| DETROIT (June 17, 2026) – Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing, was a guest on an IMSA media teleconference to discuss the upcoming Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. Taylor will drive with Filipe Albuquerque in Watkins Glen on June 28. Transcript of select questions: As we look ahead you are coming off a podium at Detroit and a pretty strong showing for a lot of the 24 hours as well. What are you looking forward to when you head to Watkins Glen? “Yeah, it’s nice just to get a bit of a rhythm of the season going. We don’t race that often. It feels like we’re in the car a lot lately, which has been nice. Also, the team has been performing well. I think we’re gaining a bit of momentum with the car. After, like you said, the podium in Detroit some strong pace in Le Mans. A couple of issues got in the way of a result, but yeah, I think the momentum of the team is there. It’s nice to be driving. I feel like all the drivers are sort of on their game, so excited to go to the Glen. It’s always a great event. Action (Express Racing) is super strong. They had a good test. I think it was a lot earlier in the month or last month. And so we will hopefully learn from our Cadillac teammates there” |
| Any more confidence, especially after the podium in Detroit and the momentum you might be having going into Watkins Glen? “I think looking at our season as a whole, we had pretty good pace in Daytona, where we didn’t get to show the result at the end, or Sebring where we had decent pace. And then Le Mans was pretty good. We had some rough races in between there, but Le Mans, the pace was good. If I’m noticing trends, it’s like we have pretty good qualifying pace, and then relative to the 31, we just seem to struggle a little bit in the races. But at Le Mans our pace was improved. So, Le Mans is probably closest to something like Watkins Glen on our schedule, very smooth, high speed. And so, hopefully, we can carry some of that through. It’s also a long race. It’ll be nice to get back in the rhythm with just Filipe and I in the car. So, yeah, I think it does apply, and I think the team is really motivated. Having one car for Le Mans also was really good to get everybody focused on one thing. Whereas two cars can be quite daunting. And as good as we are, as good as the team is, I think focusing on one was able to get into all the details, which these cars are so detailed these days that it makes a difference. So, we can now kind of apply that here, here at home.” Did you guys ever figure out what that came down to, or are you still looking at details? “Yeah, that was really the defining factor of the race. Unfortunately, I had one right off the bat. And the first, my first FCY, which was just a mistake by me. And then Filipe had one, and then there were two more that were nothing that he did wrong, but we’re still kind of looking at how to prevent that in the future. Obviously, for us on the IMSA side, we don’t experience that very much, but it was something unrelated, that wasn’t the fault of anyone on the team.” |
| There are differences in the rule sets between IMSA and WEC. Is it nice to be back in your comfort zone in IMSA, where things are kind of more second nature? “It is nice to be home; we are so comfortable with it and the team didn’t make any mistakes with the rules. I had the one, and Filipe had one, and then the other ones were unrelated. But I thought the team did a really good job keeping up to speed with the change in rules. It is so different, and they are really good at enforcing penalties over there (laughs). And they’re really hard to come back from, something as simple as the blue flag rule. You’re not really allowed to race the race leader to get back on the lead lap, and that’s something an IMSA that I think is amazing, your race is never done. As long as you have speed, your race is never over. But yeah, it’s nice to be home. It’s nice to get back to our rules and what we’re used to. But I think as a team, it was an honor, and a cool experience to get to go back there as the American team.” Watkins Glen seems to be the team’s strongest track every year, Ricky (and where in 2025, Cadillac WTR had two cars for the first time on the podium). Do you feel that same sentiment, even coming into the season? “Yeah I think historically it’s been a good track for Wayne Taylor Racing. The funny thing is, it’s regardless of car. Some things we can’t really understand why there are certain trends, but even all the way back to Daytona Prototype era it was just a good track for us. I think, historically, our team and Action Express always ran high rake, high diff, soft car, and we always ran a stiff, low rake open diff car. Just historically through the years, and I think that style just always seems to suit Watkins for whatever reason. However, they are super strong there as well. It is a good track for us and the win eluded the team for a long time. It was actually one of the races on one of our mechanics, Bill Mullen, that he hadn’t won for awhile. Then eventually, we got the win a couple of years ago in the Acura. But yeah, I think regardless of how strong you are, that race is just really difficult to come through at the end, so I think that’s where the focus will be, will be just on positioning ourselves well throughout the race. It’s a lot like Le Mans or Spa and that the weather pops up out of nowhere. So, I think a big thing is being ready for a quick range shower and adapting to conditions.” Can you talk about having the extra week between Le Mans and Watkins Glen? “Yeah, we obviously had to take a lot of people. It’s a big effort to go over there, and a bunch of the guys stayed back to prep the Watkins Glen cars. The Le Mans car prep is very similar to an Indy 500 prep, where the body fit and all the uprights and everything are very, very important. So the guys spend a lot of time on that prep, and then once we get through Detroit, more than half the team leaves. We’ve got a really strong core group of guys that stayed back. Everybody wanted to go, but we’re thankful for those guys to stay back and prep the Watkins Glen cars. So it’s really nice that we have that extra week, especially for the guys to get back and get some sleep. I think drivers, we have it easiest and we’re selfish. We just want to drive every opportunity we can. It is nice to be coming off of a 24-hour race, where you get lots of seat time and we don’t get to drive these cars as often as we used to, with a limited testing and I think the more you drive, the better it’s going to be. You can see how strong the guys who do double-programs perform, and so this is the time in the season when the regular drivers feel the strongest.” How many stayed behind in the United States? “It was probably half, I’d say. It was probably half the guys. I’d say way more than half of the engineering. I think all the engineers, maybe one engineer stayed back. As far as mechanics, it was probably it was probably one car’s worth.” |
