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GRAND-AM
IN THE COCKPIT: Ricky Taylor, Homestead-Miami
From an engineering, driving, and strategic standpoint Homestead can be unpredictable and extremely technical at times...
Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli celebrated victory in a rain-soaked battle at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)
The Homestead monkey is finally off of our backs! Homestead has historically been our single most challenging race for the past couple of years. From an engineering, driving, and strategic standpoint this race can be unpredictable and extremely technical at times.
Finally overcoming those obstacles and achieving our first win of the season was one of the most rewarding wins for the entire team for many different reasons.
For my first time on the SunTrust team I would be finishing a sprint race. This year Max and I will be switching the order each race and this weekend was my first turn to finish. I was very nervous about the opportunity to go up against all of the finishing drivers and to bear the responsibility of finishing; I could no longer make mistakes and depend on Max to recover for me. But Max gave me a lot of encouragement and support in addition to the years of teaching on and off the track, so I was as prepared as I could be.
Our engineer Brian and the guys did a lot of work coming up with a plan to tackle our past Homestead struggles and during practice we were really able to see results as our car was the best we had driven in the past few years at Homestead.
We had high hopes for our car in the race and were looking forward to a strong running in the dry condition but by the time qualifying came around, the rain had already come and it appeared that it would rain right through the race. By GRAND-AM’s rules we do not qualify in the wet so we would have to start by points which would put us in the back of the field.
The forecast was actually 100 percent rain for the start of the race, but we did not want to take a chance and go to a full rain setup. So as we walked down the pitlane race morning we could see by looking at the other cars, who was gambling on a full rain setup and who was like us and making minimal changes just in case the track dried at the end of the race.
Max started the race in treacherous conditions, magnified by the fact that he was in the back and had a wall of water covering the windshield from the spray of the cars ahead. He made a steady start and sat back to see how everything played out, then began to pick cars off one by one, narrowly avoiding a spinning Terry Borcheller on lap one. Through the difficult spray and super wet conditions, Max managed to get the car up into P3 before the first full course caution.
The caution came out and we did our driver change which was just past the 40 minute mark, meaning I would have a two hour stint ahead of me in the stressful and wet conditions. Driving in the wet is one of the most stressful things we have to do, the margin for error is so slight and making a mistake can have such consequences, so even a one hour stint can be completely mentally draining.
We went back to green and I was restarting in P3 behind Westbrook and Potolicchio who were yet to do driver changes. I knew they would have a good idea of the conditions and where the grip was on the track so I had planned to follow for a lap or two before attempting a move. But just as we went green, Potolicchio rammed into the back of Westbrook putting him in the mud and promoting us into the lead.
The very next lap going into turn two I felt as if I was going slowly enough into turn 2 but hit a puddle and went wide and onto the curb which allowed Potolicchio to cruise by, but he would have to serve a penalty for the contact with Westbrook. So with a good stop in the pits and some luck we were now leading, and had somehow pulled a gap of 22 seconds over the second place car of Pruett.
The track was a complete disaster; every lap going through turn two would be another car trying to get out of the mud. Many corners were completely flooded and the best rain line was actually to follow directly in another cars wake in order to prevent aquaplaning!
After what felt like hours, but was in reality only 15 laps, the full course caution came out for a car stuck on track. After the caution came out many cars dove to pitlane in order to make it to the end. Our guys had figured that the rain was going to get much worse and there would be many more yellows before the end of the race and we could possibly make it to the end on fuel, also considering the possibility that the race could even get cut short.
So we stayed out and as we did the rain began to increase and was then completely pouring, further flooding the track. We ran under caution for a long time before the conditions became so severe that it was even difficult to follow the pacecar and GRAND-AM was forced to end the race.
Although it was a shame for all of the fans that came to the race, it was the right decision and I was certainly not disappointed with it!
The track was completely flooded and going back to racing would have been very risky. A great strategy call to stay out and a comfortable car to drive made this win much easier on the drivers as we picked up the first win of the year. Next up is New Jersey Motorsports Park where we are hoping to improve on last year’s podium finish with a win!
~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
Finally overcoming those obstacles and achieving our first win of the season was one of the most rewarding wins for the entire team for many different reasons.
For my first time on the SunTrust team I would be finishing a sprint race. This year Max and I will be switching the order each race and this weekend was my first turn to finish. I was very nervous about the opportunity to go up against all of the finishing drivers and to bear the responsibility of finishing; I could no longer make mistakes and depend on Max to recover for me. But Max gave me a lot of encouragement and support in addition to the years of teaching on and off the track, so I was as prepared as I could be.
Our engineer Brian and the guys did a lot of work coming up with a plan to tackle our past Homestead struggles and during practice we were really able to see results as our car was the best we had driven in the past few years at Homestead.
We had high hopes for our car in the race and were looking forward to a strong running in the dry condition but by the time qualifying came around, the rain had already come and it appeared that it would rain right through the race. By GRAND-AM’s rules we do not qualify in the wet so we would have to start by points which would put us in the back of the field.
The forecast was actually 100 percent rain for the start of the race, but we did not want to take a chance and go to a full rain setup. So as we walked down the pitlane race morning we could see by looking at the other cars, who was gambling on a full rain setup and who was like us and making minimal changes just in case the track dried at the end of the race.
Max started the race in treacherous conditions, magnified by the fact that he was in the back and had a wall of water covering the windshield from the spray of the cars ahead. He made a steady start and sat back to see how everything played out, then began to pick cars off one by one, narrowly avoiding a spinning Terry Borcheller on lap one. Through the difficult spray and super wet conditions, Max managed to get the car up into P3 before the first full course caution.
The caution came out and we did our driver change which was just past the 40 minute mark, meaning I would have a two hour stint ahead of me in the stressful and wet conditions. Driving in the wet is one of the most stressful things we have to do, the margin for error is so slight and making a mistake can have such consequences, so even a one hour stint can be completely mentally draining.
We went back to green and I was restarting in P3 behind Westbrook and Potolicchio who were yet to do driver changes. I knew they would have a good idea of the conditions and where the grip was on the track so I had planned to follow for a lap or two before attempting a move. But just as we went green, Potolicchio rammed into the back of Westbrook putting him in the mud and promoting us into the lead.
The very next lap going into turn two I felt as if I was going slowly enough into turn 2 but hit a puddle and went wide and onto the curb which allowed Potolicchio to cruise by, but he would have to serve a penalty for the contact with Westbrook. So with a good stop in the pits and some luck we were now leading, and had somehow pulled a gap of 22 seconds over the second place car of Pruett.
The track was a complete disaster; every lap going through turn two would be another car trying to get out of the mud. Many corners were completely flooded and the best rain line was actually to follow directly in another cars wake in order to prevent aquaplaning!
After what felt like hours, but was in reality only 15 laps, the full course caution came out for a car stuck on track. After the caution came out many cars dove to pitlane in order to make it to the end. Our guys had figured that the rain was going to get much worse and there would be many more yellows before the end of the race and we could possibly make it to the end on fuel, also considering the possibility that the race could even get cut short.
So we stayed out and as we did the rain began to increase and was then completely pouring, further flooding the track. We ran under caution for a long time before the conditions became so severe that it was even difficult to follow the pacecar and GRAND-AM was forced to end the race.
Although it was a shame for all of the fans that came to the race, it was the right decision and I was certainly not disappointed with it!
The track was completely flooded and going back to racing would have been very risky. A great strategy call to stay out and a comfortable car to drive made this win much easier on the drivers as we picked up the first win of the year. Next up is New Jersey Motorsports Park where we are hoping to improve on last year’s podium finish with a win!
~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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