Acura Dominates with 1-2 Finish at Mid-Ohio

Nation of Domination

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque continued Acura’s winning ways at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and stretched the Acura ARX-05 prototype winning streak there to five years in a row at the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.

Starting second, Albuquerque moved into the lead at the start, and battled both fellow Acura racers Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist in their Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05, and the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande throughout the first half of the endurance contest. A mid-race caution flag saw Taylor and van der Zande go wheel to wheel, with van der Zande eventually spinning and Blomqvist quick to capitalize as the Acura duo then ran 1-2 to the finish.

Today’s victory is the fifth in a row for Acura at Mid-Ohio, as the manufacturer is undefeated there since returning to prototype competition in 2018. It also completed a weekend sweep for Honda Performance Development, the competition arm of American Honda in North America. On Saturday, Honda drivers Colton Herta and Simon Pagenaud finished 1-2 in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After five of 10 races, Acura moved into the lead of the DPi Manufacturers’ Championship, with Wayne Taylor Racing, Taylor and Albuquerque moving to the top of the teams and drivers’ championships, respectively.

Acura NSX GT3 Evo22

In the production-based GTD class, the #51 Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 driven by Aidan Read and Ryan Eversley, went off-sequence in their pit strategy mid-race, and led a significant portion of the second half of the two-hour, 40-minute contest. But a pit lane infraction during their final scheduled stop resulted in a drive-through penalty, and an unrepresentative 10th place finish.

IMSA Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio Acura Race Results

1st overall – #10 Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
2nd overall – #60 Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis, Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
10th GTD – #51 Aidan Read and Ryan Eversely, Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22

DPi Manufacturers’ Championship (unofficial, after 5 of 10 rounds)

Acura 1,856
Cadillac 1,829

Fast Facts

Today’s 1-2 Acura finish is the fifth consecutive win for Acura at Mid-Ohio, and the third in a row here for Ricky Taylor.

It completes a weekend of 1-2 results for Honda Performance Development, with Colton Herta and Simon Pagenaud finishing 1-2 for Honda yesterday in the GMR Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The last similar sweep for HPD was in September of 2021, when Alex Palou won the Portland Grand Prix NTT INDYCAR SERIES race for Honda, while Taylor/Albuquerque combined to win at Laguna Seca for Acura and HPD.

Acura is undefeated at Mid-Ohio since returning to prototype competition in 2018. Last year, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque scored a thrilling victory in their Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, combining fuel mileage with speed to hold off the competition by just 1.7 seconds at the checkers.

Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor won for Acura Team Penske in 2018 and 2020; teammates Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya won for Acura in 2019.

The Motor City of Detroit is the next stop in the 2022 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, for the Detroit Grand Prix. One of two 100- minute “sprint races” on the IMSA calendar, the race takes place Saturday, June 12 on the tight and bumpy Belle Isle Park temporary street circuit, with live television coverage on the USA network and streaming on NBC Peacock.