| Transcript of Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R |
| DETROIT (June 17, 2026) – Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing, was a guest on an IMSA media teleconference to discuss the upcoming Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. Taylor will drive with Filipe Albuquerque in Watkins Glen on June 28. Transcript of select questions: As we look ahead you are coming off a podium at Detroit and a pretty strong showing for a lot of the 24 hours as well. What are you looking forward to when you head to Watkins Glen? “Yeah, it’s nice just to get a bit of a rhythm of the season going. We don’t race that often. It feels like we’re in the car a lot lately, which has been nice. Also, the team has been performing well. I think we’re gaining a bit of momentum with the car. After, like you said, the podium in Detroit some strong pace in Le Mans. A couple of issues got in the way of a result, but yeah, I think the momentum of the team is there. It’s nice to be driving. I feel like all the drivers are sort of on their game, so excited to go to the Glen. It’s always a great event. Action (Express Racing) is super strong. They had a good test. I think it was a lot earlier in the month or last month. And so we will hopefully learn from our Cadillac teammates there” |
| Any more confidence, especially after the podium in Detroit and the momentum you might be having going into Watkins Glen? “I think looking at our season as a whole, we had pretty good pace in Daytona, where we didn’t get to show the result at the end, or Sebring where we had decent pace. And then Le Mans was pretty good. We had some rough races in between there, but Le Mans, the pace was good. If I’m noticing trends, it’s like we have pretty good qualifying pace, and then relative to the 31, we just seem to struggle a little bit in the races. But at Le Mans our pace was improved. So, Le Mans is probably closest to something like Watkins Glen on our schedule, very smooth, high speed. And so, hopefully, we can carry some of that through. It’s also a long race. It’ll be nice to get back in the rhythm with just Filipe and I in the car. So, yeah, I think it does apply, and I think the team is really motivated. Having one car for Le Mans also was really good to get everybody focused on one thing. Whereas two cars can be quite daunting. And as good as we are, as good as the team is, I think focusing on one was able to get into all the details, which these cars are so detailed these days that it makes a difference. So, we can now kind of apply that here, here at home.” Did you guys ever figure out what that came down to, or are you still looking at details? “Yeah, that was really the defining factor of the race. Unfortunately, I had one right off the bat. And the first, my first FCY, which was just a mistake by me. And then Filipe had one, and then there were two more that were nothing that he did wrong, but we’re still kind of looking at how to prevent that in the future. Obviously, for us on the IMSA side, we don’t experience that very much, but it was something unrelated, that wasn’t the fault of anyone on the team.” |
| There are differences in the rule sets between IMSA and WEC. Is it nice to be back in your comfort zone in IMSA, where things are kind of more second nature? “It is nice to be home; we are so comfortable with it and the team didn’t make any mistakes with the rules. I had the one, and Filipe had one, and then the other ones were unrelated. But I thought the team did a really good job keeping up to speed with the change in rules. It is so different, and they are really good at enforcing penalties over there (laughs). And they’re really hard to come back from, something as simple as the blue flag rule. You’re not really allowed to race the race leader to get back on the lead lap, and that’s something an IMSA that I think is amazing, your race is never done. As long as you have speed, your race is never over. But yeah, it’s nice to be home. It’s nice to get back to our rules and what we’re used to. But I think as a team, it was an honor, and a cool experience to get to go back there as the American team.” Watkins Glen seems to be the team’s strongest track every year, Ricky (and where in 2025, Cadillac WTR had two cars for the first time on the podium). Do you feel that same sentiment, even coming into the season? “Yeah I think historically it’s been a good track for Wayne Taylor Racing. The funny thing is, it’s regardless of car. Some things we can’t really understand why there are certain trends, but even all the way back to Daytona Prototype era it was just a good track for us. I think, historically, our team and Action Express always ran high rake, high diff, soft car, and we always ran a stiff, low rake open diff car. Just historically through the years, and I think that style just always seems to suit Watkins for whatever reason. However, they are super strong there as well. It is a good track for us and the win eluded the team for a long time. It was actually one of the races on one of our mechanics, Bill Mullen, that he hadn’t won for awhile. Then eventually, we got the win a couple of years ago in the Acura. But yeah, I think regardless of how strong you are, that race is just really difficult to come through at the end, so I think that’s where the focus will be, will be just on positioning ourselves well throughout the race. It’s a lot like Le Mans or Spa and that the weather pops up out of nowhere. So, I think a big thing is being ready for a quick range shower and adapting to conditions.” Can you talk about having the extra week between Le Mans and Watkins Glen? “Yeah, we obviously had to take a lot of people. It’s a big effort to go over there, and a bunch of the guys stayed back to prep the Watkins Glen cars. The Le Mans car prep is very similar to an Indy 500 prep, where the body fit and all the uprights and everything are very, very important. So the guys spend a lot of time on that prep, and then once we get through Detroit, more than half the team leaves. We’ve got a really strong core group of guys that stayed back. Everybody wanted to go, but we’re thankful for those guys to stay back and prep the Watkins Glen cars. So it’s really nice that we have that extra week, especially for the guys to get back and get some sleep. I think drivers, we have it easiest and we’re selfish. We just want to drive every opportunity we can. It is nice to be coming off of a 24-hour race, where you get lots of seat time and we don’t get to drive these cars as often as we used to, with a limited testing and I think the more you drive, the better it’s going to be. You can see how strong the guys who do double-programs perform, and so this is the time in the season when the regular drivers feel the strongest.” How many stayed behind in the United States? “It was probably half, I’d say. It was probably half the guys. I’d say way more than half of the engineering. I think all the engineers, maybe one engineer stayed back. As far as mechanics, it was probably it was probably one car’s worth.” |