This year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance race – the first round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – will feature a packed grid with no fewer than twenty cars running in the Prototype class. That has defending Rolex 24 winner Jordan Taylor of the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R a bit concerned about the Wayne Taylor Racing team’s chances at pulling off another win there.
“I think it’s going to be the toughest Rolex 24 we’ve seen in recent memory,” Taylor says. “Every year we come back to Daytona, it seems like 75 percent of the grid could win the race. That was with 10 to 15 cars. Now we have 20 cars in our class.
“Everyone in the class is now world class, from teams to drivers. It’s going to be tougher than ever, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.”
This year, Jordan Taylor will be partnered with Dutch racing driver Renger van der Zande full-time, as his brother Ricky left Wayne Taylor Racing after the close of the 2017 season to drive for Team Penske. For the Rolex 24 at Daytona and a few of the other longer races of the season, the two will be joined by 2012 IndyCar Champ Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Despite the packed field, Jordan Taylor says he’s “confident” in his team’s chances. Van der Zande “fits in really well” at Wayne Taylor Racing, he says, and the Cadillac DPi-V.R “is proven in speed and reliability.”
This year, the Cadillac DPi-V.R has been fitted with a smaller, 5.5-liter engine (in place of the old 6.2) that could help deliver a flatter torque curve.
(Source: Motorsport)
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