BRASELTON, Georgia (October 12, 2024) – The Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (WTRAndretti) GTD team ended the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) season on a high note as the No. 45 DEX Imaging Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 took its best finish of the season in an endurance race after finishing an impressive sixth in the 10-hour MOTUL Petit Le Mans.
Danny Formal started the race after his strong qualifying performance saw the black and red team starting in fifth at the historic Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Formal was quick to find his rhythm as he began to make progress through the field in his opening stint, running in the podium positions before handing the controls over to Graham Doyle in the first pit stop under caution.
Doyle immediately showed his progress as he took over for his fifth-career IWSC event with his first stint as one of his best throughout the season. A poorly timed caution and a drive-through penalty after contact saw the No. 45 fall off the lead lap, but Doyle kept the car within touching distance of the leaders throughout the remainder of his stint.
Kyle Marcelli took over for his first stint of the race and began making progress over the course of a grueling stint. Marcelli matched pace with leaders as he took on the traffic and the challenging turns of Road Atlanta before giving control back to Doyle.
Doyle completed his last stint of the 2024 IWSC season in impressive fashion, helping to close the gap to the cars on the lead lap, allowing the No. 45 car to stay competitive, despite being a lap down for multiple hours.
In the closing stages of the race, Marcelli and Formal traded turns in their effort to climb back through the field. Both drivers put in monster efforts to claw back in positions as the closing hours ran on. A late-race caution in the last hour allowed the team to regain the lead lap with 20 minutes remaining. Formal came to pit lane and the No. 45 DEX Imaging Lamborghini crew had a stellar pit stop, pushing the No. 45 into seventh. With under 30 minutes remaining, Formal battled hard and was able grab the sixth-place position to end an impressive and intense MOTUL Petit Le Mans.
“I’m really proud of the GTD program this weekend,” said Wayne Taylor, Team Principal of WTRAndretti. “Obviously, Petit Le Mans, a ten-hour race, is a very hard race. The team worked so well. All the drivers did a great job. Graham Doyle really sent the message that he’s meant to be in GTD now. I do think overall the relationship between WTRAndretti and Lamborghini is starting to gel, and I’m looking forward to next year.”
The No. 45 DEX Imaging Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 team in their inaugural GTD campaign accomplished pole position at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and two top five results on the season.
No. 45 DEX Imaging Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 Drivers:
Kyle Marcelli: “It was a great day for the No. 45 DEX Imaging Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2. We finished sixth after ten hours and on the lead lap. Everybody executed flawlessly today! What a grueling race this was, almost caution free for what seemed like six hours. Every one of my stints was green flagged, so it just takes a lot of focus to run laps repetitively for three hours. Huge thanks to Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti and the whole No. 45 crew. It was a very hard-working season. We’ve constantly been putting pressure on ourselves to get better. We had a lot of speed today and I think we’re all pleased with that. Everybody on the box and the car did a great job, and it was an honor to be a part of it.”
Danny Formal: “What a race! I think our best race of the season. The team, the pit stops and all three drivers just drove phenomenally. Definitely Graham Doyle’s revelation; he did so, so well. Kyle with some crazy laps in the middle of the race. We passed a lot of cars, and the race pace was just incredible. The guys at WTRAndretti gave us a very fast Lamborghini tonight, and we finished sixth and on the lead lap. We were one lap down for nine hours in that race and got lucky with a yellow at the end and we just started passing cars. I got up to sixth place with two laps to go at the end. The car was phenomenal. So proud of the team, in our first season in GTD to finish Petit Le Mans, one of the hardest races in the world, in the top six. I’m so grateful to DEX Imaging, WTRAndretti and all the crew. “
Graham Doyle: “Sixth place at the end of the ten hours. Awesome drive by Danny there at the end and an awesome drive and effort by the whole team. It’s just been an amazing season, start to finish. It’s really great to end it on a high note like this and we can’t wait for next year. It means everything to finish on the lead lap for the second endurance race in a row. It just goes to show how amazing our team is. The strategy and everything that goes into this, all the hard work that these No. 45 DEX Imaging Lamborghini guys put in. The results are really all because of them. I’m happy to see my progression from start to finish. Looking at the Rolex 24 then to the drive from today, it just shows that with hard work and everything the team is putting in, we can make a lot of progress. I’m looking forward to continuing my progress.”
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.
