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IndyCar Series veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay returns to the team with which he co-drove to a runner-up finish at the 2013 Rolex 24 At Daytona when he joins brothers and full-time drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor behind the wheel of the championship-leading No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R at the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

The 36-year-old Hunter-Reay steps in for British driver Alex Lynn, who was originally slated to co-drive with the Taylor brothers at Road Atlanta but encountered a scheduling conflict after co-driving with the team to victory in mid-March at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Hunter-Reay shared the cockpit of the No. 10 prototype with Jordan Taylor and veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli in scoring a solid second-place finish after leading 56 laps of the 2013 season-opening endurance marathon at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

“We are certainly looking forward to having Ryan back with us,” said team owner Wayne Taylor. “I’ve always thought he’s one of the best American drivers out there and he’s enjoyed success with us before. He understands his job, which is to help Ricky and Jordan and the team secure the championship. He fits in very well."

"Everyone on the team likes him and is very excited about working with him again. We’ll be testing with him Tuesday and Wednesday at Road Atlanta to start getting him acquainted with our new Cadillac, which should take no time at all."

"Alex (Lynn) obviously did an outstanding job for us at Sebring but, unfortunately, he had a clash with one of his other full-time rides for the season. Ryan was always at the top of our driver list, anyway, so all is well.”

Hunter-Reay is the most successful active American driver in open-wheel competition. He won the 2012 IndyCar Series championship, the 2014 Indianapolis 500, was the 2008 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, and has 16 career IndyCar victories and six career pole positions.

He is in his eighth season driving for Andretti Autosport, racing car No. 28 to represent the 28 million people living with cancer worldwide.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Wayne Taylor and his sons once again,” said Hunter-Reay, who has 33 career North American sportscar race starts with nine podium finishes, including an overall victory at the 2007 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Championship season finale at Tooele, Utah, and an LMP2-class victory at the Sebring 12-hour in 2011.

“Through our runner-up finish at the Daytona 24-hour and since then, I’ve formed a pretty close relationship with the team as a whole – Wayne, Jordan and Ricky. The team has done an incredible job this season with five wins and leading the championship from the first round at Daytona." He said

"My goal is to fit in seamlessly, contribute in any way possible but, most importantly, do whatever I can to help this group win the IMSA WeatherTech championship. It goes without saying I’m really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the Cadillac DPi-V.R.”

The Taylor brothers take a 26-point lead in the championship to the season’s penultimate round Sept. 24 at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. They can clinch the team’s second driver title in the last five seasons by finishing seventh or better at each of the final two events.

They swept this season’s opening five events at Daytona, Sebring, the streets of Long Beach, California, the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and the streets of Belle Isle in downtown Detroit. They added a runner-up finish in the most recent stop on the tour at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Aug. 6.

“I am very excited to have Ryan joining us for Petit Le Mans,” said Ricky Taylor, who has qualified on the pole four times this season. “It has been a bit of a late call, but I cannot think of a more solid teammate to have. I have always been a fan of Ryan and, as an American, it has been great to see what he has done in IndyCar.

I think, compared to his last time in a prototype, he will be pleasantly surprised as the new Cadillac should be much closer to something he is used to. After telling the team that Ryan would be coming on board, it was all positive and many of our guys have actually worked with him – either last time he was with our team, or on the IndyCar side – so the fit is perfect. I was not with the team the last time he did Daytona with us, but I really look forward to getting the chance to work with him.”

“I think it’s awesome to have Ryan back with the team,” added Jordan Taylor, who co-drove the No. 10 prototype to victory with his brother and Angelelli in the 2014 Petit Le Mans.

“He was with Max and I for my first race with the team back in 2013, where we finished second at the Rolex 24. He was just coming off winning the IndyCar championship, so it was pretty intimidating. But he was a great teammate and an even better guy, so that made it a great experience."

"I think he’ll enjoy driving our Cadillac. He has had a lot of experience in these types of cars over the years, so it’ll be great to have his insight and feedback. He has worked with a lot of our guys on the team in the past, so it should be a perfect fit.” 

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Every championship season in every sport has at least one “turning point.”  It’s the moment a championship-winning team looks back on and identifies the time when the championship was firmly in their grasp. 

There’s still plenty of racing left in the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – two races that total 12 hours and 40 minutes of competition to be exact – but Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway could very well be that turning point for the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R team and co-drivers Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia.

Magnussen and Garcia scored a somewhat unlikely win – their third of the season – and expanded their lead in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) point standings from eight points over No. 66 Ford GT teammates Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand to 16 points over No. 25 BMW co-drivers Alexander Sims and Bill Auberlen.

They did it through masterful strategy and a little bit of luck. Magnussen started the race from sixth, but moved into the top five on the opening lap of the race and got all the way to third before pitting 49 minutes into the two-hour, 40-minute race to turn the car over to Garcia.

