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GRAND-AM
IN THE COCKPIT: Ricky Taylor, Detroit
It was one of our biggest weekends of the year, in the backyard of our engine partner Chevrolet, in front of all of the IndyCar teams, and in my second chance to finish a race this year...
A mistake on pit lane cost Ricky Taylor and co-driver Max Angelelli a possible victory on GM's home soil of Detroit. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)
Hello. I am writing this from home and I still cannot believe I really made such devastating mistake this past weekend.
It was one of our biggest weekends of the year, in the backyard of our engine partner Chevrolet, in front of all of the IndyCar teams, and in my second chance to finish a race this year.
We were going for three straight wins and the team had a lot of momentum going into the weekend. Unfortunately, a mistake on my part took us out of a chance to win and, today, I will walk you through what happened.
Neither Max nor I had driven at the Belle Isle street course and we were both very excited to get going. Unfortunately, Friday practice was rained out (the first session) and rained on (the second session). Max’s first time on track – in essence – was late-Friday qualifying, where he did a great job to put our Corvette second on the grid.
Then we split the 30-minute warm-up session on Saturday morning, which was our first real chance to learn the track in the dry. We both got quite a good feel for it before the race but were still trying a few things in a few corners.
Max started the race and settled into a comfortable second place and ran there until our first stop at the 30-minute mark, when the yellow came out. I got in and the team did a great job to beat everyone out of the pits. The No. 01 (Ganassi car) beat the yellow, so they were the only car that would restart ahead of us.
At the restart, our car was working beautifully and we managed to get by and lead up until the halfway mark, when we urgently made a pit stop to try and beat an impending yellow. We pitted and did fuel only in hopes of regaining the lead after everyone else had pitted under yellow.
We put a lot of emphasis on our in and out laps, so I was hoping to get a good run out of the pits and have a good out lap. When I got to the end of the pit lane, I turned off the pit-speed limiter, which caught me off guard. I lost traction, which put the car sideways and I hit the wall very hard.
That was one of the worst feelings of my life. At first, I did not realize what had just happened, then hoped everything would be OK. But, after a few seconds, I realized something was seriously wrong as the car began crabbing down the straight.
So much hard work goes into one of these race weekends, and everyone on our team gives 100 percent every week, and my brain fade for a split second cost us an almost certain victory, considering our track position and strategy.
I have never felt so down and I still cannot believe it really happened. But, luckily, we are still only eight points out of the championship lead and our next race is the very next weekend at Mid-Ohio.
These couple of days at home are torture. I cannot wait to get back on track and make up for my mistake. We have an extremely strong team and I know it will keep up the great pit stops, keep giving us a great racecar, and that I will never make that same mistake again.
~Ricky
Ricky Taylor, 22-year-old son of three-time sports car champion and team owner Wayne Taylor, embarks on his third full season co-driving with veteran Max Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara of Wayne Taylor Racing. Follow him on Twitter: @RickyTaylor10 or at http://www.suntrustracing.com
It was one of our biggest weekends of the year, in the backyard of our engine partner Chevrolet, in front of all of the IndyCar teams, and in my second chance to finish a race this year.
We were going for three straight wins and the team had a lot of momentum going into the weekend. Unfortunately, a mistake on my part took us out of a chance to win and, today, I will walk you through what happened.
Neither Max nor I had driven at the Belle Isle street course and we were both very excited to get going. Unfortunately, Friday practice was rained out (the first session) and rained on (the second session). Max’s first time on track – in essence – was late-Friday qualifying, where he did a great job to put our Corvette second on the grid.
Then we split the 30-minute warm-up session on Saturday morning, which was our first real chance to learn the track in the dry. We both got quite a good feel for it before the race but were still trying a few things in a few corners.
Max started the race and settled into a comfortable second place and ran there until our first stop at the 30-minute mark, when the yellow came out. I got in and the team did a great job to beat everyone out of the pits. The No. 01 (Ganassi car) beat the yellow, so they were the only car that would restart ahead of us.
At the restart, our car was working beautifully and we managed to get by and lead up until the halfway mark, when we urgently made a pit stop to try and beat an impending yellow. We pitted and did fuel only in hopes of regaining the lead after everyone else had pitted under yellow.
We put a lot of emphasis on our in and out laps, so I was hoping to get a good run out of the pits and have a good out lap. When I got to the end of the pit lane, I turned off the pit-speed limiter, which caught me off guard. I lost traction, which put the car sideways and I hit the wall very hard.
That was one of the worst feelings of my life. At first, I did not realize what had just happened, then hoped everything would be OK. But, after a few seconds, I realized something was seriously wrong as the car began crabbing down the straight.
So much hard work goes into one of these race weekends, and everyone on our team gives 100 percent every week, and my brain fade for a split second cost us an almost certain victory, considering our track position and strategy.
I have never felt so down and I still cannot believe it really happened. But, luckily, we are still only eight points out of the championship lead and our next race is the very next weekend at Mid-Ohio.
These couple of days at home are torture. I cannot wait to get back on track and make up for my mistake. We have an extremely strong team and I know it will keep up the great pit stops, keep giving us a great racecar, and that I will never make that same mistake again.
~Ricky
Ricky Taylor, 22-year-old son of three-time sports car champion and team owner Wayne Taylor, embarks on his third full season co-driving with veteran Max Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara of Wayne Taylor Racing. Follow him on Twitter: @RickyTaylor10 or at http://www.suntrustracing.com
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