The wait was agonisingly long: 792 days to be exact. But Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing finally got back to winning ways in IMSA this afternoon in front of a record-breaking crowd at Road America, sparking a flood of emotion across the team.
Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor in its #10 Cadillac V-Series.R ended the drought, which dated back to the race at Detroit in 2024, emerging victorious in the Wisconsin circuit’s first-ever six-hour IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race. It was an incident-packed encounter – particularly in the closing stages – at times mimicking last year’s chaotic sprint race, before finishing under yellow after an hefty incident for the championship-leading #31 Action Express Cadillac and #6 Penske Porsche at what would be the final restart.
But Wayne Taylor Racing won’t care about that one bit. For the longstanding, decorated IMSA team, it was a sorely-needed win, and a double podium after the sister car snuck into third. “I started wondering if I knew what I was doing,” team owner Wayne Taylor admitted post race, “but we did it. The team needed this so badly.”
After a particularly challenging 2025 campaign, its first back with Cadillac in IMSA following a stint with Acura, there were signs in the races leading up to this one that things were beginning to come together – particularly at Le Mans when the team looked revitalised. But bad luck, small errors, or a combination of both, cost the team visits to victory lane time after time.
Today though, everything fell into place, on a day which saw penalties doled out left, right, and centre and Cadillac’s other GTP team, Action Express Racing, crash out and finish off the podium for the first time since IMSA’s last visit to Road America 12 months ago.
“I think for all of us, it’s a big relief,” Ricky Taylor said in the presser. “Since changing manufacturers we haven’t performed at the level I think the expectations were. The results weren’t coming. The confidence was dropping. Everybody starts doubting themselves.
“But I think the important thing is that the team never blamed each other. We just kept working harder and harder and harder, and the results weren’t coming. So now to have a result, I feel like the way the race went, it wasn’t a lucky one, the team did everything right. We were sort of in the race for the second half of the race, fighting for the win.
“I just think it’s awesome that Filipe was in the car at the end. The relationship we’ve had since 2021, we work so well together on and off the track. Yeah, I think to share it with him, obviously the team is tight-knit, it’s more than a family team. Everybody on the team feels like family at this point. I think for everybody, it’s a huge relief and nice testament to the work that everybody’s doing.”
Executing a clean race was crucial here. The Cadillacs weren’t the quickest over a single lap in qualifying, or over the course of the race, but the #10 crew were quick enough to remain in contention and sensible enough to avoid the glare of race control. It was a performance akin to Action Express during its uber-consistent run of form since Indianapolis last season, and a reward for the hard work ongoing behind the scenes that the team has been putting in to get on top of the V-Series.R package and turn things around.
The factory Porsches looked to be capable of winning at times, but got caught up in incidents. Acura, which locked out the front row, had its race unravell and fall apart, and Aston Martin THOR Team’s Valkyrie, which came closest on the road to the winning Caddy, lost second to a penalty applied post-race. It was yet another wild GTP race to add to the list this season, but this time, Wayne Taylor Racing wasn’t left licking its wounds on the journey home.
“Today was just a special day,” Albuquerque explained. “I think everything worked out perfectly. We passed the #31, went to the lead. We maintained it from there. 10 laps to go, okay, cruising, because it was a nice lead. But those restarts were tricky because I knew that the Porsche is very, very strong. I needed to be very focused for that.
“Ultimately, it’s more than a win. We’ve won many other races, but this feels way more special than others, almost a like championship, because of how much we overcame and being together as a team and been working hard. When you come from the bottom to the top, prove that you can still do it is a great, great feeling, especially just before the summer holidays.”
Images © Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com