The Spaniard acknowledged after the race that the team focused on conserving fuel for much of his closing double stint. At the same time, however, he also faced a stiff challenge from Giancarlo Fisichella in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE and Mueller in the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry.

“I didn't know how much fuel they were saving, so I didn't know what pace we were doing,” Garcia said. “I think the key was stopping one or two laps later than the Ferrari and the Ford, because I had really clear laps from those two. That made me so close to the Ferrari and especially to be ahead of the Ford coming out of the pits. Ninety percent of the race was that pit stop and being able to get in front of them.”

That was a battle for second, though, as Sims was well up the road in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL machine after combining with Auberlen to dominate most of the race. Garcia and the Corvette team’s fuel conservation tactics ultimately paid off, though, because Sims was forced to pit from the lead with less than 15 minutes remaining.

That stop promoted the Corvette into the lead and Garcia brought it home the rest of the way to win by 12.031 seconds over the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT shared by Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe. The race was run without a full-course caution.

It was the first win for Magnussen and Garcia since May’s Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown at Circuit of The Americas. They also won in March at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.

For Magnussen, it was his 47th IMSA victory encompassing WeatherTech Championship, GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series competition. It was Garcia’s 17th IMSA win.

“It’s unbelievable for us to come away with a win,” Magnussen said. “Honestly, in the middle of the race, it kind of looked like a situation of 'OK, we aren't losing too much in the championship, a couple of points

here, a couple of points there, but we would still stay in the lead of the championship.' Then, for things to turn around like they did in the last half hour with the BMW coming up short (on fuel) and the Ferrari falling off, it was a crazy, absolutely crazy result. Such a fantastic result for the whole team.”

The runner-up result for Briscoe and Westbrook moved them into a tie for third in the GTLM standings with their Ford Chip Ganassi Racing teammates, Hand and Mueller, and just one point behind second-place Sims and Auberlen.

“We actually had good pace in the car,” Westbrook said. “We did the best we could, and in the end that was good enough for second. We drove a nice, good, clean race and it’s nice to finish up on the podium here.”

Fisichella and co-driver Toni Vilander came home third in the first WeatherTech Championship race for the Houston-based Risi team since May at Circuit of The Americas. The No. 62 team also won the DEKRA Green Award for the race, which goes to the cleanest, fastest and most efficient GTLM car through Green Racing protocols established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International.

The No. 66 team was poised for a podium result before a late-race incident between Mueller and Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette sent both cars off course. The No. 66 team recovered to finish fifth, one spot behind Sims and Auberlen after the No. 25 BMW’s late pit stop dropped them to fourth. Sims and Auberlen combined to lead for most of the first two-and-a-half hours.

Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the America’s Tire 250, part of the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway on Sunday, Sept. 24. The two-hour, 40-minute race will feature the Prototype (P), GTLM and GTD classes. 

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Sebastian Landy (Great Falls, Va.) swept the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama doubleheader at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) this weekend by winning both races.

Landy claims the 3.27-mile, 17-turn scenic road course in southwest Virginia as his home track and this weekend that claim led to two overall Platinum Cup victories in the No. 49 entry for Alex Job Racing and Forto Strong Coffee.

Qualifying fifth on Saturday, Landy was able to get a good start keeping the front runners in his sights.

As competitors made on track mistakes, he was able to capitalize and keep the No 49 Porsche in contention at the front. Running second with just two laps remaining, Landy was able to get inside race leader McKay Snow going into the track's signature Oak Tree turn.

With a strong exit off one of the slowest turns on the track he was able to hold off Snow and take his first win on the season.

For Sunday's race, the young Landy took the green flag from the second row in fourth. By lap two he moved up to third position battling with the No. 24 Porsche.

With 24 minutes remaining the leading Porsche of McCay Snow went off in the Oak Tree turn and a few minutes later the leading No. 3 Porsche of Trenton Estep had a puncture.

Landy had driven a calculated race, posting consistent lap times as he took the lead and grabbing his second win of the weekend.

"It is hard to describe," Landy said. "Coming off of Road America, which were the two best results we have had all year we just wanted to get better. I am not sure I expected two wins this weekend. This is my home track, but we kind of struggled off of the trailer earlier in the weekend."

"Even after the last race yesterday the guys were up until mid-night improving on the No. 49 Forto Coffee Porsche. I think the work effort and being in a position to take advantage of every opportunity put us on top of the podium twice this weekend.

"It was fortunate for me that the competitors in front of me had issues both days. But, we were in a position to take advantage and we did. A great weekend for me and the team here at VIR!"

"Wow what a weekend," Alex Job, team owner said. "We had very strong runs at Road America and we felt that Sebastian was ready for a win. Coming to his home track we were optimistic"

"After qualifying we knew we had our work cut out for us and he delivered. We may not have been the fastest car this weekend, but he put us in a position to have success on both days. Going away with two wins is a great weekend of racing."

 

         

 

 

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