Taylors Trying to Reignite 2017 “Family Affair” in Le Mans

Photo: Cadillac Racing

Wayne Taylor said he’s hoping to reignite some of the magic from Wayne Taylor Racing’s last 24-hour race “family affair” in the team’s highly anticipated debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Indianapolis-based squad will be making its first official start at the French endurance classic next month, fielding a single factory Cadillac V-Series.R in the Hypercar class for Ricky and Jordan Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque.

It comes more than eight years after Ricky and Jordan were part of the team’s Rolex 24 at Daytona-winning lineup in a Cadillac DPi-V.R, a race that team owner Wayne remembers fondly.

“Obviously for me, personally, of everything that I wanted to achieve in my career both as a driver and as an owner, which I never ever thought that I would ever become an owner, it’s become as big as it was as a driver,” said Wayne.

“Effectively, the family has won just about everything going back to [the 2017 Rolex 24], when it was Ricky and Jordan and Max [Angelelli] and Jeff Gordon and me on the timing stand and my wife driving in the pace car.

“So, it was a real family affair. And, you know, we won that race at Daytona, won five in a row and won the championship. And I don’t think it’s ever been done before with the family.

“Having said that, we can’t replicate that, and we don’t want to replicate that. It’s never going to go away.

“When an opportunity came to run a two-car Cadillac program, it was an easy decision to put each of them in separate cars. When they asked me to apply for the Le Mans entry, I was really pleasantly and happily shocked that that they accepted us. And under the brand of Cadillac Racing.

“For this event, it was difficult to try and choose. You’ve got four drivers in two cars, and now we’re going to one car. So, obviously, Ricky and Filipe have been together for a long time, so they were a natural.

“And Jordan being in the same team and in different car, it really gave us the opportunity to try and do what we did at Daytona.

“Only this is going to be a much taller order. But whenever you get a chance to try and do it, you’ll go for it.

“We are going there to try and replicate what we did in Daytona, and it would be just amazing for not only us, but for Cadillac.

“They’re the ones that have invested in this. They’ve put a lot of engineering support behind it. They’ve done an enormous job in marketing and PR and being part of it is very humbling. So, we’re excited.”

Le Mans arguably marks the only major endurance race that a Taylor has not yet won overall.

While Wayne was victorious in 1998 aboard a Ferrari 333SP, but as a class winner, and Jordan took GTE-Pro honors with Corvette Racing in 2015, the family are still searching for an elusive outright victory in the French endurance classic.

Out of the brothers, Ricky, with nine previous starts, has the most diverse experience in the race, having previously competed in the GTE-Am, GTE-Pro LMP2 classes.

“I’ve driven every class except for the Hypercar class in Le Mans,” he said. “And I found out that there’s a lot of ways to lose that race.

“Le Mans is such a different race. The little things that make Le Mans different it’s just so important to keep going there and keep up to date with the little rule changes.

“And there’s so many details of how you can get yourself in trouble, whether it’s a Slow Zone or a restart after a safety car or walking in the pit lane when you’re not supposed to.

“There’s just so many small details that can cost you the race or help you to gain some positions in ways like some free lap time that you learn from just being involved in the race year after year.

“While none of us have experience in the top class in the current era, we’ll use our experience that we have from driving the other classes leading up to it and then filling in the gaps of what we’ve learned so far in the first four races this year to hopefully make ourselves successful.”

The team’s Le Mans debut comes on the heels of a difficult start to its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign and reunion with Cadillac, although Jordan said he’s hopeful that Cadillac’s effective four-car factory squad will pay dividends in France.

“I think from a team side, we’re executing quite well, considering how new we are to the car,” said Jordan. “And yet, heading to Le Mans, I think we all know it’s going to be a tough learning experience.

“Obviously, it’s the team’s first time there, so not just learning things on the track it’s all the logistics of getting there, getting the people there, understanding the rulesets, and obviously making a fast car.

“There’s a lot of a lot of hours going into it from the engineering side and from the team side. We’ve got a simulator session next week for two days.

“We’ve been working hard at it, and it is good that we do have JOTA and Action [Express] to kind of support us a little bit as well from the engineering side and experience side.

“JOTA has been there many times in LMP2 and last year in Hypercar and Action has been there twice now with the Cadillac, so there’s a lot of good data that we can dig through and understand.

“Once we do get there, it’ll be like having a four-car team, basically, which will all be sharing information.

“We’re excited to go as drivers. We’re excited to be competing for an overall win and representing Cadillac and it’s a huge stage. It’s a ton of competition, but I think everyone’s working toward battling for a podium.”

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