Wayne Taylor Racing Takes Fourth Straight Win In Cadillac DPi-V.R
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Wayne Taylor Racing’s Jordan and Ricky Taylor drove their No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R to a fourth consecutive overall win in Saturday’s IMSA Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown from Circuit of the Americas.
The Wayne Taylor Racing squad qualified on pole for the race, with Ricky turning in a lap that was nearly a second and a half faster than the next fastest car, the No. 22 Tequila Patrón ESM Nissan DPi. The team was never really challenged for the lead, with Ricky driving a dominant opening stint before turning driving duties over to Jordan. The younger Taylor brother put in an equally as strong performance, setting the fastest lap of the race and beating the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R of Action Express to the finish line by nearly 20 seconds.
“It was really nice today,” said Ricky Taylor post-race. “It was one of the best race cars I’ve ever had. The team has just done an amazing preparation for this car. We’re just getting to know it more and more. Every race weekend we’re learning. This weekend, it shows how much we’ve developed through the year. We unloaded off the truck really strong, then qualified really well. It was fantastic.”
The podium was occupied solely by Cadillac drivers, with the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R rounding out the podium. The result marked the second sweep of the podium for Cadillac in four races so far this year, with the first coming at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Cadillac DPi-V.Rs dominant performance is here to stay, it would seem, with the DPi-V.R proving to be faster than the competition Saturday despite heavy Balance of Performance changes. It’s also more reliable than the next-fastest prototype, the Nissan DPi, with the No. 2 Nissan car having caught fire in spectacular fashion towards the end of Saturday’s race.
“I think we surprised ourselves,” Jordan Taylor said. “We knew why the car was fast yesterday because we made a qualifying setup for the car. And then we went back to race settings and we thought it’d come back to us. It came back a little bit.
“We didn’t have the same gap, but I think it shows how well our team is operating with this Cadillac.”
The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship heads to Detroit next for the Chevrolet Sportscar Classic from Belle Isle Park. Click here for full results from COTA and here for a full schedule for Belle Isle.
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Let me repeat what I wrote a few days ago at a message which had already droppod out of immediate visibility:
I understand that this Cadillac race car is a prototype according to to Le Mans specifications, or at least close to those.
I wonder why GM does not enter this car in the 24 hours Le Mans race.
That would be a major step to introduce Cadillac in Europe.
One might remember that when VW in 1998 acquired the Rolls Royce Motorcar company for 1.400 million DM (corr. to 736 million €), the rights to the brand Rolls Royce were sold to BMW. VW started to build up the Bentley brand, entering a Bentley EXP Speed 8 in the 24 hours Le Mans races 2001, winning the first two places in 2003. The brand then withdrew, and sister VW subsidiary Audi took over again. Anyway, Bentley had made an impression. The race cars were shown around at events.
The Cadillac brand is well known in Europe, but — in my mind at least — it is still thought of as a “US car”, i.e. imaged as one of those huge barges with a wobbly suspension and lots of wasted space. Participating in a prototype class in a 24 hours Le Mans race could change that.
7 the Wayne Taylor team has stated they would like to go but it is up yo Cadillac.
Now the rules would make some changes ad they will not be in with all they Hybrids that are the primary class.
What I would watch for is this car is only act one. They went yo race with a pro built chassis and the same engine they have been running.
Once the bugs are worked out and it appears they mostly are look for Cadillac to add Cadillac V8 to the mix that will tie in to the introduction in the road car.
To race the same engine you will be selling and working to convince the world is world class would make the Le Mans stage perfect.
But to go now would not do much for the present line as much of it will change soon and the engine is going to be replaced.
Even Porsche takes these moves in steps and works the rules.
Even a Le Mans win will not solve all things for Cadillac but it can help but they must be ready as a failure could do a lot of damage.
JDN knows what it takes as being at Audi during their run there. Timing and product is everything and till it is in place we just have to enjoy this run here in IMSA.
Note too the WTR team is World class but the teams in Europe are just as well tuned if not better due to experience at the race. The IMSA competition is not all world class. Even Action the second best team has struggled.
@Scott3 “Even a Le Mans win will not solve all things for Cadillac but it can help but they must be ready as a failure could do a lot of damage.”
I have to tell you that my reaction to see imagery of Cadillac race cars on this forum during the past years was always disbelief, thinking “Cadillac and racing does not rhyme”. Racing does not rhyme with Cadillac as being a plushy US car, styled in a US-style of so called luxury. And I think that I am not so alone in my perception,
But, OK, I thought, rethinking the VW story with Rolls and Bentley, where one thinks of Rolls Royce also more as an very old style car, and how VW turned that around for Bentley, with going to Le Mans with a Bentley branded race car — whose construction relied heavily on its Audi R8 brother. And whose victory in 2003 was helped by Audi not taking part in the 2003 Le Mans 24 hours.
That might be an advantage which Bentley could use but which is not available to GM. The Corvettes starting in in the GT classes are something else. They fight sucessfully for class victories, but not for the overall victory, which is more or less reserved to the P1 cars.
Being here could help to change the perception of Cadillac at least in Europe. Or fight the prejudices, if you prefer it to put that way.
Adding this…
The other minor premium brands like Jaguar or Maserati are attractive because of their image, the Jaguar E-type or former Maserati racing successes. Cadillac suffers from being perceived a US car “more barge then speed boat”.
Changing that perception could open a door to Cadillac.
They shoud be sure, of course, not to break down and quite the race in the first four hours, and get at least a respectable finishing result, even if not winning right at the first appearance.
Have a look at this years race with Ford entering, I believe, 4 F40 in GT class.