Taylor: GTP Title Prospects Focused On “Risk Management”

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Ricky Taylor believes the tight GTP championship battle will be about “risk management” heading into the final three class races of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

Taylor and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport co-driver Filipe Albuquerque enter this weekend’s round at Road America third in the standings but only 29 points behind the Action Express Racing pairing of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims.

With BMW M Team RLL’s Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly slotted into second in the standings, ten points away from the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R, it means all three driver pairings could leave Wisconsin as the points leaders if they win the race.

Taylor and Albuquerque, who have yet to reach victory lane this season, have endured a turbulent year that right-sided last time out at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with a runner-up finish in their Acura ARX-06 that put them back in the championship hunt.

“As we said last year, this was such a critical part in the season, putting us back in the championship hunt when the 60 [car] had some misfortune at the end of the race and Filipe was able to get by,” Taylor said.

“This year, it’s all about risk management. It’s been such a volatile season in terms of results, either on the podium fighting for wins or [a] DNF.

“I think Mosport was such a good reset for us where we went into it saying we just need a result. We can’t risk everything for the win, where before that it was, ‘risk anything to win the race.’

“Everybody’s had good and bad races this year. Every manufacturer has won. So I think we need to carry that rhythm and momentum from Mosport of fighting for podiums, and if the wins are there we’ll go for it.

“So much can still happen in the last three races. The points swing a lot. We’ve gone into Petit Le Mans the last three years separated by a race win gap.

“We’re just going to try and keep the pressure on, not lose this momentum that we have and hopefully let the performance on track determine what the outcome is instead of excessive risk.”

With the addition of the Proton Competition Porsche 963 to the grid this weekend, it means there will now be ten GTP cars, providing an even larger points swing in the class, should one of the title contenders hit trouble.

“It’s such a double-edged sword because you go into the races and if you take it too easy, you open yourselves up to the competitive nature of the series,” Taylor said.

“You could finish fifth or sixth and it’s a bit points swing. If you’re too risky and you [now] finish tenth, that’s a humongous points swing.

“You can come from nowhere — like we were at Mosport when we thought we were out of the championship — we had a decent day and the 31 had a really bad day and all of a sudden we’re right back in the fight.

“That was a little bit of a lesson for us on how volatile the championship can get.

“Ten cars is the biggest car [count] we’ve had. We’ll keep doing what we do and try to balance that risk, look at our competitors, look at the BMW and Cadillac.

“The Porsches are lingering there; they’re normally good on these smoother tracks. We’ll keep an eye on people.

“At the beginning of the season you’re just going for wins. But now we start having to watch our competitors for the championship a bit more.”

Taylor believes the next two races will be vital for setting up the championship showdown at Motul Petit Le Mans in October.

“We’ve been in the championship hunt every year and it’s been so tense going into Petit,” he said. “Each year it’s not gone our way.

“At least this year we’re coming from behind. I feel like in the past, with the team’s Daytona success and the first half of the year, I feel like we’re hanging on.

“Where this year we’ve got some momentum going the other way. If you look at it from that perspective, then it’s kind of exciting to be the chasers.

“At the same time, the points swing is so fast that you can basically say we’re all tied. It’s just a race result separating us.

“By the time we get to Petit, it’s not going to be any less stressful than any of the other years but I hope we’re the ones where it’s still in our hands to fight for it in because we want to be able to race for it on track.”

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