Wayne Taylor Racing will suffer with a new engine manufacturer for the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship in 2025, it’s a review with a sense of overwhelming familiarity.
The Déjà Vu hit Filipe Albuquerque when he entered the Dallara store in Indianapolis for a preseason seat and discovered a box with his gloves and equipment, just when he left them about five years ago the last time it was the wheel of a Cadillac.
“We have just resumed where we leave it, and the other right people are still there,” Albuquerque said. And that’s why it’s pretty. This makes it easier. Obviously, there are now more people because there is a component (hybrid) in the car, but it is not completely new. “
New is OldA Gain in WTR, who made a big replacement for the manufacturer via Go Backing to Cadillac (and the Dallara chassis) after a 4-season run with Acura in the Premier Tour prototype category, team owner Wayne Taylor likes the move as a return and to explain why: since 1990, Taylor’s cars have collected 39 wins and two prototype championships with Brands General Motors.
“It’s really like the family has come back together,” Wayne Taylor said. “Of all the programs I’ve done, this program I am more passionate about than any other one.”
Family has literal meaning in this case. Taylor’s sons, Ricky and Jordan, helped deliver Cadillac its first Rolex 24 at Daytona victory in 2017 (kicking off a charge to the season title). Jordan Taylor also was a part of WTR’s Rolex 24 wins with Cadillac in 2019-20 (and Ricky rejoined for the team’s 2021 victory at Daytona with Acura).
“For the team, it’s very much a homecoming,” said Ricky Taylor, who will be full time in the No. 10 V-Series.R with Albuquerque (and joined by Will Stevens and Brendon Hartley at Daytona). “My last time with Cadillac was the most successful year of all our careers, and it was just a dream come true, winning the Rolex, winning the first five races of the season and the championship with my brother and family team. You couldn’t write it better.”
Jordan Taylor, who will be a twin in the No. 40 WTR with Louis Deletraz (along with Alex Lynn and Kamui Kobayashi at Daytona), also has vibes after a year-long break interrupted a 2011-23 run with GM brands.
“They also gave me home,” he said. “Not only the staff but the car itself. I am used to a V8 and that the grunt sound of herbal suction engines makes me smile with other people, but both when I sat in the car, and the engine has begun. “
Wayne Taylor
Wayne Taylor (IMSA / lat images)
Deletraz is the only full-time WTR driver without Cadillac experience but still feels included because the enthusiasm is infectious.
“When all this gathered, you can listen to the team internal to all the stories of Cadillac, all the good fortune that happened and can see many other people smiling when they communicate about it, which makes him feel bigger as a driver,” he said Delltraz, who helped obtain twelve hours from Victoria de Sebring in his first full season in WTR. “If the other people around you are happy, they are older for the team. I think there is a lot of emotion towards this project, and in reality you can feel it in terms of objectives and management. All in Cadillac need to win. »
This includes N ° 31 Action Express Cadillac, which Albuquerque led from 2017 to 20. He left this team to register in WTR in 2021 just before the Acura movement. The team celebrated its destroyed beginnings by gaining its third consecutive place Rolex 24 while running in the stopwatch to adapt to new configurations, software and systems in the march.
Transitioning from a turbocharged engine to the 5. 5-liter DOHC V8, Albuquerque said it “overwhelmed the amount of stuff we have to do,” but also added that the older team caught up in this weekend’s roar ahead of this weekend’s roar before the Rolex 24 after having tested Cadillac last year on the Daytona foreign road course Speedway.
“I am absolutely lost with some of the parameters because the first time I drove the car was roaring (in 2021),” he said. “I was absolutely lost with Acura at that time. Now I did those two days of testing in November. It was a bit useful and I think that now, also with Ricky, Louis and Jordan, we know what we would like to have in the car. The sensation of the car and its operation is much less difficult and less difficult, and I am not so lost compared to what it was in 2021 “.
#40: Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, Cadillac V-Series.R, GTP: Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz
Louis Deletraz (left) and the Cadillac check of Jordan Taylor Wayne Taylor Racing in Daytona (IMSA photographs / Michael L. Levitt / lat).
Over two days on the 12-turn, 3.56-mile layout, Deletraz found comfort with the Cadillac’s braking and traction.
“It’s not that complicated; it just gives you intelligent feedback,” he said. “We’ve tried to be informed and replace a lot about the cars, check to perceive and be in such an imaginable position for Daytona. See other emotions because you can see other mindsets and where you can improve. “
One of those pilots is a familiar face for WTR. Kobayashi returns to the team where he won as a Rolex 24 superstar with consecutive victories in 2019-20. It will be the first Daytona departure in 3 years for Kobayashi, who won Toyota in the World Resistance Championship.
“The Rolex 24 is never easy, but WTR always has the best car and we have a great opportunity to win if we make no mistakes,” said Kobayashi, a Formula One veteran who also raced in the NASCAR Cup Series. “This team knows how to win this race. It is my first time in the LMDh car, and the hybrid is very different. Daytona’s schedule gives us time to understand the car. If we understand the car, we will be alright. I have big confidence in Wayne Taylor and his organization. His driver lineup is very strong, and the Cadillac knows performance.”
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