ELKHART LAKE – Road racing fans got their endurance race at Road America. Wayne Taylor Racing got its first overall victory in more than two years.

Strategies changed frequently, The racing was every bit as competitive throughout the 6 hours of the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix as it was in a race less than half as long a year ago. A little cleaner, too.

“I think if you want more action than this, this is crazy,” co-winner Filipe Albuquerque said with a smile. “Up to the last laps....

“I love it here. It makes sense to have a 6-hour race here. The crowd is incredible coming around. Again, IMSA never fails to put a show on. I think it's spot on.

“Let's just enjoy the moment.”

Six hours did seem right Aug. 2 on a day with temperatures in the 70s and intermittent sun that peaked out enough to make changing track conditions one more variable.

Road America management brands the facility as “American’s National Park of Speed” and touts fans’ ability to move around the 640 acres. Six hours provided ample time for fans to do a 4-mile lap, even on foot, while the drivers did 151 of them in the longest major race in  Road America’s 71 years.

Although Road America does not announce numbers, management did say the crowd surpassed that for the NTT IndyCar Series event in June after running neck-and-neck in recent years.

Albuquerque, who teamed with Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Cadillac, took the lead through the timing of pit stops with 45 minutes to go. He was in when the caution flag flew and then held the spot for the final 36 laps.

“I think for all of us, it's a big relief,” Taylor said. “Obviously like since changing manufacturers [from Acura], we haven't performed at the level I think the expectations were.

“We just kept working harder and harder and harder, and the results weren't coming. So now to have a result, I feel like the way the race went, it wasn't a lucky one, the team did everything right.”

The duo also won at Road America in 2022.

The race finished under caution after Kevin Estre in the No. 7 Penske Porsche and Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac tangled in Turn 1 on a restart with 10 minutes to go while battling for second.

That gave second to the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports of Laurin Heinrich, Tijmen van der Helm and Kaylen Frederick, while Albuquerque’s and Taylor’s teammates Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz claimed the final podium spot.

Estre and Laurens Vanthoor were credited with 17th and Aitken and Earl Bamber were credited with 18th, although the results will remain unofficial until an in-depth investigation is complete.

The Inter Europol Competition team of Jeremy Clarke, Bijoy Garg and Tom Dillman won in LMP2, overcoming a penalty early in the race and a botched pit stop and catching a break when the final caution erased doubt about remaining fuel.

Pfaff Racing gave the new Laborghini Temerario its first IMSA victory with Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell at the wheel of its GTD Pro No. 9 entry. The victory ended a 36-race winless steak for the team that dated to 2023 and was its third at Road America following 2019 and ’21.

Winward Racing won in GTD with Russell Ward, Phillip Ellis and Indy Dontje in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG, its third class victory of the season and its second at Road America, following 2022.

To say the 54-car race was action-packed and entertaining is not to say it was perfect. There is room to build.

“I think the first step would be to try to get a bit more green flag out of the 6 hours because it was quite a lot of yellows,” Heinrich said.

Seven caution periods consumed 42 laps, including 10 of the opening 20 and 10 of the final 15.

“We knew last year this place deserves an endurance race,” Caldarelli said. “It was bit of chaos last year with a lot of penalties and so on. Since then I feel that everything started to chill out a little bit more with the driving.”

IMSA announced the 2027 schedule already in March with a 6-hour race again at Road America on Aug. 1.

Could it extend past dusk? IMSA and Road America had already kicked that idea around in general terms, and the idea was floated at the drivers meeting,