Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti driver Louis Deletraz reflected on his opportunistic overtake for the lead during the final minutes of the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring.
His #40 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 won the 72nd running of the 12 Hours of Sebring after he carried out a manoeuvre for the lead on Chip Ganassi’s Sebastien Bourdais.
After asserting strong pace on the leading #01 Cadillac, the Swiss driver made his race-winning move at just under six minutes remaining of the 12-hour race.
“Really big thank you to the team, WTRAndretti, Acura and HRC, and the two guys right here, he said crediting his co-drivers Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta.
“Because obviously without them it’s not possible. The car was really strong in the end, and I knew we were in a position to win, which to be fair was a lot of pressure.
“I’ve never really done that, Daytona was my first time, that’s my second time finishing a race.
“I just obviously wanted to win and also bring points for the championship, but I saw I had the opportunity.
“Sebastien was tough but fair, so thanks to him. And in the end, I saw the gap, and I went for it, and I had more pace and I won, and I think I’ll remember this one for a long time.”
Deletraz earned the Wayne Taylor Racing outfit’s first win at Sebring since 2017 and so the #40’s win has pushed them up to the top of the GTP standings on identical (706) points to the #7 Porsche Penske crew who won the 24 Hours of Daytona season-opener.
The disruption of the 11th and 12th full-course-caution periods during the final hour negated Bourdais’ efforts on building a gap, in which he did so for up to five seconds on P2.
At his pitstop, Deletraz took on fresh tyres whilst Bourdais did not to retain track position.
During the final sprint, Deletraz was initially tasked with defending his second position from #7 Porsche driver Felipe Nasr, but continued to eat away at Bourdais’ lead so that he begun demonstrating better pace than the #01 Cadillac.
This marked Deletraz’s first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win since the 2022 Petit Le Mans for the Tower Motorsports LMP2 team.
