as Earl Bamber took the checkered flag in the No. 912 as Nick Tandy followed him home (-6.399s) and Corvette Racing's Antonio Garcia rounded out the podium in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R (-7.997s).

Porsche's metronomic performance came at the expense of the pole-winning No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT that encountered mechanical problems and the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 that appeared to be on the road to victory until electrical problems intervened.

"In the long run, we could pace everyone," Bamber said of his win with teammate Fred Makowiecki. "We didn't have the straightline speed, but the second pit stop we just did a fantastic job. Then the Ferrari went away. In the middle of the stint, we had a really strong car from managing the tires. Unfortunately we didn't have as big of a fight as we hoped, but we got a 1-2 for Porsche. It shows that we continue to fight every weekend."

GT Daytona had its top three solidified until halfway through the final lap when the No. 23 Alex Job Racing/Team Seattle Porsche 911 GT3 R lost second place after running out of fuel. Up front, Turner Motorsport delivered Jens Klingmann and Bret Curtis to Victory Lane for the second time since July as the No. 96 BMW M6 GT3 powered home to an easy win over the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (-15.717s) and Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen in the championship-leading Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 (-16.492s).

"I know that the team finished second last year, so they had high expectations but with a new car you never know what to expect," Klingmann said. "I've never been here, like most tracks. I didn't know what to expect at all, I only knew it from watching Formula 1 and the WEC. I knew that we were not looking too bad, especially when the track rubbered up and it was hot outside.

"When I came out of the pits, I was pushing but, because of the full-course caution, I didn't know if there were a lot of gentlemen drivers in the car or the pros. Then I had to manage the heat, because our cool suit connector was broken. But you are so full of adrenaline from leading the race so you just kept going. I am proud for BMW Motorsport and Turner. Overall it was a great race and a great day."

It was a rough day in general for teams chasing Balzan and Nielsen, and while they weren't able to clinch the GTD championship in COTA, the Scuderia Corsa team is all but assured of its second consecutive title at Petit Le Mans in two weeks.