A race’s worth of drama was packed into the final 25 minutes for closing driver Filipe Albuquerque and Wayne Taylor Racing during Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
It took good fortune with the weather, just enough fuel and a perfectly executed pass while overcoming a banged-up car and lapped traffic for Albuquerque and No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura teammate Ricky Taylor to emerge with the win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Watkins Glen International.
A delay of just over an hour created by lightning in the area red-flagged the race with 1 hour, 26 minutes remaining. Thirty-five minutes were put on the clock when drivers returned to the road course. Racing went green 14 minutes later and Albuquerque supplanted Tom Blomqvist for the lead with an outside pass near the exit of the back straightaway.
Albuquerque held off Blomqvist over the remaining laps while navigating through traffic to give him and Taylor their third win in the last four races while vaulting past Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis for the series points lead with five races to go.
“I think it was meant to be for us to win,” Albuquerque said. “I think they were a little bit better on strategy, but then I think we had a little but luck aligned for our side. Everyone did an amazing job. If it was Ricky there, I’m sure he would have done the same. “
Blomqvist held on for a tough-to-swallow runner-up finish for him and Jarvis in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura.
“This one hurts,” Jarvis said. “We topped every session just to miss out on the win. We’re going to have to regroup. We’ve got one next week (at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park) to put it right. I’m not happy and I haven’ t seen Tom, but I can’t imagine he’s particularly happy either.”
By the numbers
Albuquerque, a native of Portugal, earned his third overall Six Hours of The Glen win, adding to 2016 and 2017 victories. It was the second Six Hours triumph for Taylor, who previously won in 2011.
Third place overall and in the DPi (Daytona Prototype international) class went to Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson joined Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Rockenfeller in finishing sixth among the seven DPi competitors.
A total of 48 cars competed in five classifications. The other winning teams were Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas in GT Daytona Pro; Scott Huffaker, Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating at Le Mans Prototype 2; Ian James, Roman De Angelis and Maxime Martin in GT Daytona; and Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson and Kay Van Berlo in LMP3.
Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2010 Cup winner at WGI, teamed with his son, Sebastian, and Henrik Hedman in the LMP2 class. The were in front in the class but were hit with a penalty just before the race was red-flagged.
turning point
Jarvis gained the lead with 2 hours, 25 minutes left when Taylor went in for a pit stop and maintained it until the stoppage, which came shortly after Jeff Westphal crashed hard into the fence. Dylan Murry made contact with Fabio Scherer, leading Scherer’s car to send Westphal off course.
Blomqvist took over driving duties from Jarvis before the race’s final stretch. Wayne Taylor Racing technical director Brian Pillar told Albuquerque to conserve fuel before the restart. Albuquerque said he couldn’t warm up the tires or brakes.
“I just kept the foot down and had some moments sideways, but then, ‘Come on, I need to go,’ he said of the pass near the entrance of the Inner Loop. “This was the one shot – only one – to overtake Blomqvist. … Managed to go side-by-side and I trusted. I just sent the car in, went over the curb and I don’t know how I did that corner there. I locked everywhere.
“First job done and then next you need to save fuel like hell. The numbers he was telling me were just not possible to stay up in the lead. For me it was way more important to win the race than risking to run out of fuel . I couldn’t match that thing.”
Challenging ride to the finish line
While trying to navigate traffic and hold off Blomqvist, Albuquerque hit the rail hard as he attempted to avoid a Lamborghini he said didn’t see him coming.
“I hit really hard the rail and then on the car because I ping-ponged there,” Albuquerque said. “The car was very damaged. I think Blomqvist was just shaking a bit. He backed off like, ‘What the hell just happened here?’ I looked left, the mirror on the left was gone. The car was bent. I just put full throttle to try to go to the Bus Stop. I was just going sideways. It was really weird.
“Then it was Brian again. ‘Well, you need to save fuel.’ I said, ‘I have bigger problems than that now. I don’t know if I can finish this race because the car is quite bent.’ The steering wheel was going to the left and turning was a bit funny, but somehow the car was still good afterwards.”
It was also good on fuel. Albuquerque was given the clear to go all-out on the closing lap, with the tank showing signs of being empty on the cool-down lap.
Quotable
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy with a teammate,” Taylor said of Albuquerque. “I was so proud watching to see how hard he fought to make the move.”
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