(LONG BEACH, California) April 19, 2024 —The duo of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (WTRAndretti) Acura ARX-06 GTPs took on the 11-turn street circuit to set the grid for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. In a competitive 10-car GTP field, Jordan Taylor completed his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying session behind the wheel of the No. 40 DEX Imaging Acura ARX-06. Taylor navigated the 1.968-mile for a lap time of 01:11.745 landing sixth on the grid. Filipe Albuquerque took control of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 for the 15-minute qualifying session. For Albuquerque, his best lap time of 01:11.940 placed the blue and black machine to start eighth for tomorrow’s sprint race.
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is set for 4:35 p.m. ET (1:35 p.m. PT) tomorrow with a 100-minute showdown on Shoreline Drive. Broadcast coverage from the streets of Long Beach will be hosted on USA Network and Peacock from green to checkered flag.
TOP FIVE GTP STARTING GRID
- No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing (Cadillac V-Series.R) P. Derani, J.Aitken (99.243 mph)
- No. 25 BMW M Team RLL (BMW M Hybrid V8) C. De Phillippi, N. Yelloly (99.231 mph)
- No. 01 Cadillac Racing (Cadillac V-Series.R) R. van der Zande, S. Bourdais (99.211 mph)
- No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports (Porsche 963) N. Tandy, M. Jaminet (98.909 mph)
- No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports (Porsche 963) D. Cameron, F. Nasr (99.755 mph)
- No. 40 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 (Acura ARX-06) J. Taylor, L. Delétraz, C. Herta (98.749 mph)
- No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 (Acura ARX-06) R. Taylor, F. Albuquerque, B. Hartley (98.482 mph)
Filipe Albuquerque, No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06: “Qualifying we went for a different strategy than the 40 car, we used two sets of tires. We need to investigate as it maybe was not ideal, the front tires were still coming in, but always learning. I don’t think we had the pace to challenge the pole position, unfortunately. So tomorrow it’s race time. It’s not always been the fastest one, last year was a good example of that. So, let’s stay clean and do a good race. Even if it’s a short race, many things can happen. And the walls still are not going to move.”
Jordan Taylor, No. 40 DEX Imaging Acura ARX-06: “So, it was limited running in practice with the tire allotment that we had, so most of our running leading up was for race prep than I would say for qualifying prep. We saw some guys take an extra set of tires in practice and maybe that was a benefit for qualifying, but our goal was to play the long run and go for a good race package. I think we have a very good race car, so hopefully this pays off for us in the long run in tomorrow’s race.”
ABOUT WTRANDRETTI
Andretti Global and Wayne Taylor Racing announced a new, long-term partnership in 2023 that combines the resources of the two championship-caliber teams to compete in IMSA’s top classes. In 2024, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (WTRAndretti) has expanded to a two-car GTP program as well as competes in the GTD class. Coming off its 2023 championship winning effort, WTRAndretti continues its Driver Development Program competing in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series with a full stable.
WTRAndretti’s global motorsports enterprise boasts two IMSA driver championships (2013 and 2017), and back-to-back IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Championships (2020, 2021) which contributed to nine IMSA manufacturer championships for Acura, Pontiac, Corvette and Cadillac. In its brief 17-year history, WTRAndretti has accumulated multiple victories in sportscar racing’s most iconic events: Rolex 24 At Daytona, Twelve Hours of Sebring, Petit Le Mans, Mid-Ohio, Road America and the Six Hours of The Glen. With its back-to-back PRO Class Championship wins (2022, 2023), WTR also has ten North America Lamborghini Super Trofeo Championship titles and a Lamborghini World Finals title.
Andretti Global, a Championship-winning motorsports organization, competes in additional racing categories worldwide, including the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, Extreme E, Australian Supercars and the Mexico SuperCopa Championship. Additionally, the racing enterprise commits to driver development through competition in INDY NXT by Firestone and through support of Sebastian and Oliver Wheldon’s racing careers.
WTRAndretti’s long term partnerships include Acura, Honda Racing Corporation US (HRC), Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA, DEX Imaging, Harrison Contracting Company and Gainbridge.
