BRASELTON, GA (12 October 2019) – Whelen Engineering Racing went out a big winner in the final race of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, scoring a dramatic victory in the Motul Petit Le Mans while giving Action Express Racing its sixth consecutive victory in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.

Pipo Derani grabbed the lead with 20 minutes remaining and drove home to victory in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R co-driven by Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran in the 10-hour classic at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

“We finally got the win here, in my fourth try, it’s incredible,” said Derani, celebrating his 26th birthday. “I’m really happy and really proud to be part of this team, a big thank you to Whelen, to Action Express, to Cadillac, and for everyone who put this program together, and of course to the crew for making perfect pit stops. We are winners of Petit Le Mans!”

Nasr broke the track record in qualifying, and took that pace into the event – breaking the Road Atlanta race lap record early on and quickly pulling away from the field with qualifying-quality laps. Nasr paced the opening 58 laps before turning the car over to Derani, who then led the next 78 circuits.

“I’m happy with the final result, to get this victory,” said Nasr, who won the endurance classic at Sebring earlier in the year. “When I switched to prototype racing last year, we clinched the title and it was amazing. Before last year, I hadn’t done any of the American circuits other than Daytona, so when I came here, I thought Road Atlanta was the wildest place to drive and the hardest place to win. To have the car running well in the final stages is tricky. There isn’t a margin for error or mistakes, so I’m very pleased to add to my list with this victory.

"Looking back at how the weekend started, from the time we hit the track, the work we did in every session, I just felt that the Action Express guys did a great job to get the car together in every kind of condition out there,” Nasr added. “This place gets pretty wild during the race. I had a pretty good start and was able to manage my pace, opening up a good lead. It was important to control the race, and everybody did their job – from pit stops to driver changes to keeping the wheels on. Eric did a great job as well, it was really a perfect day. My first pole position in IMSA and to get the win is very special.”

Curran was in a new role this season as the team’s endurance specialist. While the No. 31 car came only five points shy of winning the IMSA season title for a second year, it repeated as champions of the Michelin Endurance Cup, giving Action Express Racing a perfect six consecutive triumphs in the four-race competition since sport car racing’s unification in 2014.

“The Endurance Cup is a big deal championship to win, and Action Express just keeps winning one after another,” Curran said. “Road Atlanta has been good to me for years, but never a win. I’ve been trying to win this race for many years, and I’ve come in second a number of times. I’ve also won a few championships here as well. But to come up with a win at Petit Le Mans is pretty impressive.

“The Whelan Cadillac was strong all weekend long, one of the best cars I’d ever driven,” added Curran. “I hadn’t been in the car for a while, not since Watkins Glen, so to come here and try to do a good job for these guys is a bit tricky. They’ve done an unbelievable job all season, second in points and winning the endurance championship. Felipe and Pipo have been strong all year long. They’re a great combo, great teammates. It’s been fun to come on board and support them, try to have some good stints, keep the car out of trouble and up front. That was my job for the day, and these guys make it easy.”

Source: Sunday Group Management

BRASELTON, GA (12 October 2019) – Despite holding the lead of the ten hour Motul Petit Le Mans with less than 20 minutes to go, it was a third heartbreaking chapter for the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R at Road Atlanta on Saturday. 

Filipe Albuquerque pulled away on the final restart with 25 minutes remaining in the 10-hour enduro and seemed headed to victory lane. Only five minutes later, though, a brake rotor failure resulted in a trip to the pits and a seventh-place finish for the car co-driven by Joao Barbosa and Mike Conway.

Last year, Albuquerque ran out of fuel on the final lap while leading within sight of the checkered flag, having been called for a late race infraction in the 2017 edition of the event while fighting for the lead. 

Saturday evening spoiled a flawless run that saw the No. 5 Cadillac leading 150 laps while running in the top two for much of the event marked by extended green-flag stretches of racing. The race ran at a record-setting pace in front of a reported record-setting crowd as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship closed out the 50th Anniversary season of IMSA on a very high note. 

Unfortunately the closing moments of the race rewrote what was looking to be a picture-perfect ending for the team that has been a competitive force year in and year out. 

“It’s unbelievable really,” Conway said of the late race misfortune. “We drove a good race and everyone was doing a mega job. We got lucky there with the yellow but I could see smoke coming off the car in some of the braking zones, but couldn’t tell what it was. It must have been the brakes wearing away and then it just blew up. It’s a bummer given there was just 20 minutes left, but happy to have left the race with our sister car in the lead.”

The race was bittersweet for Barbosa, who has been a lead driver with the team since Mustang Sampling came on board Action Express Racing in 2015. Barbosa delivered another crisp performance under heavy pressure, managing tire wear, fuel consumption, and intense traffic to race the Mustang Sampling machine out front once again. 

