Sunday’s IMSA race at Laguna Seca was a tale of two very different races for Wayne Taylor Racing.
In GTP, it was another tough, bruising outing for the team’s pair of Cadillac V-Series.Rs, which team owner Wayne Taylor described as “unacceptable” post-race, with the #10 retiring and the #40 finishing 10th.
GTD, though, was a different story entirely: as Danny Formal and Trent Hindman put their Sebring and Long Beach disappointments behind them and captured their first victory of the season aboard the team’s Lamborghini.
Starting from second on the grid, the #45 Huracán GT3 EVO2 looked strong all the way through the two-hour-40-minute race.
The #45 held station in P2 during the opening stage of the race, in the shadow of the #34 pole-sitting Conquest Racing Ferrari. But the Formal was never fully out of touch with the leading 296, as the two cut through the rear of the GTD Pro field, at one point running fifth and sixth overall among the GT3 cars.
With an early pit stop that saw Hindman enter the car, the Huracan climbed to second, once again behind the #34. But the Ferrari would drop from the lead and out of contention entirely with an hour and 40 minutes remaining, with flames seen spewing out the right rear exhaust once it pulled into the Conquest pit box. It would later be retired with an undiagnosed terminal technical issue, opening the door for WTR.
Promoted to the front of the field, Hindman maintained a good pace to hold the lead before the #13 Corvette stopped on track in Turn 2, causing a Full Course Yellow. The #45 pitted with the rest of the GTD field; however, they were jumped for the lead by the #27 of Tom Gamble in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin, as well as Robby Foley in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW.
Hindman got past Foley just over an hour remaining in the race, and returned to the lead when Gamble pitted at the 57-minute mark. From there, the Lamborghini went longer than the rest of the GTD top five, while Callum Ilott in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche moved into second position, 10 seconds behind the #45.
The win was essentially secured at the 40-minute mark by the strategy team when the #45 came in for a splash of fuel enough to carry the Huracan to the chequered flag. Hindman rejoined in P3, 15 seconds off of Ilott, (now in the lead) and crucially ahead of the #27 Aston Martin for the net lead.
With 11 minutes remaining, Ilott, and Scott Andrews in the #19 VDSR Aston Martin in second with the same amount of energy, were running on fumes and were forced to give up their positions. Hindman pulled out a three-and-a-half-second lead on Gamble behind in the remaining laps once he returned to the top, where the #45 would finish comfortably.
Tom Gamble brought the #27 Heart of Racing to the finish line second, followed by Frederik Schandorff in the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari. Callum Ilott would finish fourth, a great result for the green and yellow #120 Wright Porsche, and Philip Ellis finished the race fifth in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.
The last time the #45 took victory in GTD was back in Bowmanville last season at the Chevrolet Grand Prix. That win was the result of a perfectly timed couple of cautions to end the race, a surprise to many after the team had been running in the middle of the pack the whole race.
This win was not down to luck, though, as the Wayne Taylor Racing Huracán was quick and ran up front all day.
“I think since FP1 the car was in the right window, and, with these events, rolling off the trailer strongly is vital for your weekend. And we did that,” said Danny Formal post-race. “The guys did a fantastic job with this strategy, pit stops were flawless, and Trent had a great double stint there to bring it home.”
“Our race at Mosport was won on a crazy strategy gamble. This one was more of an outright pace [situation].”
This result is hugely encouraging for the team after a disappointing DNF last time out at Long Beach, where they ran very well for only 18 minutes before running into a gearbox issue.
Hindman echoed the sentiment that the team truly owned this victory on merit rather than good racing luck:
“I think there were some questions after Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last year of hey, it was great to get a win, big fuel gamble, we got lucky with the timing of some Full Course Yellows.
“Was it genuine? Yeah, a win is a win, you take it any way you can. But to come away with this one today, the way we did, the way the team executed. This really was absolutely no fluke at all.”
Images courtesy of IMSA Photo
