Three-Peat For Taylor Brothers At Long Beach

Story By: IMSA – LONG BEACH, CA – The closing driver in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi V.R may have been different, but on Saturday the result was more of the same as Jordan Taylor – after watching his older brother and co-driver Ricky drive to victory in the opening two races on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar – made it three wins in a row by winning the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach.

This time it was Jordan Taylor who had the wheel on the final stint in the Cadillac DPi, and it was a move in Turn 1 with five minutes remaining that was the winning maneuver. Taylor got a run on race-leader Ryan Dalziel down the frontstretch and swung around the outside of Dalziel’s No. 2 Tequila Patrón Nissan DPi, utilizing GT lap traffic to pull ahead to a 6.349 second victory.

The win was also the Taylors’ third consecutive on the streets of Long Beach.

“Jordan was on a mission,” said Ricky Taylor, who joins his brother atop the WeatherTech Championship wins list with 10 wins. “I was out of the car, and when I looked at the timing screen it said there was 37 minutes to go. That was torture watching that. But at the same time, I wouldn’t want to be under the pressure that Jordan had to be under. I was nervous either way.”

The second-place finish for Dalziel and co-driver Scott Sharp was the Tequila Patron ESM team’s highest finish of the season, besting its fourth-place effort at Daytona. Dalziel led for much of the second half of the race, utilizing pit strategy to move to the front of the Prototype field. He traded fastest laps with Jordan Taylor in the closing minutes before being slowed by a GT car, allowing Taylor to get by.

“We had the fastest car all weekend, but when we saw how fast Ryan was going we knew it was going to be a battle,” said Jordan Taylor. “Then I knew it would have to be him making a mistake or if we caught really heavy traffic. It’s difficult to judge where to brake when you’re offline, so when we hit traffic I was able to take advantage when a GTD car took the same line as Ryan and I had the open track.”

“There were plenty of race moments where things went well for me and bad for Jordan, but not always,” added Dalziel. “I hit the brakes, went one way, and it was the same as the GTD car. I tried to go the other way, but then I saw a big black Cadillac drive right by me and that was the end of it.”

It was first time in WeatherTech Championship history that the same car won the opening three races on the schedule. The Taylor brothers were joined in victory at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona by Jeff Gordon and Max Angelelli, and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida by Alex Lynn.

Three different manufacturers made up the top-three spots on the Prototype podium for the first time since Circuit of The Americas in 2014. Jonathan Bomarito and co-driver Tristan Nunez finished third in Mazda Motorsports’ No. 55 Mazda DPi, matching Mazda Motorsports’ best finish in the WeatherTech Championship Prototype class.

Rounding out the top five was the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA of Stephen Simpson and Misha Goikhberg in fourth, and the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier of Will Owen and Tom Kimber-Smith in fifth.

The iconic hairpin turn at the Long Beach street circuit played a central role in the fate of the No. 4 Corvette Racing team and co-drivers Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner two years in a row.

Last year, this was the turn where Milner was spun out of the lead late in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race by Porsche driver Frederic Makowiecki, enabling Makowiecki’s Porsche teammate, Nick Tandy, to sneak past for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class victory. This year, the hairpin gave one back to the No. 4 teammates.

A multi-car incident in the hairpin on the final lap of Saturday’s 100-minute BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach had the entire racetrack blocked as race-leading Antonio Garcia approached the turn in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R ahead of Milner and Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT. Garcia attempted to maneuver around the outside of the incident, while Milner opted for the inside lane.

Moments later, the No. 52 Prototype managed to get going and drive away after the incident, opening the inside lane. With Garcia still blocked by cars on the outside, Milner passed through the incident scene and headed for the checkered flag, with Westbrook following close behind.

“I tried going to the outside in the same situation last time and lost spots,” Milner said. “This time I went on the inside. I wasn’t even full speed (after the incident); I was cruising thinking we were under caution. Then I saw the green flags and the guys on the radio said we were P1.

“Racing is a lot about luck in a lot of cases. I don’t think I’ve seen it play out this way for me or for anyone else. It’s good to just get some points for me and for Chevrolet and Corvette.”

When all was said and done, Milner and Gavin were standing atop the victory podium, with Westbrook and co-driver Briscoe in second and the No. 912 Porsche GT Team of Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor in third. It was the fourth consecutive race in which the GTLM podium featured three different manufacturers.

Garcia and co-driver Jan Magnussen – who qualified on the GTLM class pole fell to fifth at the finish, behind the No. 25 BMW Team RLL co-drivers Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims.

Milner and Gavin, the 2016 WeatherTech Championship GTLM champions, picked up their first victory of the season, but it was the second in a row for Corvette Racing, which won last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida with the No. 3 team. Overall, Corvette Racing now has 104 victories.

Milner now has won 15 times in major U.S. sports car racing between the WeatherTech Championship, American Le Mans Series and GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, and it’s the 47th victory for Gavin.

Vanthoor led the first 42 minutes of the race in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR before pitting to turn the car over to Estre. That handed the GTLM lead to Martin Tomczyk in the No. 24 BMW M6 GTLM, and a few laps later, the former DTM champion found himself in the overall lead when the Prototype class made their final pit stops of the race.

With less than 15 minutes remaining, the No. 24 car slowed dramatically with an apparent mechanical problem, handing the lead to Garcia. The No. 24 ultimately wound up seventh in class.

An opening-lap crash ruined the day for both the No. 66 Ford GT co-driven by Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller and the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Up next for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Advance Auto Parts SportsCar Showdown at Circuit of The Americas on May 6. The two hour, 40-minute race features the return of the Prototype Challenge class, which did not compete at Long Beach.