SEBRING, Fla.— Twenty-one years to the day that race driver Wayne Taylor won the Twelve Hours of Sebring after winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona, race team owner Wayne Taylor got to congratulate his sons Ricky and Jordan, and team mate Alex Lynne, for performing the same feat.
The Taylor brothers and Lynne drove the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica-Minolta Cadillac DPi V.R across the finish line 13.6 seconds ahead of the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac, and two laps ahead of the similar #31 Whelen Engineering car.
The Taylors were fast, and their car performed as well as they did. As Ricky Taylor explained it, “The Cadillac DPi has run 36 hours without an issue. What more can you say about a brand-new car?”
The Cadillac is the class of the field—the series has tried to slow it dion by cutting its power or adding drag, but the car is simply the best-developed of all the prototypes.
That doesn’t explain with the WTR car keeps beating the identical Mustang Sampling and Whelen cars. That comes down to racing luck, and it comes down to the team—a fact the drivers well understand.
“I couldn’t be happier for our guys, they prepare an awesome race car,” Ricky said during the podium celebration. “The pit stops—Every time I could have passed somebody they said, ‘Don’t worry—we’ll pass them in the pits,' and we did. I didn’t have to pass anybody all race.”
Alex Lynne is new to the team, brought in to replace Max Angelelli and Jeff Gordon for the endurance races.
“What can I say?” he asked while acceting his trophy. “First race, first win. A real big thanks to Max (Angelleli) and Wayne (Taylor) for giving me the opportunity. Ricky and Jordan are two of the most fantastic team mates I’ve ever had.”
Though the team didn’t qualify well, starting sixth, the car ran strong through the two-thirds of the race. In the final four hours, the team swapped the lead with the #5 Mustang Sampling car, and dominated the final fifty laps, losing the lead only on pit stops.
Different cars had different set-ups. Some were strongest during the heat of the day, and some—like the Wayne Taylor car—came on as the track cooled. The formula for victory in an endurance race is to stay close until the final two stints, and then come on strong, and that is exactly how the Wayne Taylor Racing succeeded at Sebring.
