Brownsburg, Ind. (April 5, 2022) — The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 team and drivers travel to California this week for their automaker’s home event, the 2022 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Co-drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, who finished in fourth position in last year’s edition, will look to stand on podium for the second time this season. The team has a stellar record of three wins and five podiums at Long Beach, dating back to 2014. All three of those team wins came with Ricky Taylor at the wheel, and he owns the Acura marquee’s best finish at their home race with second place in 2019.
Now that the opening pair of endurance races are behind them, Taylor and Albuquerque will aim to settle into the rhythm of sprint racing ahead of the 100-minute dash around the classic 11-turn, 1.97-mile Long Beach street course. A strong result could see them take the championship lead after they narrowed the gap to 11 points last time out in Sebring.
“Long Beach is always a special event and a little extra pressure with it being Acura’s home race,” explained Ricky Taylor. “Being the shortest race on the calendar, it places extra emphasis on doing all the little things perfectly. Practice is short, the track is always changing and unforgiving, and qualifying sets us up for a successful race. The one pit stop can truly make or break your weekend. Everybody on the team plays a huge role in the outcome of this weekend.”
Two-time Long Beach winner Filipe Albuquerque is looking to make it a career hat-trick this weekend and help score the first victory for Acura at the Southern California circuit.
“The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has to be one of the highlights of the season right alongside Daytona, Sebring and Petit,” said Filipe Albuquerque, who has won the event twice. “Personally, I love street courses—I like to call Long Beach the ‘Monaco of America’ because it is such a nice event. It’s awesome to go there with a lot of things happening. It’s the home race of Acura and there is a lot of attention paid to us. It will be a tough race for us, though, as this track, with its bumps and slow corners, tends to favor our competitors. However, the beauty of this championship is the variety of tracks and layouts and the future looks bright with more manufacturers coming on board.”
Wayne Taylor, three-time Long Beach winner as a team owner, is also looking to bring home hardware for partner brand Acura.
“We always love going to Long Beach,” mentioned Wayne Taylor. “This year we especially must be on top of our game because as you saw in Sebring, we had a bit of hiccup. But the guys are doing everything they can and everybody is doing what we normally do which is to have a car that can win. It’s going to be tough since the Cadillacs are really fast, so with five of them and two Acuras, we’ll give everything we got. The 2021 Grand Prix of Long Beach was worst race in terms of competitiveness, and it might be the same this year. So, we might be fighting with the other Acura, which is not the way we should be doing it. But we’ll try some special strategy moves and take some risks this time to see what happens.”
Practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach begins this Friday, April 8th at 9:15 a.m. PT. Qualifying for the first sprint race of the season is set for Friday evening at 5:15 p.m. PT. Green flag for the main event will wave at 2:05 p.m. PT with full coverage streaming on Peacock and network coverage on USA beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET.
ABOUT KONICA MINOLTA
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. is reshaping and revolutionizing the Workplace of the Future. The company guides and supports its clients’ digital transformation through its expansive office technology portfolio, including IT Services (All Covered), intelligent information management, managed print services and industrial and commercial print solutions. Konica Minolta has been included on CRN’s MSP 500 list nine times and The World Technology Awards recently named the company a finalist in the IT Software category. Konica Minolta has been recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for fourteen consecutive years, and received Keypoint Intelligence’s BLI 2021 A3 Line of The Year Award and BLI 2021-2023 Most Color Consistent A3 Brand Award for its bizhub i-Series. Konica Minolta, Inc. has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for nine consecutive years and has spent four years on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list. Konica Minolta partners with its clients to give shape to ideas and works to bring value to our society. For more information, please visit us online and follow Konica Minolta on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 effort and Wayne Taylor Racing is supported by an outstanding lineup of partners including Harrison Contracting, Acura Motorsports, Hammer Nutrition and CIT.
