Braselton Nov 14 (BUS): The final championship of the North American motorsport season reached the final round of the 10-hour Petit Le Mans race at Atlanta Road, with Ricky Taylor derailed trying to win the title. Felipe Nasr.
Taylor drove through the grass while he was exploding in turn, then mounted his Acura that Wayne Taylor Racing sent to the track. Nasr, however, passed him in a Willen Engineering Racing Cadillac for the Action Express to knock out Taylor at the finish line, according to the Associated Press.
Nasr finished second behind Mazda Motorsports – the race winner in their last event who competed in the IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Series – but that was enough to give the Action Express the title. After winning the title on Friday, he turned the Daytona Prototype International Championship victory into a head-to-head confrontation between Action Express and Wayne Taylor Racing.
The first car to cross the finish line will be the winner.
Taylor went for it, 10 hours later and a finish line in sight.
“It’s the championship and I’ll always go for it,” Taylor said. “I should have gone full throttle earlier in the gravel. I am racing hard and I expect everyone to race with me the same way I am racing them.”
The DPi title went to fellow Brazilians Nasr and Pipo Derani, and Mike Conway, a Briton who added to the endurance event lineup who just last week was part of the FIA World Endurance Championship-winning team.
The title was a farewell gift to Nasr, who is leaving the Action Express and expected to be named as a factory Porsche driver to enter the next Penske team in 2023.
“It was intense, that’s the word,” Nasr said. “I’ve worked so much for this moment. Team Whelen Engineering did a great job. Winning the race was possible. I saw (Taylor) coming, so why should it be so hard in the last corner? I saw (Taylor) make a move so late and I knew he wasn’t going to make By the corner. I just focused on getting out of the exit clean and making it to the finish line.
“Mission accomplished. It is another championship for the team.”
The race was held six weeks later than usual due to COVID-19 rescheduling, meaning the temperature was 39 degrees when the checkered flag was waved and teams ran in the dark for longer than usual.
Mazda Motorsports, which withdrew from IMSA, won the race with Harry Tincknell behind the wheel at the end. He was joined by Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Pomaretto on the race-winning team.
“We’re over the moon, we’re going to party tonight,” Jarvis said.
Six hours before the dramatic finale, the Taylor family experienced an emotional stretch when Jordan Taylor was injured in a seven-car crash. Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia only needed to start the race to win the GT Le Mans sports car title for the second time in a row at Corvette Racing.
Neither of them expected a terrifying meltdown to spoil the celebration and turn the season finale into an emotionally stressful day for the Taylor family.
Both Taylor brothers were driving around the four-hour mark on restart when the cars in front of Jordan Taylor piled into traffic – he said three of them had already stopped on the track – and he couldn’t avoid hitting one at 110 mph on the 10B turn of the circle with 12 turns, 2.54 miles.
I immediately thought his back was broken. However, that wasn’t his main concern: Ricky Taylor was leading the race at the time of the accident and Taylor knew his older brother would be worried as he drove to the crash site.
“My dad and brother are at the racetrack, and it was the first time one of us had a major accident, and he always has a fear of injuring a family member,” said Jordan Taylor. “I knew Ricky was in the car and he was going to drive next to a deformed Corvette and was looking for a thumbs up. I knew he was going to freak out. So it was an emotional moment, to be honest.”
Taylor was able to get out of his car on his own and when he stood on the curb he knew his injury was likely a muscle rather than a broken back. But he was still required to ride an ambulance to the care center for assessment – all while his father sobbed in the pit lane worrying about one son while the other was locked in a tight championship race.
“I probably saw him an hour and a half later and he was still crying,” Taylor said. “I mean, I hated watching him race for the same reasons and I can’t imagine what it’s like for him to watch his kids every day.”
This was the fifth IMSA tournament for Spain’s Garcia and fourth for Taylor in Apopka, Florida.
IMSA will open the North American motorsport season in just 77 days with the Rolex 24 at Daytona, one of the world’s most prestigious endurance events.
RAE