IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: SAHLEN'S SIX HOURS OF THE GLEN

June 22, 2025

Tom Blomqvist

Colin Braun

Louis Deletraz

Jordan Taylor

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get things started with our post-race interviews. We're joined by our second place finishers in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz.

Q. It's been a little while since you guys have been up this far. Just talk about how good it feels. It seems like both cars obviously in the last couple of races have been on the podium, second place. Do you guys feel like you're finally getting some momentum?

JORDAN TAYLOR: Yeah, I'd say it was a very good day. The 10 car had a good day in Detroit with a second place finish. I think we've been off the pace, Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach.

Mid-season I feel like we've learned a lot and kicked into gear. This weekend we felt competitive right from the get-go. We felt strong in practice 1. The race was kind of a mix-up. The strategy was kind of hard to follow for a lot of it, but once we got into the thick of it, we were a top 5 car the whole day.

Track position seemed super important, so it was tough to get it. We kind of sat third, fourth, fifth most of the day. But it seemed like whoever was out front could control the race.

The guys made a great call at the end, pitting Louis kind of out of sequence to put him in clean air, and we probably would have cycled up to fourth if the race had gone green, which would have been an improvement from where we were on the restart.

Yeah, I think the call kind of made our race with the yellow coming out late and putting us up into second, the 10 car made it in right before the yellow to put them in third.

WTR's first double podium as a two-car team, which is cool, and obviously a good day for Cadillac having two cars on the podium. I feel like we've turned a corner this year with a lot of the bad luck we've had, and hopefully that momentum can continue the rest of the year.

Q. Louis, take us through that last two laps or so with the restart, knowing where everybody was. Did you have an idea where everybody was on energy? You knew where you were. How close do you feel like you came to actually getting a win here?

LOUIS DELETRAZ: I mean, as Jordan said, it was a very nice race. I think very happy with the podium and the double podium for WTR. At the end I didn't know so much where we were at. There was a lot of things going on. But I knew I had more fuel than the cars ahead of me, and I knew I had a shot to go forward.

In the end the cars had pitted, but we were quite fast. But key to the race was really the early pit stop, get us out of sequence and have some pace.

So yeah, very happy with it, and big thank you to Cadillac and Wayne Taylor Racing.

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by our winners in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing, Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist. This is the team's 20th IMSA victory, second consecutive. The No. 93 team won at Detroit.

Colin, why don't you start us off. As I mentioned, kind of the same as those guys as far as having some momentum. The other car won at Detroit. Their other car finished second. Talk about how it feels to get back to Victory Lane here.

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, obviously great day for Acura, HRC, MSR, off the back of a great weekend in Detroit for that group, as well.

Yeah, very proud of everyone. It's been a challenging year at times. We've had a lot of things that haven't quite fallen our way on the 60 that I feel like if they did fall our way, we'd have a lot of different results. So it was nice today where it fell our way.

Obviously everyone did a super job. Tom did a great job at the end on the fuel save, and the guys did a really good job on the strategy, just really fine tuning in the numbers. And it was definitely stressful from my seat listening to those guys do all the math on the background.

Hats off to everyone. Huge day for our group, and keep that momentum going.

Q. Tom, by our telemetry you had 1 percent of energy left; how scary was that for you as you came to the checkered flag, and how concerned were you that Louis was going to get by you at the end?

TOM BLOMQVIST: Not really. We know, I guess, what we're going to have -- that was part of the plan. We knew obviously we committed to that. We were going to be able to go to the end regardless of the yellow.

So yeah, obviously the yellow made things a little less stressful. I could basically push the last few laps if I wanted to.

I think it's just a fantastic effort by our strategy guys to commit and give me the instruction so early on in the stints, that last stint. Ultimately that's what won us the race today.

But also, the car really came alive there for me those last couple of stints and enabled me to, I guess, have such good pace with hitting such a big fuel target, fuel number.

It all kind of came together for us there at the end. It was a bit of an up-and-down race. We got towards the front, went back, and we had a knew mishaps along the way. So it was great we were able to execute at the end and get the win.

