Taylor: WTR Can ‘Take Risks’ Based on Points Position

Jordan Taylor feels that Wayne Taylor Racing “can take as much risk as it wants to” in the latter rounds of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship based on its position in the DPi points standings.

The 2017 title-winning Cadillac DPi squad is currently fifth in the championship with Taylor and Renger van der Zande sat 19 points off the top spot.

Taylor told Sportscar365 that the team can view this weekend’s IMSA Road Race Showcase at Road America as an opportunity for a good result after finishing outside the top five in three of the last four races.

WTR’s last podium came in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring back in March, while January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona marked its most recent DPi victory.

“We’ve had races where we should have finished better than we did, like Detroit and Long Beach where we gave up quite a lot of points,” Taylor told Sportscar365.

“We can’t complain about where we are championship-wise. We’ve kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit.

“Mid-Ohio wasn’t a bad race for us, but we’ve got three races left and we’re too far back in the championship to race for the championship, so we’re just going to have to go for race wins from here on out.

“We can take as much risk as we want to now, on track and with strategy.”

Looking ahead to Road America, Taylor believes the Cadillacs will no longer be “stuck in the mid-pack” as was the case at the recent Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park rounds.

He pointed to the updated Balance of Performance, which saw the Mazda RT24-Ps handed a 20kg weight increase after back-to-back victories, as an opportunity for WTR to regain a spot in the lead battle.

The Cadillacs were also handed additional weight in the pre-Road America BoP but this was counteracted by positive changes to their air restrictor diameters.

“We think we’ll be more in line with the Mazda now since they got a pretty big hit,” said Taylor.

“We gained and we lost, but we think the Mazda has lost enough that we could equal them. But we still feel that the Acura and the Nissan are a little bit ahead of us.

“The Nissan had huge top speed at CTMP, and obviously top speed is huge here at Road America. They’ll be super strong, and the Acuras have been strong all year but haven’t really been hit with BoP since the middle of the year.

“I think they’re probably in the best position. But I think we’re better off than we were in the last two events where we were stuck in the mid-pack.”

John Dagys contributed to this report.