Wayne Taylor Racing says their plan to expand their presence in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship into the GT Daytona class has been put on hold for the time being, with their 2018 focus to remain on the Prototype entry.
The team will be defending their crown next season after brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor won the first five races of the 2017 season, and although the latter has departed the team to join Team Penske, Renger van der Zande has come in to replace him with the aim to defend their title, while also eyeing up another Rolex 24 at Daytona victory, where they will be joined by Ryan Hunter-Reay.
However, plans to run a Lamborghini in the GTD class have not come to fruition, with Team Owner Wayne Taylor admitting they do not have the budget to make it happen without some kind of investment from Silver drivers and from Lamborghini.
“We think it’s best to focus on our Cadillac DPi effort for now,” said Taylor to Sportscar365. “We have Ryan [Hunter-Reay] back with us [for the Rolex 24] and Renger [van der Zande] seems to be just a great guy to get on with. Jordan, in what he did in Daytona, said he thinks Renger is going to be really fast.
“So I’ve got to focus on this. [Prototype] is where all the sponsors are coming. Winning overall is a big deal for sponsors.
“We’d love to run a GTD Lamborghini but somebody’s got to pay for it. There’s no doubt. We’ve built a relationship with Lamborghini. We’ve not only won the North American championship but also the World Final.
“They’re great people to deal with. But unless they pay 70 percent of it, and the other comes from the Silver drivers, it would be something I’d be putting a lot of effort into. But at the moment, it’s not.
“Our program’s budgets are just going up and up and up. I’ve got to [focus on] getting through next year.”