“The car ran fantastic, and it is the last time I will drive the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac,” Barbosa said. “A big thank you to everyone at Action Express Racing. Everything comes to an end, but hopefully today is not my end. We have had a fantastic run with championships and Rolex 24 Hour wins. This is racing, but today I had hoped to finish it off with a win. I am so proud of this team and being a part of this, it has been very special. I don’t know what is next but I hope for another great chapter in the future. ”

While it will no longer be the primary sponsor for the No. 5 Cadillac, Mustang Sampling hopes to return to the sport in some capacity in the future.

SOURCE: Sunday Group Management

BRASELTON, GA (11 October 2019) –  Whelen Engineering Racing driver Felipe Nasr captured his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position in qualifying for the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Friday. The team has shown strong pace in the practice sessions leading up to the intense 15-minute session as Whelen Engineering Racing looks to make a winning close to the 2019 season. 

Nasr turned a quick lap of 1:08.457-seconds on the 12-turn, 2.54-mile circuit in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R that he shares with Pipo Derani and Eric Curran.

"I am very pleased with the lap and finally putting the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac on pole position,” said Nasr. “I feel like the car is alive and we are able to fight for a victory. Starting from pole gives us a great chance for the race. I want to dedicate this pole position to my Action Express Racing team. They have done an amazing job all year long and we finally are able to get the starting position we have been working for. I want to enjoy the race and work on maximizing our opportunity.” 

Nasr and Derani enter the finale trailing in the season championship by 12 points. The duo – joined by Curran – are second in the quest for their second-consecutive IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup (IMEC). They trail by only two points in a bid to make it a perfect six straight IMEC titles for Action Express Racing since 2014.

“We want to win the Endurance Cup – it’s big,” Nasr said. “Our chances for the overall championship are quite slim, so we want to maximize every stage of the race tomorrow, and then go for the victory.”

Nasr followed Derani as pole winner for the 10-hour classic. Derani led qualifying for a different team in 2018 – shortly after being announced as a new Whelen Engineering driver.

“Pipo’s not happy that I took away his track record,” Nasr smiled after qualifying. “This is my first IMSA pole. I’ve been close a couple of times, but never got the job done. It’s great to have one for the final race of the year.”

The No. 31 team has been strong all weekend, leading three of the four practices including Thursday evening’s 90-minute session.

“Straight out of the box, from the truck itself, I felt like we had a decent car,” Nasr said. “We were just working on the details, getting the tire pressures right. In qualifying, it’s all about nailing that lap. I felt pretty confident going into qualifying because I knew the car I had on my hands. I worked with my engineer on the final details and I think it paid off. Finally, the car feels alive again after all those races and we are able to be in contention for victory. Tomorrow is a day that we have to look at every opportunity out there to maximize the results.”

Saturday’s 22^nd Motul Petit Le Mans takes the green flag at 12:05 p.m ET on NBC.

DETROIT Mich.  (1 June 2019) – Fighting near the front for the entire race, Whelen Engineering Racing ran out of time in Saturday’s 100-minute Chevrolet Sports Car Classic, finishing a close second at the Belle Isle Circuit.

Charging all the way to the finish in pursuit of a second Detroit victory in as many years, Felipe Nasr came up just 0.802-seconds short in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. 

Nasr passed Ricky Taylor’s Acura to take second place with 22 minutes remaining. He closed up to the rear wing of winner Dane Cameron three times in the final 10 minutes, but was unable to make a pass on the tight street circuit.

Derani started third and was able to take second on the third lap of green-flag racing. He was running second when the team pitted for the driver change, with Nasr returning to the race in fourth position.

"It was a fantastic day for our championship run,” Derani said. “We wanted to win here at Detroit but we came very close, so we are happy with the points it gained us. At the beginning of the race it was difficult because we wanted to save fuel but also wanted to work up to the front. Today wasn't in the cards for us to win, but we will come back with another victory soon."

The team’s third podium finish of the season enabled Nasr and starting driver Pipo Derani to retain a five-point lead in the provisional IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi point standings.

Whelen Engineering Racing enters the second half of the DPi campaign with an endurance racing classic, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on June 30.

Reprint from Sunday Group Management

Whelen Engineering Fights to Fourth at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio (5 May 2019) – Whelen Engineering Racing finished fourth in a hard-fought race in Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio. Denied in a late-race bid to take a podium finish, Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani came away with a fourth-place finish for the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Unofficially, the Whelen Engineering team expanded its lead in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship point standings, and now leads by four points after four of the 10 race.

“In the big picture, we are coming out of Mid-Ohio with good points and building on this strong package we have with this Whelen Cadillac,” Nasr said. “I’m pleased, and looking forward to returning to Detroit and hopefully getting back up on top there again.”

The Whelen Engineering Cadillac ran in the top five throughout the race.

