For the first time in seven years, Jordan and Ricky Taylor are racing under the same roof – and if you’re new to the world of endurance sportscar racing, it’s kind of a big deal!
The brothers last drove for their father’s team, Wayne Taylor Racing, in 2017. That season, the two shared the same Cadillac DPi-V.R prototype, won the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona alongside Jeff Gordon and Max Angelelli, then won the inaugural DPi class title in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.
Since then, their paths have diverged. Ricky, the elder brother, joined Acura Team Penske the following year and then returned to WTR in 2021 behind the wheel of an Acura. By then, Jordan, the younger brother, had left the nest by necessity through his ties with General Motors, and became fully immersed in Corvette Racing starting in 2020.
But they’re back under one roof together again. Jordan is Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s new red and black #40 Acura ARX-06, and Ricky is staying in the established blue and black #10 car.
If you asked Jordan Taylor – the man who’s part-racing driver, part social media entertainer – he didn’t always see himself returning to prototypes.
“I mean, obviously, I grew up doing GT cars, then transitioned to prototypes from 2013-19. And then I felt like when I went back to GT cars, that was going to be where I was going to settle for my career and stay for a while,” says Jordan. “So to come back, it does feel like a big change again. A different chapter of my career, but it’s an exciting part.”
Jordan’s priorities in racing shifted, which led to his decision to leave General Motors after 12 years. His next move seemed inevitable, to come back to his father’s team and fly the flag for Honda and Acura.
“Talking with Ricky and everyone over the last couple of years, with this GTP programme growing so much, it was something that I knew I wanted to be a part of,” says Jordan. “So when the second car kind of became an option, the conversation started pretty early. And I’m just happy to be here, happy to be part of this new challenge.”
As it just so happened, Wayne Taylor and his new business partner Michael Andretti were growing. What is now Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti (WTRAndretti, for short) took up the second GTP class entry for Acura this year. It now gives WTRAndretti three cars across two classes of the IMSA WeatherTech series.
Ricky was part of the team when the announcement was made, and he’s overseen its massive growth in a short time, to the point that he doesn’t see this as the same team he first raced with when he was a teenager.
“It’s an entirely new team,” remarks Ricky. “I think we’ve lost the ‘family team’ feel. It’s become a gigantic race team, it’s become way more than what it used to be – for better and for worse, I think.
“The core group is still intact and is fighting to keep the agility of a small team. But at the same time, the resources and the amount of people has just exploded.”
And for Jordan, it’s been over four years since he last drove for WTRAndretti – and the change has been a lot to take in. “Back in 2017, when we had Jeff Gordon – we had a video of our pre-race meeting, and I think there were seven people in the room. That was our pre-race meeting.
“And now we have Zoom cameras in our meeting rooms here, so we can talk to the other trailer – just because there’s so many people that we need to have on every meeting. So, when I came back, it was a different team.
“The shop is the same up in Indianapolis, but they’ve redesigned all the offices to fit that many more engineers. The layout of the whole shop floor is just insanely packed with race cars. Now we have our two Acuras, but there’s five tubs – there’s the GTD car, there’s five (Lamborghini) Super Trofeo cars.
I don’t know anyone’s name any more!
“I don’t know anyone’s name any more!” Jordan laughs. “I think I know maybe two people on my car’s names at this point. That’s the biggest thing – just getting the personal relationships going.”
“The team has been so competitive every year. They’ve won this race so many times and been in the hunt every single year. For us, it was our family team – and now it’s grown into what it is now.”
Jordan and Ricky find themselves on opposite sides of the WTRAndretti garage, which always invites talk of a friendly, yet spirited sibling rivalry between the two. It existed in some form when Jordan was with WTR, and Ricky was with Penske.
Now representing the same team but in different cars, the discussion amongst fans is slightly different. Will Ricky and his former rival-turned-close ally Filipe Albuquerque continue to lead the way in the flagship number 10 car this year? Or will Jordan and his new co-driver Louis Deletraz burst onto the scene with their new car and assert themselves as the new flagship?
It matters less to the brothers themselves. To them, being able to operate as a two-car factory team, similar to Porsche Penske Motorsport and BMW M Team RLL, makes the team better all around.
“Having two cars is always going to be better than one for the reason that you can try different things strategically, setup-wise, and on the engineering side,” as Ricky explains. “You’ve got so many more drivers with feedback and input and their own experiences. And then on the racetrack, using two cars instead of one is just going to be so helpful.”
Jordan recalls the experience of his last job. “Being with Corvette Racing all these years when we had two cars – and then when we transitioned to one car, it was pretty obvious how big of a weakness it was at that point,” he says.
“You have double the development time, and double the amount of options to test different programmes. Coming here to Daytona, there’s always some compromise with the setup. And if you have one car, you are limited on the practice time – so now that we have two, we can split the work between both cars and hopefully come up with the best option to go to the race with.”
Wayne Taylor Racing isn’t the only entity that’s reshaped its identity lately, of course. What was once Honda Performance Development is now Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) USA – the latest move from the Japanese manufacturing giant which brings all of its major racing operations, on two and four wheels, around the world under a unified banner.
Ricky welcomes the change, more than just a new logo on his and his brother’s fire suits. “I think the evolution from HPD to HRC was really a great vision to put us on the world stage,” he says.
“We’re more connected with not just California but also Japan, and now HRC is directly connected to (North American) sportscar racing. I think the potential for the programme has always been there. But now another link has been made to connect the Acura ARX-06 to the rest of the world.”
It’s too early to predict from here that the next step is a WTRAndretti attack on the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Taylor brothers leading the charge – but that idea is much closer to reality than it would have been this time last year.
We’ve got drivers like Jenson Button and Marcus Ericsson this year, Formula One World Champions and Indy 500 winners that want to be on this team
For the moment, the first objective is to reclaim the Rolex 24 Hours for WTRAndretti and give Acura its fourth straight victory at Daytona. Each brother has the benefit of luxurious guest drivers to help them just as Gordon and Angelelli did seven years ago. In the blue corner with Ricky and Albuquerque, there’s four-time Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley and Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson. In the red corner with Jordan and Deletraz, there’s Formula One and SUPER GT Champion Jenson Button and another Andretti IndyCar star, Colton Herta.
“We’ve got drivers like Jenson Button and Marcus Ericsson this year, Formula One World Champions and Indy 500 winners that want to be on this team. And I think when you draw in guys like that, it’s something that my dad can be very proud of.”
At the end of the year, the prize is the GTD class championship. It’s something that’s eluded Ricky and the #10 team every year since he returned to WTR, and in two of those three years, it’s ended with a controversial on-track clash with Cadillac’s Action Express Racing team.
“I think we need to settle the championship before the last race!” Ricky says, when asked what it’ll take for them to finally win the series championship.
“It’s so competitive in this series, that I think it says a lot about the team that we’ve been there almost every year – but we have to finish the job at some point. And it just hasn’t fallen our way the last three years.”
By the end of 24 hours around Daytona International Speedway, one of the Taylor brothers may add another signature timepiece to their collections. Both have won the race overall twice – though Jordan’s GTLM class win in 2021 tips the scale in his favour when it comes to jewellery.
Will they? Nothing’s guaranteed, of course, but as part of a unified front, the Taylor brothers and their family team – albeit a much larger family team than the one they’ve known before – can’t be counted out.
And for them to be back together just feels right.
Images © Richard Dole, Jake Galstad, Michael L. Levitt / IMSA / Honda
