Taylor Brothers Back In Prototype Points Hunt

After a penalty for exceeding maximum drive time resulted in 16th-place points following the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor faced an uphill battle in the Prototype standings.

The outlook is much brighter for Wayne Taylor Racing entering Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda, though. After finishing second in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, Ricky won the TOTAL Pole Award and joined Jordan in dominating the Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach, where they led 73 of 78 laps in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP.

“We’ve found a lot of speed for this season and we’ve been ultra-competitive every race so far,” Jordan Taylor said. “That bodes well for us with what I feel is the best team in terms of strategy and execution in the pits. That got us in championship contention last year when we didn’t have the fastest car everywhere we went. So, this year, we just have to stay clean and not let mistakes get the better of us. I think we have a serious shot at the championship if we can do that.”

Daytona winners Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi of the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP lead the standings with 96 points. Second, three points back, is the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP with drivers Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook. Scott Pruett and Joey Hand have scored 86 points in the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley. The Taylors are tied with Eric Curran and Dane Cameron of the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP with 85 points each.

“Eleven points with seven races to go doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can be,” Ricky Taylor said. “We made up six points on the Action Express (No. 5)  car at Long Beach and that helped, for sure. That team has been solid ever since the beginning of last year and we are the team that has managed to stay closest to them in terms of results from race-to-race. We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing and hope the points work out in our favor at the end.”

Now, the brothers are looking forward to returning to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where they won a GRAND-AM Rolex Series race in 2013 and finished second in last year’s inaugural TUDOR Championship event – which was a two-hour race for the Prototype and Prototype Championship classes. This year’s race will combine all four classes in a two-hour, 40-minute event.

 “It’s nice to head to Laguna after our win at Long Beach,” Jordan Taylor said. “We’ve had strong runs at Laguna the past two years with a win and a second, so we have good history there. We know our car this year has the pace to compete for poles and wins. Last year, we struggled a little with outright pace, and that made the sprint races a little tougher. It’ll be a little bit of a longer race than Long Beach – more pit stops and more strategy – but, thankfully, we have the best guys for that.”

Wayne Taylor Racing has finished on the Mazda Raceway podium five times in its last six visits to the 2.238-mile, 11-turn racing jewel on the Central California coast, including a resounding victory by Jordan Taylor and veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli en route to the 2013 driver championship. Last year, the Taylor brothers led 36 tours of the circuit during the latter stages of the race there before being passed by the No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports LMP2 prototype of Johannes von Overbeek with 15 minutes to go and had to settle for second place.

Having shown a greater penchant for speed on race days this year, and with its head-turning qualifying performance at Long Beach two weekends ago, the team hopes it has the winning combination once again this weekend on one of its favorite stops on the tour.