Wayne Taylor Racing Acura Wins Road America, MSR Acura Crashes

Wayne Taylor Racing entered today's IMSA race at Road America trailing their fellow Acura factory team Meyer Shank Racing by the equivalent of just a few positions in the 2022 DPi championship hunt. That continued throughout a rainy first two stints, but, when the track dried, the race heated up. A few laps after a late restart, WTR's Filipe Albuquerque made a pass on the inside of MSR's Oliver Jarvis while blocking the No. 02 Ganassi Cadillac of Earl Bamber to both hold his spot over Bamber and take third from Jarvis. It was a warning shot, proof that WTR was going to fight for the title with everything it had.

When the two found themselves clear of two other Cadillacs and fighting for the race lead 20 minutes later, Albuquerque passed Jarvis again in turn 1. Jarvis spent the next ten minutes attached to Albuquerque's bumper, battling closely enough through traffic that Bamber caught the Acura duo fighting for a championship again. With eight minutes to go, Albuquerque got a particularly good run through a cluster of traffic and left Jarvis fighting Bamber through a fast section of the track. Jarvis made an attempt to block Bamber's run through the kink, holding his position at the cost of his racing line. It left him in a bad position for the fast corner that followed, and that led to a championship contender's worst-case scenario: Albuquerque went off to the outside of the corner, then spun sideways and hit the inside wall head on.