Jordan Taylor is hopeful that his Le Mans class-winning experience two weeks ago will play to his Wayne Taylor Racing team’s advantage at this weekend’s Sahlen’s 6 Hours of the Glen.
Taylor partnered Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner in the #64 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R to a comprehensive victory in the GTE-Pro category at the 24 hour classic on June 13-14.
Now, the 24 year old is hoping to carry his form through to the sixth round of Tudor United Sportscar Championship at New York’s historic Watkins Glen circuit.
“I still find myself looking at pictures from the weekend and not believing that we actually won the race”, he said. “Le Mans was always the goal. Just to race there was special, but to win it was the icing on the cake.”
“I think for me, personally, it’s a big confidence-booster heading into the rest of our championship.”
Taylor will share the #10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP with his brother Ricky and their endurance racing partner Max Angelelli. Despite having plenty of pace at last year’s event an early drive-through penalty meant that the trio could only finish 5th overall. Nevertheless, Taylor believes that he and his team-mates have enough momentum to improve on last year’s effort.
“We’ve always had a strong car at that track but haven’t had the results to show it, lately.”
“The first half of the season was up and down. We’ve had both good and bad results, but I think the most important thing is that we’ve been competitive at every race and have been in contention to win. Heading into the second half of the year, we know we have the package to win races. We just have to keep our heads down and get the job done.”
#10 Corvette should be in contention on Sunday (Photo courtesy of IMSA)
One of the key objectives for the Wayne Taylor Racing crew this weekend will be to achieve the seemingly simple task of finishing the race without issues. The #10 machine has been penalised on two occasions already this season; once for a drive time violation at Daytona and also for an avoidable contact call at the most recent round in Detroit. Therefore, the key is to complete the race without fault, especially with the 12 point gap that now exists between them and the championship-leading #5 Action Express Racing squad.
“The car has always been fast at Watkins Glen. It is a six-hour race, so a lot can happen. But, with this series now, you are flat out for the entire race,” said Taylor. “We just need to keep everything clean for the first four or five hours to fight for the win in the final hour. We need to start making some ground back in the points race.”
This weekend’s Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen, which also counts as the third round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup, will get underway on Sunday, June 28 at 15:10 British Summer Time. Prototype qualifying will begin the day before at 21:55 BST.
