Ricky Taylor: Life Is Good
For Ricky Taylor, 2017 already has been a pretty good year.
In January, the eldest son of team owner Wayne Taylor co-drove the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R to victory in the 55th Rolex 24 At Daytona alongside his brother, Jordan, longtime family friend and mentor Max Angelelli, and four-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon.
There was a lot riding on this year’s Rolex 24. It was the debut race for Daytona Prototype international (DPi) and LM P2 Prototypes, and everybody in the field wanted to be the first to win in the new car.
Gordon brought considerable attention as a past NASCAR champion and multi-time Daytona 500 winner, and was competing in just his second Rolex 24 and first in 10 years. It was Angelelli’s last race before retirement from driving. And “unfinished business” became a somewhat official tagline for the team as they’d come close to victory several times over the past several years but missed out for one reason or another.
“There was a lot of pressure,” said Ricky Taylor in the post-race press conference at Daytona. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. Jeff Gordon [was] on our team.
“There’s just so many things. I see how hard my dad works to raise the money, and we’ve got about a million Konica Minolta people here this weekend, Cadillac people, and there’s so much riding on this program. To be a part of validating what everybody does and making, hopefully, my dad’s life a little bit easier and in the meantime, proving what me and Jordan can do behind the wheel, that’s important.”
Both Ricky and Jordan Taylor clearly proved what they could do behind the wheel in the race, earning national – even international – recognition. Among those who recognized Ricky’s ability was the Team Penske IndyCar team, who presented him with a unique opportunity to test the No. 1 Chevrolet IndyCar normally driven by 2016 champion Simon Pagenaud.
So, while Jordan Taylor and new teammate Alex Lynn – who has joined the No. 10 as the new endurance race specialist following Angelelli’s retirement – were testing the Cadillac DPi at an IMSA-sanctioned test at Sebring International Raceway on Thursday, Feb. 23, Ricky was 180 miles away, testing Pagenaud’s IndyCar on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“It was a super fun day,” Ricky said. “Getting to share the car with Simon and to work with Team Penske and all the Chevy guys was kind of surreal. They had a whole test plan. As far as I was concerned, I was trying to do a good job for them. They don’t get many test days, so I wanted to do the best job I could and give them some value for that one day.”
The circumstances behind Taylor’s test weren’t dissimilar to the ones that brought Gordon back to the No. 10 team for the 2017 Rolex 24. Gordon’s previous Rolex 24 run came with Wayne Taylor Racing in 2007 alongside co-drivers Angelelli, Jan Magnussen and Wayne Taylor himself. They finished third, after which Gordon returned to full-time NASCAR competition with a vow to try the Rolex 24 again after he retired from NASCAR.
Gordon and Wayne Taylor stayed in touch over the years, which led to his return to the Rolex 24 this year. There is some history between Team Penske and Wayne Taylor Racing, also.
“Thinking back to [2009], when Penske ran the DP and working with Wayne Taylor Racing, I guess everybody kind of kept in touch through the whole stretch,” explained Ricky Taylor. “My name came up when they were talking about who could do this rookie test. I think they had a certain goal in mind when they were talking about what they wanted out of it, and hopefully, I checked some boxes and did a decent job to use that valuable one day.”
In addition to the full day of on-track activity at Homestead, Ricky also spent a day on the simulator before the test, which he attributed to helping him get up to speed. And while the Chevrolet IndyCar is clearly a different beast from the Cadillac DPi, as Ricky pointed out, “It’s just a race car at the end of the day, although it does a lot of awesome things.
“It’s got a ton of downforce. It responds to the driver’s inputs just like any other race car would. Driving-wise, your driving style might be a little bit different, but it kind of responds in the same ways. I think if you just adapt yourself a little bit, you can kind of work your way up to it. Simon and the whole team were awesome, giving me tons of feedback, looking at data and just making sure I could get comfortable in the car and everything. That really helped me get up to speed.”
Clearly, the highlight of the year so far was when Ricky and his fellow co-drivers were awarded Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph watches, emblematic of their victory in the Rolex 24. The No. 10 team will get back after it on March 18 at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.
And while Ricky and the team would love nothing more than to score back-to-back Daytona and Sebring victories, he admits life has been pretty good so far this year.
“Yeah, I’ll never have another three weeks like that,” he said. “I’m just loving this moment and I know I’m super lucky at the moment. This will be an era of my life that I’ll never forget. It’ll always be a special time.”
Source : imsa.com
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