Battles between automotive manufacturers go back to the inception of automotive vehicles.
Whether it’s a Chevrolet versus Ford pickup truck argument in the backyard, or a Ford versus Ferrari battle on the biggest stage of Le Mans, competition can be found throughout the automotive industry.
The manufacturer battle between Acura and Cadillac in this season’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype International class, has been nothing short of fierce.
The two Acura teams of Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing are tied atop the DPi standings, with the JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac only 17 markers behind.
As the series heads to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio, the Acura teams stress the importance of having a clean weekend with Cadillac-friendly tracks on the horizon.
“I feel like in the past few years, the parody of the cars has really suited certain places more than others,” said Ricky Taylor, co-driver of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05. “For the Acura, it’s Laguna (Seca), Mid-Ohio, Road America, those sorts of places that we really need to do our jobs and to get the most points possible. It’s kind of a replay gameplan from Laguna (Seca) and we just need to go win the race and get the most points again because once we get to Detroit, we expect it to swing back the other way. We want to just take advantage of those opportunities like we have at Mid-Ohio.”
Oliver Jarvis, who co-drove the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura, to a second-place finish May 1 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, echoed the importance of Mid-Ohio.
“I think it’s extremely important, for a couple of reasons,” Jarvis said. “First, it’s Mike (Shank’s) home race, the team’s home race. I was actually listening back to qualifying from last year, and I heard on the broadcast that, I believe they’ve never won there, so we’d love to do that, Tom (Blomqvist) and myself, and the team. It’d be amazing to win at their home track. But the other reason being that it’s a track that’s been very good for Acura in the past. As Ricky (Taylor) just mentioned it, it’s important that we capitalize on the tracks that do suit our car. We make the most of it and come away with maximum points. We’re getting into sort of halfway in the season, and a poor choice here could be crucial for the championship at the end.”
Taylor said the track surface is important to the Acura’s performance.
“The smoother the track and the higher the speed in the corners, the better it is,” Taylor said. “It comes down to just how low you can run the car. The Cadillac, you can run it wherever you want. The Acura, if it’s not just skimming the ground, it’s losing grip. So, when we go to a bumpy place like Detroit or Long Beach, which are also slow-speed corners, that’s where we suffer. When we go to Road America, the car’s also very, very efficient.”
Jarvis knows first-hand what it’s like competing against the Acura, after driving for the Mazda DPi program for two seasons before joining Meyer Shank Racing in 2022.
“I’ve been against the car, I’ve seen its strengths,” Jarvis said. “The Acura loves high speed. Turn one, and corners like that. It’s been stronger over the years, but we talk of Mid-Ohio as being an Acura track, but I watched qualifying back from last year, and also the race. I’ve said the Cadillacs were very strong there. If we look just at Laguna (Seca), the step they made from last year, to this year in qualifying, I think they were six-tenths behind last year and only one-tenth this year. So, I think it’s going to be a close fight if we make the assumption that they have made a step forward everywhere. If that trend continues, then I don’t think it’s going to be as clear cut as maybe people think.”
On top of the pressure of having to perform with points at a premium, weather may also become a factor on Sunday.
Showers are expected to fall around the 2 p.m. scheduled race time, which would provide another challenging element to an already difficult course to maneuver.
“It’s probably one of the scariest tracks in the wet, just because there’s zero grip,” Jarvis said. “In fact, scary’s not the word. It’s just not a huge amount of fun, as it’s just so low grip. It’ll be a new experience, I haven’t driven the Acura in the wet, so it’ll be interesting to see how that behaves. I certainly wouldn’t choose Mid-Ohio of all the tracks to race in the rain.”
Only time will tell whether precipitation will impact the race at Mid-Ohio. However, the top two teams in the DPi class will be keeping a watchful eye on the radar come Sunday, with hopes of protecting their advantage over the Cadillac teams.