Matthieu Vaxiviere will join Wayne Taylor Racing alongside Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande in the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R for the remaining North American Endurance Cup events after Daytona.
Beginning with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March and continuing through the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in June and the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October, the 24-year-old French driver will take over for two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain and former Formula One and current WEC regular Kamui Kobayashi of Japan, who are joining Taylor and van der Zande behind the wheel of the Konica Minolta Cadillac for this weekend’s twice-around-the-clock endurance marathon at Daytona but are not available for Sebring after a decision taken by Toyota Gazoo Racing not to release their WEC stars for double duty.
“He’s someone that Max (Angelelli, team co-owner) has been watching for years, he’s young, a really a nice kid, and very professional,” said Wayne Taylor, the three-time sports-car-champion driver and two-time-championship owner whose team is seeking its second Rolex 24 win in its last three Daytona outings this weekend.
“He tested at Sebring for this year’s WEC race and immediately was the quickest of (those in) the LMP2 cars. He’s somebody we’ve been talking about for a while. Obviously we’re looking forward to seeing him in our car when we do our Sebring test in February and he should be an excellent fit with Jordan and Renger and the rest of our team.
“I’m so glad to join the Konica Minolta Cadillac team as a rookie in IMSA, it’s one of the best and iconic teams in the field,” said Vaxiviere, “It means a lot to me. My meetings with Wayne Taylor have been absolutely fantastic. He’s such a down-to-earth and trusting person, with the big help of Max Angelelli. To drive alongside Jordan and Renger will be a pleasure. They gave me a warm welcome and made me feel at home. There is a big family atmosphere inside this really, really professional team. I love that and I’m going to do my best to show what I’m capable of. I also would like to thank R-Motorsport for releasing me to do these iconic races.”
“It’s great that we will have Matthieu with us for the rest of our endurance races this year,” said Jordan Taylor, who co-drove the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R to the 2017 Rolex 24 victory with his older brother Ricky Taylor, four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, and veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli in the team’s first of five consecutive victories en route to that year’s series championship.
“For such a young guy, he already has a lot of experience in this type of racing in Europe. He has always proven to be one of the quickest guys in the races over there, so he was at the top of our list for candidates this year. This will be his first adventure into American racing, but I think he’s going to love it. It’s a much different style of racing than what they have over there, but I have no doubt he’s going to fit right in with the team and be a strong asset for us. We already spent a couple of days together in Indy doing seat fittings, and he fits in perfectly with our team.”
“I think Matthieu is a driver who worked himself up nicely in the world of sportscar racing and he’s been performing on a high level everywhere he’s jumped in,” said van der Zande, who joined Taylor as full-time co-driver last season and promptly qualified on the pole for the Rolex 24 in his very first race with the team. “It’s great that he’s joining us. I met him in Indy over the winter and he’s a guy who will fit well with Jordan and I. It will be good to see him in the car with us very soon.”
