Ricky Taylor Left in “Pure Disappointment” After Crash

Image: IMSA

Ricky Taylor was left in “pure disappointment” with himself after ending the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in the tire barriers following a failed pass for the lead with two laps to go.

Taylor, in the pole-sitting No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06, mounted an impressive recovery drive following an issue with the driver change during the team’s one-and-only pit stop that dropped the car from the lead to fifth in the GTP running order.

Having carved his way through the field, Taylor made a bold move for second around the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell with nine minutes to go and then hunted down Campbell’s teammate Mathieu Jaminet in the race-leading No. 6 Porsche in the closing moments.

“I had no idea where we were, track position-wise, who was where,” Taylor told Sportscar365. “They were just telling me next car ahead.

“It’s not easy to pass here and [Matt] Campbell did a really good job holding me off. He was far off our pace. It took a lot of risk to get by him.”

“Then I wasn’t sure when I was going to get another chance [to go for the win]. Jaminet compared to Campbell was better in the infield, better on power-down.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy to make a move. In that particular lap he had a moment in the last sector so we were really close and I thought this was my only chance.”

Taylor then got alongside Jaminet entering Turn 1 but said he had trouble in the second half of the brake zone, which saw the Acura end up in the barriers.

“It wasn’t so late,” he said. “Mid way through the brake zone I felt the pass was done and I was OK.

“Then the second half of the brake zone, I don’t know if the track was still green in that portion — we don’t really brake that aggressively on the inside there — I just slid wide.

“All of the hard work was kinda for nothing in the end.”

Taylor added: “We clearly had the dominant car. Filipe [Albuquerque] did a great first stint. These short races seem simple on paper.

“We’re the kind of team that wants to win, especially for Acura here when we had the best car. At the end of the day that’s what I was going for.”

The race-ending crash came after the team failed to finish last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring after Albuquerque was involved in a three-car pileup while also battling for the win in the closing stages.

“Being the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, I think anything short of a win wasn’t enough when we have that sort of opportunity,” Taylor said.

“This was my sixth year coming here with Acura and really wanting to give them a win after all this improvement and hard work.

“There’s over 200 people at HPD making the car as good as it was.

“For me it was pure disappointment and I’ll be thinking about this for a while.

“The wins are going to come. It’s not a matter of if. But unfortunately today I think coming from a little bit behind made it a little bit tough.

“We proved that the team, HPD and Acura and ORECA, everybody gave us the best car, and I think everybody saw that. It’s just a shame the results don’t show it.”

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John