DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After an offseason he described as “hell,” one that featured a major changeover when he severed ties with the manufacturer that supported him for nearly three decades, Wayne Taylor is ready to celebrate. And so is his wife, Shelley, who calls to ask when he’d be leaving Daytona International Speedway to head to their central Florida home.
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Awaiting Wayne Taylor will be a glass of his favorite red wine and a plain cheese pizza, no toppings. Shelley will have a Tito’s and soda with a splash of cranberry. And the couple will toast Taylor’s Acura ARX-05 DPi earning a hard-fought overall victory in this weekend’s 59th Rolex 24 endurance sports car race with drivers Filipe Albuquerque, Helio Castroneves, Alexander Rossi and Wayne’s oldest son, Ricky.
For Wayne Taylor, 64, winning is not some new accomplishment. Twice he achieved victory as a driver in the twice-around-the-clock race, and Sunday’s win was a record-tying third consecutive as a team owner, fourth in the past five years and his fifth overall, one short of the record held by Chip Ganassi.
This year’s win, however, was different from the previous triumphs. As he leaned against a chain-link fence in the Daytona garage he had a hard time putting it into context.
“A great feeling, a great accomplishment,” Taylor told The Athletic.
Yes, 2017 carried great significance. That year he won with sons Ricky and Jordan, longtime business partner Max Angelelli and NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon. Wins also carried meaning in 2019, when Wayne and Jordan were joined in victory lane by Fernando Alonso, Renger van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi, and 2020, when the winning driver lineup had van der Zande, Kobayashi, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon, but neither of the Taylor sons.
But this offseason, Taylor decided to end his 28-year association with General Motors in order to become a factory-supported Acura team, and completely revamp his driver lineup, bringing back Ricky upon Team Penske’s departure from the series, pairing him with Albuquerque full-time for 2021, adding Rossi as a third driver for the endurance races and Castroneves for the Rolex 24. Such change left little time for preparation and offseason testing. Although Ricky, Castroneves and Rossi drove the Acura for Team Penske, Albuquerque, who has raced Cadillac DPis since 2017, didn’t have a chance to test the car.
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When asked what this offseason entailed because of the transition, Taylor initially lets out an exasperated, “Ah, fuck” before continuing.
“It’s definitely been challenging,” he said. “What’s been going on with politics, what’s going on with the COVID-19 virus. I’m South African and I haven’t been able to fly anywhere in the world, and my mom is 84 years old and I haven’t seen her for over a year. And then we were building a new program and we got the cars really late. We had no time to test them so we just built them and came straight here. I mean, it’s a lot of stress.”
Wayne Taylor Racing’s win gives Acura its first victory in the Rolex 24. (Jasen Vinlove / USA Today)
If Taylor’s stress level was high coming into the weekend, the way the Rolex 24 unfolded certainly didn’t help his anxiety.
In the sports car equivalent of a backlot brawl, WTR exchanged haymakers over the final hours with Cadillac-supported Chip Ganassi Racing and Action Express Racing — both piloted by his former drivers — and Team Mazda. At various points, each team looked like it would claim victory.
The battle with CGR was especially tense.
With two hours remaining, Ricky was behind the wheel of the No. 10 WTR Acura, though he was feeling the effects of a triple stint. Albuquerque was semi-rested and ready, but Wayne left it up to his son to make the call whether to make a driver change. Believing the conditions favored a driver who wasn’t worn down, and one who understood the current wind and track conditions, Ricky opted to get out.
“(Albuquerque) only had 50 minutes or so of rest and got in there and was an absolute monster,” Ricky said. “He carried the effort at the end.”
Albuquerque got in with about 90 minutes remaining and from there, he and Ganassi’s van der Zande staged a memorable duel. That van der Zande had driven for WTR for the past three seasons and had been dumped in favor of Albuquerque and Ricky added to the drama.
It is coming down to the final MINUTES in DPi 🤯🤯🤯#IMSA / @Rolex24Hours pic.twitter.com/vn3AvGwWKl
— IMSA (@IMSA) January 31, 2021
Any chance of van der Zande passing Albuquerque ended when his car suffered a puncture to its right-rear tire with eight minutes remaining. Albuquerque won the Rolex 24 by nearly 5 seconds over the No. 48 Action Express car, driven by Kobayashi, Jimmie Johnson, Simon Pagenaud and Mike Rockenfeller. It was the first Rolex win for Castroneves and Rossi, and the second win for Albuquerque (an overall winner with Mustang Sampling in 2018) and Ricky Taylor.
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“(van der Zande) nearly passed me, but then he was kind of steady for four or five laps,” Albuquerque said. “He was not really getting in there. I was just counting. ‘One more lap. One more lap in the lead.’ When he blew, we were lucky. But there is nobody who has ever won Daytona or any championship without luck.”
Wayne Taylor watched the proceedings atop the WTR pit box, seemingly struggling to maintain his composure. He even later joked in a victory lane interview with NBC Sports that he was sipping vodka to calm his nerves. (He confessed to The Athletic that he was joking and was actually drinking Evian water.)
It was an all-around successful day for the Taylor family. Jordan won the GTLM class with Corvette Racing as part of a three-driver lineup with Antonio Garcia and Nicky Catsburg. The family could not celebrate at the track, though; it was announced after the race that Garcia tested positive for COVID-19 “in preparation to depart the country,” according to a Chevrolet spokesperson, and had been pulled from the car Sunday morning. Jordan Taylor said postrace he would likely self-isolate until he’s safe, “and then I’ll go knock on my parents’ door next door to me and congratulate them when I’m all clear.”
Ricky Taylor and dad Wayne (far right) celebrate their second shared Rolex 24 overall victory. ( Jake Galstad / courtesy of IMSA)
Nearly three hours after the race was over, Wayne Taylor reflected on the final 30 minutes of the race, dismissing that he was all that worried. Instead, he explained that he trusted Albuquerque to close out the win using his experience and ability. And the Portuguese driver proved his boss correct.
“We knew that we had a little bit in hand,” Taylor said. “Filipe knew exactly how Renger drives and what he was going to do. So we just set a pace and we just stuck to what our plan was.”
The plan culminated in a victory unlike any Taylor has experienced in his career. A win that obviously meant a lot, as evidenced by the fact he was carrying the trophy around the garage with both arms firmly around it.
(Jordan Bianchi / For The Athletic)
“I’m just so happy because it’s just so much energy, so much passion, so much everything about this organization that I just love,” Taylor said. “It’s really about people at the end of the day, and these guys race, they want to race and they want to win. (The drivers and Acura have) never won the 24 hours before. So today was extra special.”
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So special it’s worthy of being celebrated by sipping a nice bottle of wine and eating some pizza.
(Top photo: John Raoux / Associated Press)
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