Ricky Taylor at LM24: A tale of many seasons

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times and, with apologies to Charles Dickens, it's been a time of mixed fortunes and a bright future for Ricky Taylor so far in 2017.

The 27-year-old has played a central role in Wayne Taylor Racing's perfectly dominating start to the 2017 IMSA WeatherTch SportsCar Championship season in the Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R. On the other hand, here at the 24 Hours of Le Mans finds himself in a decidedly underdog role driving the Keating Motorsports LMP2 Riley Mk30 (pictured, above) he's sharing with Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen; that is if you define "underdog" as qualifying more than 10 seconds slower than the LMP2 pace-setters . . . and consider this is the Riley MK30's Le Mans debut... and consider Keating Motorsports is the only team running the Riley here at Le Mans.

"It's been really tough. The pace of these cars is crazy!" says Taylor (pictured). "The fact that it's, technically, a gentleman driver class and the quick cars are turning 3:25 laps is unbelievable.

"I think it's tough any time a constructor only has one car, particularly when the other manufacturers have raced in this class for a season. This is Riley's first stab at LMP2. Together with Multimatic, they've learned a lot the past couple of days and the past six months with the car, so when they make an update I'm sure it's going to be a really good one. So this week we've just been working our way through it, trying to make progress when and where we can but there are also some fundamental things we can't do anything about here at the track that will have to wait for a big update.

"Le Mans is so much about drag and aero. I think this car is probably more suited to a shorter racetrack with a high-downforce setup. All the other constructors have been to Le Mans in P1 or P2, so they know the balance between running Le Mans and the rest of the season. It's really tough to go at it cold without any of that experience; I mean, Bill (Riley) had plenty of experience here but it's been a couple of years since he's been here and the cars have changed a lot; it's so much about efficiency and aero now but when the updates come, I think they're completely capable of nailing it."

"Here we're the new, inexperienced ones running a single brand-new car," he says. "In IMSA we've got the numbers on our side running three Cadillacs; we were the first cars on track and there's a lot of experience behind the program from Dallara and Cadillac. I've no doubt Riley and Multimatic will get there, but it is two opposite sides of the learning curve.

"For me it's good to be here at Le Mans this year, especially with the jump the P2s have made. So hopefully if I come back next year I'll know what to expect from the cars and, obviously, learning to work with Bill, Jeroen and Ben is really great experience, really good for me. So even though we're 10 seconds off, we're still learning, still improving and still enjoying working together. Everybody gets along really well; it's been a fun week . . . apart from the competitiveness."

The 2017 season is not even half over, and the scope and diversity of cars Taylor has driven would make Mario Andretti proud. However, Taylor is quick to pour ice water on speculation there could be a switch to IndyCar racing for himself or Wayne Taylor Racing in the forseeable future. But turn the question around – ask whether he would be in the picture should persistent rumors of a Penske Racing return to sports car racing bear fruit, and Taylor is considerably less definite. It comes down to the age old question of whether blood is thicker than Penske...

"The IndyCar test was an extra bonus in what was already a good year," he says. "Really a good experience. Everyone's always asking, 'Are you going IndyCar racing?' even though it was just one test. But I don't foresee that in the future. I'm focused on sports car racing.

"What if Penske goes sports car racing? That's the big question. It would be a huge opportunity for me and for my own career. I think if it was three years ago and I got an offer like that I'd have jumped at it in a heartbeat. But now with Cadillac, Dallara, the whole team and all the success we've had, I would find it really hard to let that go.

"To be perfectly clear – that hasn't happened yet. But I can say that if I do get an offer from Roger Penske, it's not going to be an easy decision. And that's a great position to be in. But no matter what, having them in IMSA – if that's what they choose to do – would be great for the series, great for everyone."