So super happy for everyone on our crew on the No. 60, and again, another great win for Acura and MSR and all the guys and girls at HRC.

Q. Tom, on that final restart when you were following the top two cars, when did you realize that they had gone to pit road? Your eyes must have got pretty big like Christmas came at that point.

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, to be honest, I was a bit lost in the last stint. I asked for a drink at the next pit stop and they told me there was only 15 minutes to go in the race. I was a little bit out of sync with what the hell was actually happening in that race.

But yeah, that yellow came, and my engineer came on the radio and said we're looking good. Obviously I didn't have the instruction that the teammate car was going to pit just at the restart, but I wasn't really totally sure about the 31. But kind of the vibe on the radio call from the engineer, I could tell this is looking good for us.

Yeah, obviously it was very nice to see those two cars peel off there and have a nice clear track ahead of me on the last lap, so very thankful and grateful for that.

Q. Colin, I heard in your mid-race interview you talked about dealing with no wiper during the heavy rain phase. I wonder if you can reiterate your story for us in here.

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, I don't recommend that. That's not a great plan of attack. But yeah, unfortunately something got -- debris hit the wiper or something got lodged there, but I had no wiper for the whole race. With the heavy rain coming down it was really challenging when we weren't going too fast to see. Restarts, obviously, where all the spray is coming up, I had to kind of rely on the spotter telling me what was on my left and right, and looking out the side window more than the front windshield because I could not see anything.

I was definitely very glad when the rain started to come less and less and then eventually switched back to the slicks because it was definitely a big struggle there with no wiper for sure.

Q. Colin and Louis, with all the full course yellows, do you find it frustrating when the race never gets in a rhythm because of all the cautions that come out?

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, I would say it was a challenge at the start just with kind of the mixed conditions. We were obviously having rain, we were on the slicks. And what's going to happen? Is it going to keep coming? Is it going to dry?

Then obviously it did come, and we had to put rain tires on and then kind of reverse that cycle back to the slick tires.

A bit stressful, a bit kind of just make the right call, obviously, early in the race trying to be smart, not take too many risks and stay out of other people's messes, as well. Kind of a challenge to get into a rhythm there the first half of the race, let's say, but then the last stint we got a decent amount of dry running.

As the track rubbered up and gained grip and the temperature came up, a lot of things were changing with the car and the balance. So had to work a lot of the tools and try to maximize what we had.

But yeah, certainly a very changeable race for the first half.

LOUIS DELETRAZ: For sure it was a bit frustrating to not get going and so much time under yellow, so especially it's hot in the cars because when you don't have speed, just the cockpit and the heat is quite hard.

I'd have liked more green running, but we had a good day, and it is what it is with IMSA racing. So yeah, it's fine.

Q. For Colin, you've had an interesting history at this track. I'm wondering how gratifying today's win is for you to win at Watkins Glen.

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, it's great. Obviously this is a really cool racetrack. Love this place. Love the fan base. Been coming here for many years.

Anytime you can win at any IMSA race, it's a pretty special day. Watkins Glen is definitely an iconic one. I haven't won this race overall, so that's kind of neat to add to the overall race wins in IMSA.

Yeah, super great day.

Q. Jordan, with the conditions between the rain and the heat then, how grueling a six hours was that? Can you recall any that were --

JORDAN TAYLOR: For me it was okay, I just drove in the dry. It wasn't too bad. I was glad Louis was in there for the start. It looked horrific to run the hard tire here, and it's hard enough to get temp in it on dry conditions. So to be in mixed conditions at the start, I think the cars were 25 seconds off the pace the first couple laps. So extremely tricky. Impressive that everyone kind of kept it on the road.

But yeah, Watkins Glen always seems like it's a tricky race with rain popping up. I think with the elevation here, someone told me years ago that when the pressure comes over the track, it kind of forces that water out of the clouds, and that's why it always rains right up here on the hill.

It's always tricky here, but yeah, it's part of what makes IMSA racing that special.