“I felt overall it was a good day in the car,” Nasr said. “We started fourth and Pipo had a good start, getting up to third. But we didn’t have the pace of those guys up front. We did all we could-every stop from the team was perfect.”

Nasr managed to run down and pass the third-place Mazda with six minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute event, but the move was disallowed due to a local caution flag.

“I had that Mazda in my sights to get on the podium, but I got held up for several laps by a lapped car and by the time I caught up to fight for a podium, we had the issue with the pass in yellow zone,” Nasr said. “I had given the position back already, but we still had to serve the penalty. So that cost us a bit.”

Derani started the race in fourth and managed to hold that position throughout his run, briefly running as high as second.

“Unfortunately we didn't have the car to fight for the top step, but it is one of those days where you think about the championship,” Derani said. “So it was positive in that regard. We finished the race with some good points and we will take it from here. It was clean weekend for us, always thinking about the championship and we will go on to Detroit. Hopefully we can be as strong as the team was there last year!”

The Whelen Engineering team returns to Detroit’s Belle Isle Circuit as defending winners of the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic, which will be held on Saturday, June 1.

Reprint from Sunday Group Management

Mustang Sampling Racing Eighth at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio (5 May 2019) – In a weekend highlighted by changing weather and track conditions, Mustang Sampling Racing emerged from nearly three hours of racing with an eighth-place finish in the Acura Sports Car Classic at Mid-Ohio.

Coming off a victory at Long Beach in the most recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event, Filipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa fought in the top five for most of the race. A chance to take advantage of a possible yellow flag later in the event didn’t yield the hoped-for outcome with the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R. While similar moves have resulted in victory for the team in the past, the hope-for caution failed to materialize.

“It was a crazy start, but overall that was the pace we had,” said Barbosa, who started the race in the fifth position. “I lost a little bit fighting with one of the Acuras initially. We were a fourth or fifth place car today.”

Looking to make up the disadvantage on pace, the team pitted under green with one hour remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race, as another car was stranded on track and appeared to need assistance from the IMSA emergency response team. But the stopped car found the fire and got moving again, as the pit exchange dropped Albuquerque from fifth to ninth position. The race remained under green until a late caution in the final 30 minutes – after all of the competitors had completed their pit work.

“We had a tough call there (with the final pit stop timing),” Barbosa said. “It could have worked out really well for us, but as the situation played out, it cost us a lot of places and in the end, we were too far to make it up so we will just be thinking about the next one.”

While the strategic call didn’t pan out, the team fought all the way to the finish.  

“We were quite good, fighting a little bit with the Penskes when we were in traffic,” Albuquerque said. “We were P5 and closing a little bit on our teammate for P4.  But then we saw an opportunity when there was a car stopped in a very dangerous place and there could be a yellow. We went for a stop but it went from an opportunity for a win to something that cost us a lot.

Having demonstrated well-executed strategy changes mid-race in the past, the team was hoping that it would deliver another new trophy on Sunday, but it didn’t play to that advantage. 

“I pitted very late and we didn't have a perfect stop and we lost a lap from the leaders,” Albuquerque said. “ I think that’s the thing about IMSA—even though we didn’t have the pace to win, we still had an opportunity to win this race. We had a shot with the strategy. If it had gone yellow, we could have won.  So it is a frustrating result, but just shows how anything can happen here. We will go on to the next one!”

The “next one” will be Detroit’s Belle Isle Circuit, with the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on Saturday, June 1.

Reprint from Wayne Taylor Racing

The aptly named Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington is situated midway between the sprawling metropolises of Columbus and Cleveland – about an hour’s drive in each direction. The duo of Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande hit the scenic 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course with their No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race and brought home, coincidentally enough, a midpack finish of sixth.

It’s the kind of finish this championship-caliber team typically would not write home about, but the shining light on an otherwise frustrating weekend was a positive move from fourth to third in the driver and team standings on a racetrack that has been its Achilles heel since it began racing there in 2004.
Wet conditions during both practices Friday and leading up to qualifying Saturday didn’t do the team any favors, leaving it with precious few laps to try and finally solve the Mid-Ohio layout with a race-winning setup.

Van der Zande qualified seventh and promptly dropped a position on a wild opening race lap of today’s two-hour, 40-minute race, settling into eighth and keeping the car there before handing it over to Taylor on lap 30 at the 40-minute mark.

Taylor resumed in eighth and also maintained that relative position through the second fuel-and-tire stop at the one-hour, 28-minute mark. He picked up a pair of positions when the No. 5 Action Express Cadillac DPi-V.R of Felipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa and the No. 54 Nissan DPi of Colin Braun and Jonathan Bennett decided to go off strategy from the leaders.

