Wayne Taylor
When you ask sports car racing veteran Wayne Taylor the exact moment he knew he was destined to become a race car driver, there’s no hint of hesitation. “Ever since my eyes opened,” said Taylor. “I went to the first round of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in South Africa from the time I was two years old. As far as I can remember, it’s all I ever wanted to do.”
For the native of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, his passion for motorsports has helped him become one of the most decorated sport cars drivers in racing history. His impressive resume includes wins at Le Mans, the Rolex 24 At Daytona (Fla.), 12 Hours of Sebring (Fla.) and the inaugural Petit Le Mans, not to mention Grand-Am and IMSA World SportsCar championships.
With plenty of wins to his name in the world’s biggest sports car races, Taylor’s newest challenge might be the toughest, but most rewarding yet. In November 2006, Taylor announced he was forming his own team, Wayne Taylor Racing. With it, he will continue to compete in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley.
While Taylor has been acclimated for quite some time with the pressures that being a winning race car driver entails, owning his own team has it own sets of challenges and rewards. “The hardest part is waking up every morning and thinking about what a massive responsibility it is,” said Taylor of his transition to team owner. “There’s a responsibility directly to SunTrust, who is our partner, and then to also be responsible for every single person that’s employed by us. I’m fortunate because all the people that I have on board are people that I’ve worked with in the past and have a lot of experience with. That part makes it easier. “The short period of time we had to build this program after the last race of 2006 has been an enormous amount of work and effort to get all of this up and running. If you surround yourself with good people and partners like I think I have, it makes it a lot easier.”
To get to where he is today – a successful sports car driver and team owner – Taylor worked his way up the racing ladder in his native South Africa. He started racing karts, moved to the Formula Ford series and graduated to the South African F2 Championship. In the premier single-seat championship in South Africa, he captured the 1986 series title, his first of what would be several driving championships. “It was special because I really didn’t have the sponsorship or the money to do it,” said Taylor. “It was also so important to me to win the South African championship before I could make the next step. It was a huge relief and it was one of my goals. It was just after that when I tried to pursue a career in Formula 1. It became quite evident that you weren’t able to get there just on talent. It would require finding sponsorship. I quickly figured out that if I wanted to maintain being a race car driver, I’d have to look at other formulas. That’s when I decided to turn my back on single-seat racing and pursue sports car racing.”
In 1987, Taylor left South Africa to pursue a sports car career. His first race was the 24 Hours of Le Mans where he finished an impressive fourth. He competed in select races in the FIA World Sportscar Group C Championship in 1988 and moved to London at the end of the season to compete in the full circuit in 1989.
During that 1989 season, the last three races were held at race tracks in the United States. As a result, Taylor decided it was time to try racing in the U.S. “I just loved everything about racing in America,” said Taylor. “I had three pretty good races, including putting the car on the pole in San Diego. I quickly realized that I wanted to be racing in America. I went back at the end of 1989 and got a call from Jim Miller and moved over to the U.S. in January of 1990.”
Taylor started his United States racing career by competing in the International Motorsports Association (IMSA) GTP Series for the factory Chevrolet team.
In 1994, Taylor was the IMSA World Sports Car champion, a feat he duplicated in 1996 thanks to wins in the Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Wins in the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP class and the Petit Le Mans in a Ferrari 333SP also became proud moments in Taylor’s illustrious sports car career. “The Rolex 24 At Daytona win in 1996 was really something,” said Taylor. “And then we went to the 12 Hours of Sebring and won that. I would say that is really something because it was the first time for both.
Then in 1998, winning the Sports Prototype division at Le Mans in a Ferrari and also winning the inaugural Petit Le Mans was also hugely special because Ferrari is such a big name in motorsports. To win in a Ferrari at Le Mans was huge.” While trying to compare which championships and prestigious race wins are most special is like trying to explain which child he loves more.
His 2005 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series championship with co-driver Max Angelelli might have meant the most because he was able to accomplish it with his good friend. Including the aforementioned championship and win at the prestigious Rolex 24 At Daytona, the team won five total races and captured three poles during the 2005 season. SunTrust Racing also became the only team in Rolex Sports Car Series history to complete every lap of the season (2,056 laps). “To win the Rolex 24 with Max, my friend, and Emmanuel (Collard), that was incredibly exciting,” said Taylor. “Winning in 2005 in the 24 Hour and the championship for SunTrust was really something because they’ve been such a good partner to me. To have won all of those races, the 24 and the championship with Max, it’s pretty hard to beat that one.”
The special 2005 season was bookended by a runner-up result in the 2004 Rolex Series championship standings and a third-place finish in the 2006 title chase. In those three years of competition, Taylor’s No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley scored nine wins, five poles, 22 podiums, 31 top-fives and 36 top-10s.
Despite Wayne Taylor Racing being a new team, Taylor and Angelelli have lofty expectations for 2007 season for them and their partners – SunTrust and General Motors. “You’ve got to go into the championship saying that you want to win it,” said Taylor. “There’s no other way to enter into the season other than going in to win. We have a responsibility to SunTrust and to GM through their Pontiac division to do well. We’d like to win the team championship, we’d like to win the manufacturer’s championship, and we would like to win the driver’s championship. I think that’s what everyone shoots for. However, it is the first year and there’s going to be some issues, but we have to go in with the focus on winning.”
Taylor, along with wife Shelley, now calls Altamonte Springs, Fla., home. Taylor has two sons, Ricky and Jordan, who are both up-and-coming racers. Ricky made his Star Mazda debut last September at Road Atlanta and both Ricky, 16, and Jordan, 15, compete in the Skip Barber Southern Karting Series.
