After four years apart, Wayne Taylor Racing has reunited with Cadillac. Wayne Taylor, the team principal, said he was “rejuvenated.”
After finishing second in the Rolex 24 at Daytona three times in four years in partnership with Chevrolet from 2013 to 2016, a switch to Cadillac in 2017 yielded three victories in four events. The team won again in 2021 with Acura, and Wayne Taylor also won as a driver in 1996 and 2005.
“I’ve had many years of involvement with Cadillac, both from a team owner’s perspective and as a driver,” Taylor said in an interview this month. “But those four years were special.”
In 2021, the team left Cadillac and signed with Honda and its Acura brand. The reason, Taylor said, was because he felt “Cadillac, at that time, were really not that committed.
“When I wanted to get a commitment,” he continued, “I didn’t feel that real eagerness by them to partner in a program.
“Acura had just done three years with Roger Penske, and they hadn’t won Daytona or [12 Hours of] Sebring. When they first approached me, they said, ‘Look, you’ve won five of these 24s, and we need that.’”
Wayne Taylor Racing and Acura won Daytona in their first year together and were second in 2022 and 2023. Their best result at Sebring was fourth.
Taylor said the last two years with Acura in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship were “pretty miserable, and I was thinking, ‘Man, I don’t know, I don’t think I want to stay doing this anymore.’”
After leaving Cadillac in 2021, he felt bridges had been burned, but a chance meeting with Mark Reuss, the president of General Motors, whom Taylor considered a friend, sparked a reunion.
“When we chatted again, I just said, ‘Hey, Mark, any chance of me coming back?’ He said, ‘Of course, when can you?’ I said, ‘Well, my contract goes through end of ’24.’ He said, ‘So, ’25?’ I said, ‘Yes, ’25.’ Then I thought, ‘He’s going to fly back and forget about it.’”
A phone call soon after paved the way. Taylor said dealing with G.M. now was “just a totally different entity.”
“Mark is very committed to racing, very committed to the Cadillac brand, as we can see with the other stuff that is going on with the Formula 1 engine program,” he said. “But as much as Formula 1’s a big deal, he’s a real sports car fan.
“They are so aware, from a global perspective, of what motor racing really does, whether it be Formula 1 or sports cars, and this is really exciting me. I can’t believe I still get excited about these things. I feel like I’m 25, because it’s just so cool working with these people. It’s rejuvenated me.”
For G.M., the feeling of excitement is mutual. In tandem with Wayne Taylor Racing, Cadillac will feature two of its V-Series.R in the G.T.P. class. A third is run by Cadillac Whelen Engineering.
“It’s exciting for us, and not just because of the long history and the relationship,” Eric Warren, the executive director of G.M. Global Motorsports Competition, said in an interview this month. “The important part is the success we have had with Wayne, particularly in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
“We want to continue to expand and invest; this is a key part of it. We thought that from the very beginning. We looked at the whole program, and to have another opportunity with Wayne, given the history with Wayne, it was a natural decision.”
Warren said the situation at G.M. Motorsports changed in 2019 when it began to build up the engineering organization, which included his initial appointment as the director of Motorsports Competition NASCAR Programs, before taking on his current role in 2023.
“We started building, recruiting and taking the approach that G.M. has always had this racing DNA, and we were going to race,” he said. “We’ve structured ourselves to be at the track, build tools and technologies for the race teams and be in it, be with them, which sounds easy to say but is hard to execute.”
“There is more pressure in representing the brand than in trying to recreate something,” he said. “If you look backwards, you are going to lose. The motivation is from a technical perspective, the pure competition, and building that culture of winning.”
Warren, G.M. and Cadillac know the pain of defeat at Daytona. Last year, with Whelen Engineering, Cadillac lost the lead in the race in the final hour during a pit stop under a caution period.
“I’m anxious and nervous every race morning, no matter the series,” Warren said. “I feel if we don’t win, we fail, and it takes a long time to learn how to deal with that.”
Four drivers will each take to the wheel of the two Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs. Taylor’s sons, Ricky and Jordan, will be in different cars. Ricky will be joined in the No. 10 by Filipe Albuquerque, Will Stevens and Brendon Hartley; Jordan in No. 40 by Louis Delétraz, Alex Lynn and Kamui Kobayashi.
Kobayashi is bidding for a third win in three starts at Daytona with Wayne Taylor Racing after triumphing in 2019 and 2020. As the team principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe’s World Endurance Championship team, he ended his relationship with Wayne Taylor Racing after it partnered with Honda Acura in 2021.
Kobayashi, a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and two-time W.E.C. champion, said Akio Toyoda, the chairman of Toyota, had given his blessing. “I spoke with my boss, and he allowed me to take this opportunity,” he said in an interview this month.
“I’m very appreciative to be back with W.T.R. I’ve always had a good connection with Wayne. He has always had a huge spirit to win races. If he has a 1 percent chance, he will take it.”
With the return of the partnership, Kobayashi said he was confident he would grab his third Daytona win. “The driver lineup is really strong,” he said. “And, of course, with Cadillac, it is a competitive car.”
Stevens, who drove for Wayne Taylor Racing in 2022, finishing second at Daytona, said he had “unfinished business” with the team.
“I always felt and believed at some point we would be back together again,” he said in an interview this month. “This is the perfect time for that to happen, with Cadillac coming on board.
“The history they have together as a partnership has always been very successful, and we have all the ingredients for that to happen again. Hopefully, we can kick-start that off in Daytona.”
From a driver’s perspective, the opportunity to win a race is all that counts. Ricky Taylor said G.M. had provided financial support, engineering resources and personnel that had made this opportunity “super exciting.”
“I can just see the momentum and how excited everybody is around the program,” he said in an interview this month. “As much as I didn’t think I needed to be motivated to try to win more races, it’s even more motivating to see everybody else is putting everything into this.
“My dad’s been with G.M. for so many years, and he keeps saying he’s never seen this level of excitement or interest from a manufacturer.”
Wayne Taylor said he felt “very positive” about his chances of winning for a seventh time at Daytona.
“The reason is I’ve watched the Cadillacs, and no matter which track they went to, they were always competitive,” he said. “But we face tough competition. You can never write off Penske, and BMW is fast. It’s going to be a great race for the fans.”
