Mazda Team Joest adds Taylor to engineering team

Justin Taylor is headed back to a familiar working environment as a race engineer for the Joest Racing-led Mazda Daytona Prototype international effort.

The Colorado native, who served in an identical capacity under technical director Ralf Juttner at the Audi Sport Team Joest LMP1-Hybrid FIA World Endurance Championship program, spent 2017 in new territory as race engineer for JR Hildebrand in the Verizon IndyCar Series with Ed Carpenter Racing. Given the chance to return to a top-tier prototype effort, Taylor leapt at the opportunity to reconnect with his old family.

"When the news of Joest coming to IMSA was announced something just felt right about it so, when the phone rang and I saw it was Ralf, there was not much negotiating necessary," Taylor told RACER. "The chance to reunite with so many great people and take on the level of competition currently in IMSA would be silly to pass up."

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Taylor took part in the first tests of Mazda's RT24-P in Germany last month and will continue assisting the chassis-wide revamping efforts that will be necessary to take on Acura, Cadillac, and Nissan when the new season commences in January.

"We have a big job on our hands just to get used to the new car and manufacturer in such a hurry," he said. "The Mazda and Multimatic [chassis] guys have reacted very positively to our input and things are going really well in testing so I think we have a lot to be hopeful for."

After earning two podiums with Hildebrand on ovals – which were new to Taylor – and a sixth-place qualifying run at the Indy 500, he wouldn't mind getting another crack at open-wheel racing at some point in the future.

"It was not an easy thing to leave Audi after 11 years but it doesn't feel very much different leaving ECR after only one year," he said. "Every person there welcomed me and made me part of their family from my first day. I'm very thankful for that and for the massive opportunity which was given to me by Ed Carpenter himself. Hopefully I get another chance to work with them again, as I have a lot of unfinished business in the series."