Wayne Taylor Racing, Acura Take IMSA at Mid-Ohio

Mid-Ohio may be Acura's best track in all of IMSA racing. The manufacturer had won the last four races here, including a win last season by Wayne Taylor Racing. That made the pace of the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac throughout today's race a surprise, one that put Renger van der Zande in position to battle for the lead with an hour to go. That set van der Zande up for a wheel-to-wheel battle with Ricky Taylor that saw both drivers briefly putting wheels off track.

It worked out well for Taylor, who eventually cleared the No. 01 Cadillac. It went worse for van der Zande, who lost control almost immediately after finally being cleared by the No. 10 and spun out of contention. Taylor would go on to hold off the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura for the race win, while van der Zande would finish a disappointing fifth of six DPi contenders. Pipo Derani, leading the Cadillac contingent in third for Action Express Racing, completed the overall podium.

In the pro-am GTD class, Inception Racing turned shocking fuel mileage and a strong late-race charge into the first IMSA win for McLaren. Thanks to earlier strategy calls, their No. 70 was up to 3rd with ten minutes to go. That put lead driver Jordan Pepper in position to start pushing late, first past the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 and then past the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW in the closing laps. As the new-for-2022 GTD Pro class did not contest this race, that also makes the Inception McLaren the lead GT finisher in the entire field.

LMP2 came down to a battle of former DPi drivers Jonathan Bomarito and Juan Pablo Montoya, who hit each other in the final hour in a moment that saw Bomarito spin and Montoya forced to serve a drive-through penalty. Montoya came out behind Bomarito, but caught him and passed him again in the final 15 minutes to take a class win for DragonSpeed just a day after racing in his first IndyCar event of the season as part of an Indianapolis-only schedule with Arrow McLaren SP. Colin Braun and Jonathan Bennett took the class win in LMP3 for CORE Autosport.

IMSA has the next few weeks off before returning at Detroit Belle Isle in the first week of June. That race will be contested by only the DPi and pro-am GTD classes.

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