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GRAND-AM
IN THE COCKPIT: Ricky Taylor, Rolex 24
After months of build-up and anticipation leading up to the Daytona 24-hour this year, I think many people on the team felt we were as prepared as we had ever been to finally take victory at the historic event...
SunTrust Racing's Ricky Taylor had a disappointing Rolex 24 at Daytona, with their Corvette DP completing only 14 laps in the race before retirement with engine problems. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)
OK, well… that’s that. That was the only response that came to mind following our premature exit from the historic 50th running of the Rolex 24. After months of build-up and anticipation leading up to the Daytona 24-hour this year, I think many people on the team felt we were as prepared as we had ever been to finally take victory at the historic event.
Leading up to the event, I was looking forward to making up for last year’s race and finally make it to the end in a position where we could fight for the win. All of the guys on the team had worked extremely hard to get our SunTrust Corvette DP ready for this race.
On multiple occasions, the guys were at the shop past midnight preparing the car. After strengthening, lightening, tightening, and giving a good rubdown to the racecar, we were more confident than ever that we had a car to win the race.
The team practiced pit stops each and every day, it practiced changing splitters, radiators, gearboxes, complete rear ends, and many more areas of the car to make sure that, if we did have a problem during the race, we would lose minimal time in the pits.
Race day came and we were still confident but unsure about the outright pace everyone else was going to run. Max started the car and it was immediately apparent that the Ford-powered cars had been holding back throughout testing and practice as they shot off into the distance. Max settled in and was driving conservatively to not get caught up in any major battles.
Then, some strange numbers showed up on the telemetry and Max began to lose power, so he was instructed to pit and go straight back to the garage. After about 10 minutes, the crew changed many pieces and decided to go out and see if the problem was fixed. However the problem returned, but worse, and Max brought the car in again and went straight to the garage.
This was absolutely devastating. Losing 10 to 15 laps would have been manageable, and we may have been able to come back, but we had lost almost 50 laps and our shot at winning was over.
The decision needed to be made – would we go out and risk a catastrophic engine failure trying to inherit positions after a two-hour repair, or would we pull the car and take our 14th-place points? The team decided to pull the car from the race only two hours into the race.
There was nothing the team could have done to prevent the issue we had. It was just an unlucky situation with the new engine and something just let go. Max did not do anything wrong. He did not over-rev or do anything with his driving that could have damaged the engine.
We had the honor of visiting our engine builder ECR’s shop last year and the quality control system there is absolutely incredible. ECR is truly the best I have ever seen and it’s been a great partner of the team. I am positive this issue will not happen again and we will come back from this over the next 12 races.
Ganassi had a gearbox problem toward the end of the race, which dropped the 01 car back to sixth, which makes us only eight points behind the 01 team in the championship.
Considering we had a DNF, to be only 8 points behind our toughest championship competition is very lucky. I can’t wait to get to Barber Motorsports Park at the end of March and put our Corvette up on the top step of the podium!
~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
Leading up to the event, I was looking forward to making up for last year’s race and finally make it to the end in a position where we could fight for the win. All of the guys on the team had worked extremely hard to get our SunTrust Corvette DP ready for this race.
On multiple occasions, the guys were at the shop past midnight preparing the car. After strengthening, lightening, tightening, and giving a good rubdown to the racecar, we were more confident than ever that we had a car to win the race.
The team practiced pit stops each and every day, it practiced changing splitters, radiators, gearboxes, complete rear ends, and many more areas of the car to make sure that, if we did have a problem during the race, we would lose minimal time in the pits.
Race day came and we were still confident but unsure about the outright pace everyone else was going to run. Max started the car and it was immediately apparent that the Ford-powered cars had been holding back throughout testing and practice as they shot off into the distance. Max settled in and was driving conservatively to not get caught up in any major battles.
Then, some strange numbers showed up on the telemetry and Max began to lose power, so he was instructed to pit and go straight back to the garage. After about 10 minutes, the crew changed many pieces and decided to go out and see if the problem was fixed. However the problem returned, but worse, and Max brought the car in again and went straight to the garage.
This was absolutely devastating. Losing 10 to 15 laps would have been manageable, and we may have been able to come back, but we had lost almost 50 laps and our shot at winning was over.
The decision needed to be made – would we go out and risk a catastrophic engine failure trying to inherit positions after a two-hour repair, or would we pull the car and take our 14th-place points? The team decided to pull the car from the race only two hours into the race.
There was nothing the team could have done to prevent the issue we had. It was just an unlucky situation with the new engine and something just let go. Max did not do anything wrong. He did not over-rev or do anything with his driving that could have damaged the engine.
We had the honor of visiting our engine builder ECR’s shop last year and the quality control system there is absolutely incredible. ECR is truly the best I have ever seen and it’s been a great partner of the team. I am positive this issue will not happen again and we will come back from this over the next 12 races.
Ganassi had a gearbox problem toward the end of the race, which dropped the 01 car back to sixth, which makes us only eight points behind the 01 team in the championship.
Considering we had a DNF, to be only 8 points behind our toughest championship competition is very lucky. I can’t wait to get to Barber Motorsports Park at the end of March and put our Corvette up on the top step of the podium!
~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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