Taylor pitted a final time from sixth at the two-hour, two-minute mark and resumed in the same position. He chased his older brother and former co-driver Ricky Taylor in the No. 7 Team Penske Acura DPi for fifth over the final 38 minutes. He crossed the finish line .961 of a second behind his brother, who was the first car one lap down to the leaders.

“I think, all things considered, we knew this was probably going to be our toughest race of the year, so leaving here with sixth place isn’t the end of the world,” Taylor said. “We made up points on the 5 car, we only lost a couple to the 31 (Action Express Cadillac DPi-V.R) and the 7, who we’re close to in the championship. Damage control was kind of the name of the game today, judging by our pace. But I think, leaving with sixth, we can be somewhat happy and go to Detroit, where we should be pretty strong.”

The sixth-place finish enabled to No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R to leapfrog the No. 5 Action Express Cadillac from fourth to third in the standings, seven points behind the leading No. 31 Action Express Cadillac, which finished fourth today and was the final car on the lead lap.

“It was a very tough weekend,” van der Zande said. “I don’t think we had the right speed to attack, so it was damage control, like we knew up front. I think we drained the tires in qualifying because of the high pressures and I suffered with that during my stint quite a lot. After that, we got grip out of the tires a little better and better every time, and that’s the end result. A bit of luck here and there, but altogether we have some work to do on this track and I think we should look ahead from now on as we go to Detroit, which is a track that, historically, has been good for this team.”

Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya scored the victory today in their No. 6 Team Penske Acura DPi, leading a pair of Mazda DPi entries across the finish line by 2.022 seconds.

“It was a disappointing race,” team owner Wayne Taylor said. “We didn’t seem to have a car that was fast enough. Clearly, the Mazdas and the Acuras were in a different category to the Cadillacs. Luckily, the championship hasn’t changed that dramatically. We were fourth coming in, we’re third going out. So, we’ve just got to figure out why we were so slow.”

Round five of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at the Raceway on Belle Isle Park circuit Saturday, June 1. Live television coverage of the one-hour, 40-minute sprint race will be provided by NBCSN beginning at 12:30 p.m. EDT.

Source: Partial Reprint from Sunday Group Management,

LONG BEACH, Calif. (13 April 2019) – History repeated itself on Saturday for Mustang Sampling Racing on the streets of Long Beach, with Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque combining great pit strategy and strong race pace to score their second consecutive victory in the BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix co-driving the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R.

A year ago, Albuquerque took the lead on his final stop and led the final 31 laps for the lone victory of the season for the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing team. Saturday, the team’s final stop put Albuquerque in position to lead the final 29 laps on the challenging 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary circuit in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event.

A punctured right-front tire brought Albuquerque into the pits on lap 39 – pitting ahead of the other competitors. The team changed only that one Michelin tire as Albuquerque charged back on track on his out lap to seal his spot out in front on lap 45. 

Albuquerque faced several challenges down the stretch, but magnificent driving through GTLM traffic preserved his lead on the way to a 0.740-second margin of victory.

“It was very, very hard, because I starting to feel the tires dropping down,” Albuquerque said. “I started backing off a little to save the tires, but I made a mistake here and there so I said, ‘Forget it; I’m just going to push.’ My rear was all over the place, but it was good enough. It was an amazing strategy. We had a hard start with Joao, but he gave me a clean car and we came back.

“The way that we started, I was just thinking that we needed to collect points,” Albuquerque added. “When I got in, the car was just great and the strategy was great as well. Over the last 15 laps the rear was gone and that's why the Penske cars started closing in. I knew that they wanted the win badly and they were pushing hard.  Ricky Taylor was waiting for me to make a mistake, he had caught me very quickly from over 6 seconds back.  I knew we didn’t have the speed the Acura’s or Mazda, but at a narrow track like Long Beach catching is one thing, overtaking is another."

Barbosa started fourth but got caught up in traffic at the Fountain Turn on the opening lap, dropping back to eighth while avoiding contact. He managed to work his way back to sixth before his stop on the second of two cautions in the 100-minute event.

“We had a real rough start to the race, and I was just trying to avoid chaos to give Filipe a good car for the end,” Barbosa said. “I started saving fuel from the beginning. We had great pit stops and great strategy. We stopped at the right time when the tire went down, and the team knew what to do. We knew it would take too long to take four tires, so we made up a ton of positions by only changing one. We knew we could do it. It’s all about the team—unbelievable job today. When we thought everything was totally lost, they turned it around. We brought the car back and they gave us track position at the right time, and we just finished the job for another win.

“The Mustang Sampling Cadillac was awesome today,” Barbosa added. “We had great pace all the way up to the end with our Michelin tires, and we kept the Penskes behind us.”

After struggling with an electrical problem in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Mustang Sampling team took third in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Saturday’s victory boosted the two-time IMSA WeatherTech Champions to fourth in the unofficial points standings.