DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Wayne Taylor is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve. It’s not difficult to surmise that the last couple years have been tough on the driver-turned-team owner and IMSA stalwart.
Taylor himself admits it.
“What’s frustrating me is I haven’t had a win in a year or two,” Taylor remarked between practice sessions at the recent Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic. “That’s not easy. It’s a long time, and it doesn’t do your health any good when you live from race to race like this. You’re just struggling along.”
It’s been nine years since a WTR entry won an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title (DPi in 2017) and five since the team's last IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup crown (DPi in 2021), while Detroit marked two years since one of its Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars last won a race. That’s an eternity for the South African who’s long lived in Florida, who grew accustomed to winning races and titles as a sports car driver and continued that standard of excellence as one of the sport’s most successful team owners.
To its credit, WTR has earned two Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class wins since the start of 2025 with its Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 and drivers Danny Formal and Trent Hindman. Its Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America program surpassed the 100-win milestone in that series to end 2025 en route to Formal and Hampus Ericsson winning the overall Lamborghini World Finals in the Pro class.
It’s in GTP where the team desires to match that form, and as Taylor explained, that comes with time.
Building Blocks
Taylor ran a single Acura through 2021 to 2023, the last two DPi years and the first of GTP, then undertook what he called a “monumental” effort to expand to two full-time GTP cars for 2024 with Acura. Excitement followed when WTR rejoined the General Motors family to field a pair of Cadillac V-Series.R prototypes in 2025.
“We’ve only had this car a year and a bit,” he said. “The others have had their cars for about five years. There are still some teething things we’re dealing with from track to track. It seems to take us longer to get our car set up correctly. But we’ve gone from being way off the pace and seem to have at least closed the gap on them now. We did get a pole, finally, and we now know we sort of have a window we can work with for this car.
“For sure, this was the right move I made,” Taylor stressed about the switch back to Cadillac, the marque with which WTR claimed the 2017 IMSA Prototype championship with Jordan and Ricky Taylor as drivers. “It’s just not happening as quickly as I wanted it to.”
The WTR Cadillacs finished sixth (No. 10 with full-time drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque) and ninth (the No. 40 driven by Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor) in the 2025 GTP driver’s standings.
To open 2026, signs of progress are evident. The No. 40 car has qualified in the top five for every race, earning the Motul Pole Award at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and securing two other front row starts. Ricky Taylor and Albuquerque notched the team’s first podium of the ’26 season in the No. 10 by finishing third at Detroit in a race their Cadillac stablemates, Cadillac Whelen, won. Wayne Taylor said post-race it was desperately needed.
“For me, this is like a win given the absolute bad luck we’ve had all year but today has just turned everything around,” he said. “I am even more excited to go to Le Mans after getting onto the podium. I’m so proud of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing and all the guys and girls that make this happen. To all our drivers, both on the No. 10 and No. 40 car – Ricky, Filipe, Jordan, Louis - all did outstanding jobs. So happy for Cadillac to have a 1-3 finish with two Cadillacs on the podium. Congratulations to Action Express on their win, and I am just ecstatic at the moment.”
Going Back to France
The relationship with FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) full-timers Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA is important because - in the fulfillment of a lifetime dream - WTR is fielding a Cadillac V-Series.R in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the second year in a row and JOTA handled the bulk of car development for that race.
The WTR crew began to depart to Le Mans, France shortly after the Detroit round as the lone “extra” IMSA GTP team competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year in the 18-car Hypercar class. New aerodynamic updates on the car – particularly a striking, lower new rear wing – should help the team’s odds at the straight-heavy 8.4-mile circuit through the French countryside.
“For this year we redesigned the aero package to improve our ability to follow cars closely with less loss of downforce than the previous aero package,” said Cadillac LMDh chief engineer Jeromy Moore. “We also changed brake suppliers which aligns with what is used on our CT5-V Blackwing road cars.”
Taylor’s collaboration with JOTA will be paramount for the brand’s success. It builds on the overall Cadillac Racing dynamic employed in IMSA, where the WTR and Whelen teams have worked closer in the GTP era than they did as pure rivals in the 2010s and early 2020s.
“This year I feel a lot better about Le Mans because we’ve worked with JOTA for a long time,” Taylor said. “They’ve got a lot more experience in Europe than we have. We’ve now done a year, which was like a learning year. Ricky just did a shakedown of the Le Mans car before it flew over, and he said, ‘They’ve done a really good job with this car.’ I feel good about Le Mans - I’m excited.
“The way Cadillac has the program set up worldwide with two JOTA cars, two WTR cars, and a Whelen car, we all have to work together as one,” he added. “It gives us a better chance of winning.”
They’re off to a decent start, too, after leading the first session during the Le Mans Test Day Sunday.
“In the first session, we ended up quickest with our sister car and team at Cadillac close by,” Taylor said. “So much has been done this year in comparison to last year when we were rushed to prepare. We knew, this year we would have the time to prepare the car properly. It is good to have one year under their belt with these cars. For everybody from WTR, Cadillac – this is a really good way to start the weekend.”
Post-Le Mans IMSA Endurance Race Hopes
The team’s 2025 GTP highlight came at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International, where Taylor saw both of his cars earn podium finishes for the first time, with one of his sons in each.
That race kicks off the final four-race run of GTP races in the post-Le Mans second half of the season, which include two six-hour races at Watkins Glen and Road America, a two-hour, 40-minute sprint at Indianapolis and 10 hours at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
“We seem to be more competitive in the long-distance races, for some reason,” he observed. “In the short races like Detroit, you can’t play a strategy game because there is no strategy. You’ve just to execute and be in the right place at the right time because you can’t pass anybody either. You can be on pole, and 0.3 seconds below that, you could be 10th.”
With nearly 40 years of experience in the sports car arena, Taylor contines to play the long game. He’s happy to be competing in the WeatherTech Championship and is bullish on the future for IMSA.
“The great thing is that there are so many manufacturers that have gotten on board with us and have stabilized it,” he said. “I’m loving where I am.”
