Wayne Taylor Racing will be hoping to make the most of their strong result at the Rolex 24 at Daytona as the Grand-Am Rolex Series heads to Austin for the first time.
Italian Max Angelelli and 21-year-old Jordan Taylor finished second at Daytona while driving alongside IndyCar Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and will look to challenge championship leader – and Daytona winners – Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas.
While the majority of the Grand-Am paddock are yet to see the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in person, Taylor has not only seen the track, but tested at the circuit for the factory Corvette American Le Mans Series team.
“Everyone in America was watching the F1 race and seemed to be impressed with the new facility and everything.” said Taylor “It was fun to actually get to see it in-person and I got to learn the track. It was surprisingly difficult on how technical it was, so I’m glad I did get laps around there. It seemed to be a little difficult to get up to speed and get a rhythm. Having done that, I’m more confident that we won’t have to waste time getting to just learn it this week.”
The team are hoping that with Taylor’s experience at the circuit and their positive record at new venues will be enough to get them on the top of the podium for the first time since Watkins Glen in June 2009.
“I’ve watched YouTube videos, and I’ve been studying Jordan’s notes from his test weekend with the Corvette ALMS team.” added Angelelli. “It’s going to be very exciting because you have variety. You go from low to high speed. So, as a driver, choosing setup will be challenging.
“We don’t know whether to go low downforce or high downforce, so I have lot of questions that will be answered once we get out there for testing on Thursday. There will not be a lot of free practice, so we need to use the short time we have getting everything sorted and have time for ourselves to learn more about the track, make sure we are using the track 100 percent and not only 80 or 90 percent.”
