Taylor “Excited” to Take Le Mans Lessons into Watkins Glen

Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI

Ricky Taylor said he’s “excited” to take the lessons learned, and new-found pace with the Cadillac V-Series.R, into this weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen as Wayne Taylor Racing returns to home soil.

Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Jordan Taylor recorded a ninth place in the French endurance classic in the No. 101 WTR entry, a result that was not representative of their true pace that could have easily seen a top-five result.

The encouraging Le Mans run came off the team’s first podium finish of the season in the last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race on the streets of Detroit, showing upward momentum for the crew.

“It’s nice just to get a bit of a rhythm of the season going,” said Taylor. “We don’t race that often. It feels like we’re in the car a lot lately, which has been nice.

“Also, the team has been performing well. I think we’re gaining a bit of momentum with the car.

“After the podium in Detroit [then] some strong pace in Le Mans. [There were] a couple of issues got in the way of a result, but I think the momentum of the team is there.

“I feel like all the drivers are sort of on their game, so [I’m] excited [for this weekend].

Taylor admitted the No. 10 Cadillac’s season has been up-and-down, which included finishing third at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring before a post-race technical infraction sent the car to the back of the finish order.

“I think looking at our season as a whole, we had pretty good pace in Daytona, where we didn’t get to show the result at the end, or Sebring where we had decent pace,” he said.

“And then Le Mans was pretty good. We had some rough races in between there, but Le Mans, the pace was good.

“If I’m noticing trends, it’s like we have pretty good qualifying pace, and then relative to the 31 [car], we just seem to struggle a little bit in the races. But at Le Mans our pace was improved.

“Le Mans is probably closest to something like Watkins Glen on our schedule, very smooth, high speed, so hopefully we can carry some of that through.

“It’s also a long race. It’ll be nice to get back in the rhythm with just Filipe and I in the car. I think it does apply, and I think the team is really motivated.

“Having one car for Le Mans also was really good to get everybody focused on one thing, whereas two cars can be quite daunting.

“And as good as we are, as good as the team is, I think focusing on one was able to get into all the details, which these cars are so detailed these days that it makes a difference.

“So we can now kind of apply that here, here at home.”

He added: “In fact making it to HP2 (Hyperpole 2) and having a legitimate chance at fighting for pole, and honestly, it was a bit of a weird feeling to be fighting at the front again.

“It’s been so long since we’ve been consistently at the front. It has been really hard. It’s been a trying time.

“So, it’s really motivating. I don’t think the motivation has ever gone away. I think being used to being in that situation again.

“I think we just have to get back to that being a usual occurrence, and I think having a taste of it in Le Mans definitely made us hungry in that respect, but the motivation was never lost. It’s just been a bit of a frustrating couple years.”

Taylor Explains Le Mans Penalties That Dashed Hopes of Top-Five

The WTR Cadillac entry incurred four drive-through penalties at Le Mans for either Full Course Yellow or Slow Zone infractions in the race, which put the car a lap down and out of contention during the final safety car period.

While both yellow-flag procedures are specific to the race, and in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Taylor revealed that Albuquerque’s final two penalties were a bit of a mystery.

“That was really the defining factor of the race,” he said. “Unfortunately, I had one right off the bat. And the first, my first FCY, which was just a mistake by me.

“And then Filipe had one, and then there were two more that were nothing that he did wrong, but we’re still kind of looking at how to prevent that in the future.

“Obviously, for us on the IMSA side, we don’t experience that very much, but it was something unrelated, that wasn’t the fault of anyone on the team.”

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