Continental Tire IMSA Driver Spotlight: Jordan Taylor

Driver Spotlight: Jordan Taylor
Driver, No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP
Follow: @jordan10taylor

You looked like you might have two wins in a row last Sunday until you spent a couple laps in the pits. Tell us a little about your race at Road America.

“We had a tough weekend in Wisconsin. We started a little behind the eight ball, pace wise, and struggled to get the car comfortable for Ricky (Taylor, co-driver) and I. We were making big changes each session, and thankfully for the race, it was the best the car had been all weekend. Ricky had a great two stints, leading for about forty five minutes before handing the car over. About halfway through my first stint we had something break on the right rear and were forced to pit and fix it. 

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You’ve had a bit of an up and down season. What is your strategy for the final two races?

“We are kind of out of the championship fight after this last race, so we have to just go for race wins. There’s no point to go to these next two races and race conservatively, because we have nothing to lose. We found some things late in the weekend at Road America that we are pretty excited about exploring. Hopefully we can use those changes in the final two races and into 2016.”

The Prototype class moves to a new car in 2017. How is your team preparing for that evolution?

“We’re trying to plan ahead as much as we can, but right now we are focusing on the present. We have two more races to try and win this year. Since 2016 will be with this same package, we can’t stop working on and developing this car, because we want to win the championship next year.”

Looking ahead to COTA, what are some of the challenges that the track presents?

“COTA is probably one of the most technical tracks on our schedule. It has lots of corners, all of which present a different challenge. You have high speed and low speed corners, long duration, off camber, esses, long straights, big brake zones, pretty much everything. It makes it tricky to setup up the car, because you are going to have to make some sort of compromise.”

We hear you took a road trip back to Chicago with a couple of the Chicago Fire players. How did that go? Any good road trip stories?

“It was an awesome trip. It was really cool getting to know Sean (Johnson, goalie for the Chicago Fire) and Lovel (Palmer, defender for the Chicago Fire) and understand what their lives are like as professional soccer players. It’s always interesting to hear what it takes in other sports to make it to that kind of level. We had a lot of fun, ate some cheese curds, which was a first for them, and kicked the soccer ball around at a gas station, which was pretty embarrassing.”